Natalie J. Sokoloff

Domestic Violence at the Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender Challenges and Contributions to Understanding Violence Against Marginalized Women in Diverse Communities

This article provides a comprehensive review of the emerging domestic violence literature using a race, class, gender, sexual orientation intersectional analysis and structural framework fostered by women of color and their allies to understand the experiences and contexts of domestic violence for marginalized women in U.S. society. The first half of the article lays out a series of challenges that an intersectional analysis grounded in a structural framework provides for understanding the role of culture in domestic violence. The second half of the article points to major contributions of such an approach to feminist methods and practices in working with battered women on the margins of society.

Evaluating Gains and Losses by Black and White Women and Men in the Professions, 1960-1980

This paper examines the progress of black and white women and black men in the white, male dominated professions between 1960 and 1980 using census data made comparable across years. While general statistics lead to the conclusion that white men lost and black men, white women and black women gained in the professions over this 20-year period, disaggregated data and an index of representation lead us to challenge these conclusions. While people in disadvantaged race/gender categories moved toward greater equality of representation with white men in the professions between 1960 and 1980, the degree of movement and final outcome is highly questionable in the male dominated professions. Black women and men did show significant improvements in the expanding neutral professions. Although white women dramatically declined in their overrepresentation in female dominated professions, they did not show a commensurate increase in male dominated professions. Black men appear to have made the greatest gains of all people in the three disadvantaged race/gender categories in the professional labor force between 1960 and 1980, but these findings overestimate the progress of black men because of their sharp decline in the labor force as a whole

Intersections, Immigration, and Partner Violence: A View From a New Gateway—Baltimore, Maryland

This article reports on the results of exploratory surveys with immigrant women regarding their observations of intimate partner violence and criminal justice practices in their communities in the emerging immigrant gateway of Baltimore, Maryland. Using an intersectional/interlocking theoretical framework, it asks how nativity interacts with other social locations in the experiences of partner violence through surveys of women representing 5 language groups. The study found high levels of awareness of the problem of partner violence in immigrant communities and strong awareness of many U.S. criminal justice approaches to the problem. Although the women preferred informal sources of support in a situation of abuse, they strongly supported government intervention. We found low levels of awareness of the Violence Against Women Act as well as little support for the higher levels of prosecution for batterers, even though arrest was sometimes approved. The article calls for sensitive policies and practices that take into account the particular vulnerabilities of the foreign-born, especially in localities where national diversity is relatively novel.

The Sexual Revolution: Myth or Fact?

Is there a sexual revolution? If so, how does it manifest itself among today’s youth? The authors suggest that attitudes toward premarital sex have evolved to the point where they are just now catching up with behavior that changed half a century ago. Other changes in sexual attitudes and behavior appear to be occurring among today’s teenagers, as well.

College programs in prison and upon reentry for men and women: a literature review

Abstract People in prison participating in college education are least likely to recidivate and most likely to be employed after incarceration. Almost no research exists on the collateral – negative and often unanticipated – consequences of a criminal conviction on access to college upon community re-entry. We review these few studies, the existing research on college in prison – with special attention to women’s needs; some new ‘hybrid’ programs with 2 years of college in prison plus 2 years in the community; and the rare studies that interview people applying to college upon re-entry. Their struggles can be overwhelming and require more research and activism.