{"id":53426,"date":"2013-12-28T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2013-12-28T15:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=53426"},"modified":"2013-12-28T14:54:25","modified_gmt":"2013-12-28T19:54:25","slug":"inequality-and-segregation-in-the-workplace-lessons-from-richard-scarrys-what-do-people-do-all-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2013\/12\/28\/inequality-and-segregation-in-the-workplace-lessons-from-richard-scarrys-what-do-people-do-all-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Children’s Books and Segregation in the Workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re celebrating the end of the year with our most popular posts from 2013, plus a few of our favorites tossed in. \u00a0Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n

As children, many of us encountered Richard Scarry\u2019s book, What Do People Do all Day?<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 A classic kid\u2019s book, it uses animals to represent the division of labor that exists in “Busytown.” \u00a0The book is an example of a brilliant piece of analysis<\/a>\u00a0by sociologist John Levi Martin.<\/p>\n

To oversimplify greatly: Martin analyzes nearly 300 children\u2019s books and finds that there is a marked tendency for these texts to represent certain animals in particular kinds of jobs. Jobs that allow the occupant to exercise authority over others tend to be held by predatory animals (especially foxes), but never by \u201clower\u201d animals (mice or pigs).
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pigs in particular are substantially over-represented in subordinate jobs (those with low skill and no authority), where their overweight bodies and (judging from the plots of these books) congenital stupidity seems to \u201cnaturally\u201d equip them for subservient jobs. Here, see this additional image from Scarry\u2019s book, showing construction work being performed by the above-mentioned swine.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In effect, Martin\u2019s point is that there is a hidden language or code inscribed in children\u2019s books, which teaches kids to view inequalities within the division of labor as a \u201cnatural\u201d fact of life \u00a0— that is, as a reflection of the inherent characteristics of the workers themselves. \u00a0Young readers learn (without realizing it, of course) that some species-beings are simply better equipped to hold manual or service jobs, while other creatures ought to be professionals.\u00a0Once this code is acquired by pre-school children, he suggests, it becomes exceedingly difficult to unlearn. \u00a0As adults, then, we are already predisposed to accept the hierarchical, caste-based system of labor that characterizes the American workplace.<\/p>\n

Steven Vallas is a professor of sociology at Northeastern University<\/a>. \u00a0He specializes in the sociology of work and employment.\u00a0\u00a0His most recent book, <\/em>Work: A Critique<\/a>,\u00a0offers an overview and discussion of the sociological literatures on the topic. \u00a0You can follow Steven at the blog\u00a0Work in Progress<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cross-posted at\u00a0Work in Progress<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re celebrating the end of the year with our most popular posts from 2013, plus a few of our favorites tossed in. \u00a0Enjoy! As children, many of us encountered Richard Scarry\u2019s book, What Do People Do all Day?\u00a0 A classic kid\u2019s book, it uses animals to represent the division of labor that exists in “Busytown.” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":60836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[155,223,29,15,283,285,2051,76],"class_list":["post-53426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-animals","tag-childrenyouth","tag-class","tag-culture","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-raceethnicity","tag-socialization","tag-work"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2013\/12\/127.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53426"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60820,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53426\/revisions\/60820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}