inequality

College attendance, access to loans, and higher education are all gendered experiences influenced by inequalities—and so is the significant debt that often accompanies college. In a recent article, Rachel E. Dwyer, Randy Hodson, and Laura McCloud (Gender & Society, February 2013) explore how debt influences dropout rates and how men and women make decisions about each differently.

The authors find that men are less likely to take out student loans and that men drop out of college at lower levels of debt than women. The authors explain these findings by examining the effects of gendered occupational segregation and the gender pay gap. Because women and men face different labor market opportunities, their assessments of whether a college degree is worth the debt also differ.

When it comes to jobs that do not require a college degree, women and men are segregated into different types of work and men make significantly more money than women. For example, female dropouts tend to work in service and clerical jobs, while male dropouts work in higher-paid manufacturing, construction, and transportation positions. The consequences of dropping out of college, then, are greater for women, while it’s a more viable option for men to drop out before acquiring excessive debt.

With a college degree, men and women work more similar jobs and have more similar incomes. Still, even if they stay in college and graduate, women are less able to pay back student loans and get ahead because of the wage gap.

In nearly half of all U.S. states, it is a felony for HIV-positive people to have sex without disclosing their status to their partners. In some places, this law, meant to promote public health, has become a tool of social control. Those who have—or are suspected of having—HIV or AIDS are essentially kept under surveillance and can be criminally sanctioned for various violations.

Trevor Hoppe (Social Problems, February 2013) interviewed 25 health officials responsible for managing “health threat” cases in Michigan, where the laws are particularly strenuous. When new HIV-positive individuals are identified, officials do extensive contact tracing. While surveillance technologies are officially about disease prevention, they are also used to aid law enforcement and to regulate the client’s sexual practices. If an individual is labeled a “health threat,” they may be forced to undergo testing, counseling, treatment, or be quarantined. HIV-positive individuals may not be allowed to have any unprotected sex, even if they have disclosed their status to their partner (and if they test positive for a secondary STI, that is taken as evidence of unprotected sex). The law also treats all types of sex as equally risky, criminalizing even those sexual acts that carry no risk of transmission.

The criminal punishment for non-disclosure also provides impetus for local rumor mills, often setting in motion a “witch hunt.” Community members can call in confidential third party reports accusing individuals they suspect are HIV positive of not disclosing. These accusations often come against already-stigmatized individuals and may be false reports, but they set investigations in motion.

The additional stigma and social costs attached to an HIV diagnosis in states with such legislation may now be reducing people’s willingness to be tested for STIs at all, thus rendering a public health effort bad for public health.

In the era of a voluntary U.S. military, the Armed Forces offer educational and tuition benefits as incentives to recruit young people. The military, then, is often seen as an indirect bridge to higher education, especially for those who are disadvantaged in some way.

Lin Wang and his colleagues (Social Forces, December 2012) investigate the military and educational trajectories of young men with “inconsistencies” in their social status–that is, there’s not a match between their socioeconomic resources, cognitive ability, and academic performance. Using nationally representative longitudinal data, they find that these young men are more likely to enlist in the military. For example, those with high cognitive ability but poor performance in high school may enlist in search of opportunities to fulfill their potential, or those who perform well in school but are from low socioeconomic backgrounds may enlist for needed tuition benefits.

Status inconsistent people may have aspirations in line with their highest status, but their ability to attain their goals is often constrained by their lowest status. For these folks, the military may seem to be a viable strategy to pry open the doors of the ivory tower.

In reality, the data show that those who take the military route are actually less likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree, though they are more likely to complete a two-year degree or attend some college. As the military promises “all you can be,” this study suggests the road, for most, leads to an associate’s degree.

It’s been hard to ignore various responses to growing economic inequality. Tea Partiers, Occupiers, and politicians have concentrated our attention on wealth, corporate greed, and governmental spending. Yet, a compilation of polls examined by Greg Shaw and Laura Gaffey (Public Opinion Quarterly) shows that these movements haven’t done much to sway public opinion. Assembling polls on inequality, taxes, and mobility from 1990 to 2011, the authors reveal that American public opinion has remained fairly stable on these issues. For instance, in 1990, 28% of those polled believed that the distribution of wealth in the U.S. is “fair.” In 2011, 26% said the same.

