Barbara F. Reskin

Bio: Barbara F. Reskin is an academic researcher from Harvard University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Sex segregation & Affirmative action. The author has an hindex of 36, co-authored 53 publications receiving 10524 citations. Previous affiliations of Barbara F. Reskin include University of Washington & University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Bad jobs in America: standard and nonstandard employment relations and job quality in the United States

Abstract: The prevalence of nonstandard jobs is a matter of concern if, as many assume, such jobs are bad. We examine the relationship between nonstandard employment (on-call work and day labor, temporary-help agency employment, employment with contract companies, independent contracting, other self-employment, and part-time employment in "conventional" jobs) and exposure to "bad" job characteristics, using data from the 1995 Current Population Survey. Of workers age 18 and over, 31 percent are in some type of nonstandard employment. To assess the link between type of employment and bad jobs, we conceptualize "bad jobs" as those with low pay and without access to health insurance and pension benefits. About one in seven jobs in the United States is bad on these three dimensions. Nonstandard employment strongly increases workers' exposure to bad job characteristics, net of controls for workers' personal characteristics, family status, occupation, and industry. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Job Queues, Gender Queues: Explaining Women's Inroads into Male Occupations

Abstract: Preface Part I: Explaining the Changing Sex Composition of Occupations 1. Occupational Sex Segregation: Persistence and Change 2. Queuing and Changing Occupational Composition 3. Consequences of Desegregation: Occupational Integration and Economic Equity? Part II: Case Studies of Occupation Change 4. Culture, Commerce and Gender: The Feminization of Book Editing -- Barbara F. Reskin 5. Industrial and Occupational Change in Pharmacy: Prescription for Feminization -- Polly A. Phipps 6. Keepers of the Corporate Image: Women in Public Relations -- Katharine M. Donato 7. High Finance, Small Change: Women's Increased Representation in Bank Management -- Chloe E. Bud 8. Programming for Change? The Growing Demand for Women Systems Analysts -- Katharine M. Donato 9. Women's Gains in Insurance Sales: Increased Supply, Uncertain Demand -- Barbara J. Thomas 10. A Woman's Place is Selling Homes: Occupational Change and the Feminization of Real Estate Sales -- Barbara J. Thomas and Barbara F. Reskin 11. Occupational Resegregation among Insurance Adjusters and Examiners -- Polly A. Phipps 12. Women Behind Bars: The Feminization of Bartending -- Linda A. Detman 13. Baking and Baking Off: Deskilling and the Changing Sex Makeup of Bakers -- Thomas Steiger and Barbara F. Reskin 14. Hot-Metal to Electronic Composition: Gender, Technology, and Social Change -- Patricia A. Roos Part III: Conclusion Summary, Implications, and Prospects Appendix: Guidelines Used for Occupation Case Studies References Name Index Subject Index About the Authors

Sex Segregation in the Workplace

Abstract: This chapter reviews research on the segregation of women and men in the workplace. After examining ways to measure segregation, I summarize trends in sex segregation in the United States and cross-nationally. Occupational segregation has declined since 1970, but most workers remain in sex segregated jobs. I then evaluate the empirical support for explanations for segregation. Demand-side explanations include employers' preferences, the demand for workers, economic pressures, discrimination, and personnel practices. Supply-side explanations include the size of the labor supply, the neoclassical human-capital explanation, gender-role socialization, workers' values, and the opportunity structure. I conclude that a variety of social and economic forces operate both to perpetuate and to reduce segregation. However, workplace segregation is an important mechanism in sex stratification, and a stratification perspective stresses the importance of demand-side factors. I call for research on sex segregation that e...

Women and Men at Work.

Abstract: Work and Gender What Work Is Sex and Gender Gendered Work Summary Gendered Work in Time and Place The Sexual Division of Labor in Preindustrial Europe The Industrial Revolution The Sexual Divison of Paid and Unpaid Work The Sexual Division of Labor Around the World Summary An Overview of Sex Inequality at Work Sex Inequality in the Contemporary American Workplace Explanations for Sex Inequality in the Workplace Summary Sex Segregation in the Workplace Consequenses of Sex Segregation A History of Sex Segregation in the United States Trends in Sex Segregation Explanations and Remedies for Sex Segregation Summary Moving Up and Taking Charge Women, Men, and Promotions Women, Men, and Authority Explanations and Remedies for the Promotion Authority Gaps Summary Sex Differences in Earnings The Cost of Being Female Explaning the Pay Gap Employers' Discriminatory Actions Summary Paid Work and Family Work The Decline of the Stay-at-Home Wife and Mother Work-Family Conflict The Sexual Division of Labor and Work-Family Conflict Responses to Work-Family Conflicts Summary References

