final Flashcards
(43 cards)
Racial Gaps Narrowed In
High school completion
Life expectancy
Voter turnout
Racial Illusion
Purely ideological construct that’s continuously changing
Racial Essence
Something that is fixed, concrete, or objective
Race
A concept which signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to different types of human bodies
Racial Formation
Social and historical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed.
No biology basis, “race” is a widely held belief. Central to our identity. People act upon the idea of race, therefore “creating” races
Racial Gaps Remain In
Above poverty line Homeownership Unemployment Wealth Income Occupation
Bertrand & Mullainathan
Empirically tested whether being Black cause disadvantages in securing work/jobs
Sent resumes to job ads in Chicago and Boston with White and Black sounding names
Measured the call-back rate
Controlled the quality of resumes
Bertrand & Mullainathan Findings
To receive 1 call-back…
-Applicants with White names: 10 resumes
-Applicants with Black names: 15 resumes
The value of a White name = +8 years of labor market experience
Bertrand & Mullainathan on Black/White Inequality in Workforce
Having a better quality resume benefit Whites more
Having a better address benefit Whites more
Gap remains in all occupation and industry
Slight improvement when employers are located in more Black neighborhoods
Wilson on Race Relations Over Time
Economic class position has become more important than race in determining the life chances of African Americans Wrote The Declining Significance of Race
Wilson’s 3 Major Stages of Transformation
Pre-industrial period
Industrial period
Modern industrial period
Pre-Industrial Stage of Transformation
Period of plantation economy and slavery.
Pre-Civil War until late 19c.
Racial stratification was overt and deliberate.
Stable and secure relationship between slave owners and the slaves, supported and legitimated by the polity.
Blacks were uniformly of low economic position, which reinforced and substantiated their low social position.
Economic racism waged by the white capitalists
Industrial Stage of Transformation
Period of industrial expansion and segregation.
Late 19c until the civil rights movement of 1960s.
Racial stratification was overt and deliberate.
White privilege and supremacy was destabilized.
Black-White relations became more competitive with greater mobility of the black pop.
The efforts of white working and middle class to eliminate blacks from competition = Jim Crow segregation.
Monopolize their privileged access to the good things in life, by systematically depriving the competitors.
Economic racism waged by the white working/middle class.
Modern Industrial Period
Shift from racial inequalities to class inequalities
Post-Civil Rights movement.
Racial equality was promoted in government policies.
Desegregation, equal employment, affirmative action.
Paths were cleared for the affluent blacks to enter into mainstream occupations.
New obstacle = new economic structure disproportionately affects lower class blacks
Obstacle today = black “underclass” , economic origin, racial in consequence
Sex
Biological difference between male and female
Difference based on reproductive organs and hormones
Gender
Socially and culturally defined interpreted differences between men and women.
Social Construct of Gender
Individuals are born sexed, but not gendered.
Individuals are taught to be masculine or feminine.
Gendered practices of everyday life reproduce a society’s view of how men and women should act.
Adapting to Time Binds Via Hochschild
More women wary about spending more time at home
Women feel guilty and stressed out by long hours of work, but they feel hesitant about cutting back on those hours despite companies being accommodating
Work becomes rewarding for them and home becomes work
Adapting to Time Via Stone
These professional women are leaving work and becoming a stay-at-home mom.
They are being “pushed out” of work, because:
1. Work is demanding in an “all-or-nothing” fashion
2. Married with men with comparable credentials with equally demanding jobs, making them unavailable as a helping hand.
Stone’s Time Bind Upper-class Career Vs. Under-privileged Working Class
High-achieving women forced into decisions to reluctantly interrupt, and sometimes terminate their careers.
How about the less privileged women who do not enjoy the luxury to quit?
- Accommodate their family care giving needs by cycling in and out of the labor force through a series of low wage jobs.
Allocative Discrimination
Discrimination in hiring (job placement and promotion)
Females are hired for particular occupations.
These “female jobs” pay less.
Hiring barriers for female job seekers.
Argues that “there’s a gender gap because women are segregated into lower paying jobs/occupations.”
Valuative Discrimination
Employers assign lower wages to particular jobs because they are largely filled with women.
Jobs are equally demanding and hard, and of equal value to society, yet jobs that are filled by women are paid less than “male jobs.”
Argues that “there’s a wage gap because female jobs are devalued than male jobs.”
Results from gender bias in wage setting
Within-job Discrimination
Men and women in the same job with same seniority, same work, same performance, but paid differently.
Argues that “there’s a gender gap because of sex discrimination in terms of pay.” Issue of “equal pay for equal work.”
Social Mobility
Movement of people up and down in a stratified system