Dozens of similar poll results lend support to the argument that, while street protests may have impacted national conversation on inequality, Americans have not dramatically shifted their views. The authors describe the public striking an “awkward but lasting balance” between endorsing a belief in equal opportunity and acknowledging very unequal outcomes. This stable trend reflects American reluctance to embrace redistribution, even in light of heated criticism of income inequality. Fundamentally, these polls also reflect a difficult-to-dislodge cultural view that a tougher work ethic will lead to greater individual American wealth—that is, work hard, and the rewards will come.

Privileged moms like Victoria Beckham and Tori Spelling, with four cesareans each, have given rise to the idea that some women are “too posh to push,” scheduling their births instead.

Not so, say Louise Marie Roth and Megan Henley (Social Problems, May 2012), who examined data from 3.7 million U.S. births in 2006.  At first pass, higher levels of education appeared to be associated with greater odds of cesarean birth. But once race, age, pregnancy characteristics (pre-term birth, multiples, low birth weight, etc.), and complications of labor and delivery were taken into account, white women with greater privilege were shown to be the least likely to have surgical births. Other studies have shown that highly educated white women also choose home birth more than any other group.

Roth and Henley suggest class and race play a big role in the quality of medical care women receive. C-sections, which now make up one-third of all U.S. births, are associated with increased maternal deaths and other post-surgical complications. Minority women of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to have cesareans for less urgent reasons, suggesting that what looks like “posh” medical treatment on the surface might actually be a sign of low quality maternity care. Apparently, with privilege comes the ability to exercise more control in the delivery room and avoid, rather than choose, surgical delivery.

While the pains of eviction have been felt broadly across the U.S. in recent years, Matthew Desmond (American Journal of of Sociology, August 2012) shows that women in poor, predominantly African American neighborhoods have taken the hardest hit.

Analyzing Milwaukee County records from 2003 to 2007, Desmond found that, even before the recession, half of all evictions occurred in predominantly black, impoverished, inner-city neighborhoods. Women in these neighborhoods were disproportionately affected: they accounted for just 9.6% of Milwaukee’s total population, but 30% of all evictions.

Based on surveys and ethnographic research, Desmond argues that both structural factors (falling incomes relative to rising housing costs) and gendered responses in the face of impending eviction (for example, women may try to reach out to personal networks for help, but these personal networks may offer fewer resources) contribute to black women’s disproportionate eviction rates.

Even so, from the start, women in these neighborhoods face an unequal risk for eviction simply because they are more likely to sign rental agreements: criminal convictions increasingly bar African American men from the rental process. Eviction and conviction are, thus, intertwined forces that restrict housing options for African Americans.

As Democrats and Republicans debate tax cuts yet again, this policy paper provides a bit of historical perspective. “The Reagan tax cut of 1981 remains the largest tax cut in U.S. history, but its significance is more political than fiscal,” writes the author. She goes on to outline the tradeoffs between taxes and spending that occur when one or the other is augmented and how voter preferences change as each is highlighted in political messages.

In conjunction with the larger, more theoretical recommendation of Laub and Sampson’s 2001 article from our previous reading list suggestion, those interested in employment and criminal records might be particularly interested in Devah Pager’s 2003 piece in which the researcher found a prison record reduced the likelihood of a “callback” from an employer by 50% for whites and over 60% for African American job-seekers. The problem clearly goes well beyond Target and began well before last week.

Last week, the U.S.’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a revised guidance encouraging the hiring of individuals with criminal records, going so far as to urge employers to consider research on crime desistance since, as The Crime Report puts it, many often “rely on ill-informed and misguided notions about risk and recidivism.” The EEOC guidelines specifically cite this classic Laub and Sampson article.

The big new blockbuster (and its paper predecessor) is chock full of sociological insight and intrigue, but among the most important and least understood themes are the relationships among authority, injustice, and consent. This classic study of Appalachia—a place with obvious parallels to Katniss Everdeen’s District 12—provides an insightful and compelling overview.