Women and men at work

Abstract: Work and Gender What Work Is Sex and Gender Gendered Work Summary Gendered Work in Time and Place The Sexual Division of Labor in Preindustrial Europe The Industrial Revolution The Sexual Divison of Paid and Unpaid Work The Sexual Division of Labor Around the World Summary An Overview of Sex Inequality at Work Sex Inequality in the Contemporary American Workplace Explanations for Sex Inequality in the Workplace Summary Sex Segregation in the Workplace Consequenses of Sex Segregation A History of Sex Segregation in the United States Trends in Sex Segregation Explanations and Remedies for Sex Segregation Summary Moving Up and Taking Charge Women, Men, and Promotions Women, Men, and Authority Explanations and Remedies for the Promotion Authority Gaps Summary Sex Differences in Earnings The Cost of Being Female Explaning the Pay Gap Employers' Discriminatory Actions Summary Paid Work and Family Work The Decline of the Stay-at-Home Wife and Mother Work-Family Conflict The Sexual Division of Labor and Work-Family Conflict Responses to Work-Family Conflicts Summary References

Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks

Abstract: Similarity breeds connection. This principle—the homophily principle—structures network ties of every type, including marriage, friendship, work, advice, support, information transfer, exchange, comembership, and other types of relationship. The result is that people's personal networks are homogeneous with regard to many sociodemographic, behavioral, and intrapersonal characteristics. Homophily limits people's social worlds in a way that has powerful implications for the information they receive, the attitudes they form, and the interactions they experience. Homophily in race and ethnicity creates the strongest divides in our personal environments, with age, religion, education, occupation, and gender following in roughly that order. Geographic propinquity, families, organizations, and isomorphic positions in social systems all create contexts in which homophilous relations form. Ties between nonsimilar individuals also dissolve at a higher rate, which sets the stage for the formation of niches (localize...

Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders.

Abstract: A role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders proposes that perceived incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles leads to 2 forms of prejudice: (a) perceiving women less favorably than men as potential occupants of leadership roles and (b) evaluating behavior that fulfills the prescriptions of a leader role less favorably when it is enacted by a woman. One consequence is that attitudes are less positive toward female than male leaders and potential leaders. Other consequences are that it is more difficult for women to become leaders and to achieve success in leadership roles. Evidence from varied research paradigms substantiates that these consequences occur, especially in situations that heighten perceptions of incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles.

Economics and Identity

Abstract: This paper considers how identity, a person's sense of self, affects economic outcomes. We incorporate the psychology and sociology of identity into an economic model of behavior. In the utility function we propose, identity is associated with different social categories and how people in these categories should behave. We then construct a simple game-theoretic model showing how identity can affect individual interactions. The paper adapts these models to gender discrimination in the workplace, the economics of poverty and social exclusion, and the household division of labor. In each case, the inclusion of identity substantively changes conclusions of previous economic analysis.

What is agency

Abstract: This article aims (1) to analytically disaggregate agency into its several component elements (though these are interrelated empirically), (2) to demonstrate the ways in which these agentic dimensions interpenetrate with forms of structure, and (3) to point out the implications of such a conception of agency for empirical research. The authors conceptualize agency as a temporally embedded process of social engagement, informed by the past (in its “iterational” or habitual aspect) but also oriented toward the future (as a “projective” capacity to imagine alternative possibilities) and toward the present (as a “practical‐evaluative” capacity to contextualize past habits and future projects within the contingencies of the moment).

Economy and Society

Abstract: The four Visegrad states — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (until 1993 Czechoslovakia) and Hungary — form a compact area between Germany and Austria in the west and the states of the former USSR in the east. They are bounded by the Baltic in the north and the Danube river in the south. They are cut by the Sudeten and Carpathian mountain ranges, which divide Poland off from the other states. Poland is an extension of the North European plain and like the latter is drained by rivers that flow from south to north west — the Oder, the Vlatava and the Elbe, the Vistula and the Bug. The Danube is the great exception, flowing from its source eastward, turning through two 90-degree turns to end up in the Black Sea, forming the barrier and often the political frontier between central Europe and the Balkans. Hungary to the east of the Danube is also an open plain. The region is historically and culturally part of western Europe, but its eastern Marches now represents a vital strategic zone between Germany and the core of the European Union to the west and the Russian zone to the east.