The Changing Face of Medicine: Women Doctors and the Evolution of Health Care in America

[Excerpt] This book is a case study of one profession that plays a key role in the health care sector, which now represents about one seventh of the U.S. economy. It examines the most dramatic demographic change in this sector in the last century. But the issues we raise are likely to be of interest more broadly for what they say about the changing roles of women in contemporary society. Women\u27s entry into medicine is taken as dramatic evidence that the barriers to opportunity for women are rapidly falling in America. Does the experience of female physicians to date bear out this optimistic view? An alternative view is that gender roles remain deeply entrenched in our institutions and culture. Specifically, the gender division of household labor continues to constrain the choices of all women. The trade-offs between work and family may be clearest in the most demanding professions, such as law and medicine, which require a high degree of professional devotion. Our study builds on the fine histories of women in medicine written by Walsh, Morantz-Sanchez, and More. The analysis presented here focuses on the period since 1970, thus complementing the important studies of Bowman and colleagues and Bickel. Lorber examined the experiences of the generation of women who pioneered the transformation of the profession. With the benefit of additional decades of perspective, we are in a position to examine whether the role of gender in medicine is changing

Hours of Paid Work in Duel Earner Couples: The U.S. in Cross-National Perspective

In this paper we examine the hours of paid work of husbands and wives in ten industrialized countries, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study. We present results on the average hours of paid work put in jointly by couples, on the proportion working very long weekly hours, and on gender equality in working time within families. The United States ranks at or near the top on most indicators of working time for couples, because of 1) a high proportion of dual-earner couples; 2) long average work weeks, especially among women; and 3) a high proportion of individuals who work very long hours. In terms of gender equality, the U.S. ranks above average in paid working time among dual-earner couples with no children, but fares less well among working parents. Finally, we discuss policies and institutions that may help explain the distinctive U.S. results - namely the long hours and moderate levels of gender equality - including the regulation of maximum hours, the demand for part-time work, and the public provision of child care

Gender, the Welfare State, and Public Employment: A Comparative Study of Seven Industrialized Countries

This paper explores the influence of government employment on the gender gap in earnings in seven countries, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). The size of the public sector and women's concentration in government employment varies widely across industrialized countries. We develop and test predictions about how the public/private earnings differential varies across countries. The results indicate marked variation across liberal, conservative, and social democratic welfare states, but reveal a number of uniformities as well. We find that public-sector workers earn more, on average, than those working in the private sector in most countries in our sample. The smallest public-sector earnings premia are found in the social democratic countries and the largest are evident in the liberal welfare states. Thus, public employment provides relatively few but comparatively high-paying jobs for women in liberal welfare state, while the social democracies government positions are more numerous but comparatively low-paying. We discuss the implications of these results for theory and research on gender and the welfare state

Journal Rankings in Sociology: Using the H Index with Google Scholar

This paper proposes using a new metric, h, and new data, drawn from Google Scholar, for ranking sociology journals. This approach is more comprehensive in several ways than the commonly used “journal impact factor.” It includes a longer time-frame and draws on a broader data base. It provides editors and prospective authors with a more informative picture of the strengths and weaknesses of different journals. Moreover, readily available software enables do-it-yourself assessments of journals. While the position of individual journals varies with the new measure, a clear hierarchy of journals remains no matter what assessment metric is used

A Global Turn in Sociology: Approaching Social Problems from an International Vantage Point

In this paper we make the case that a “global turn” in sociology is in order, building on the arguments advanced in David A. Smith’s SSSP Presidential Address. The emergence of global social problems, and the internationalization of social protests, underscore the importance of examining the experiences of countries outside the borders of the United States. Some issues will be fruitfully examined from a global perspective, while others may benefit from a more comparative approach. Empirically, the paper documents the extent to which Social Problems topics, authors and readers were international in scope during the period 2010-2019. Articles appearing in the American Sociological Review and the American Journal of Sociology are also examined for purposes of comparison. In addition, the content of fifteen leading social problems textbooks is analyzed. The data suggest that, while there is has been a significant emphasis on US authors and US topics in Social Problems, there is nonetheless a significant international and interdisciplinary audience for research published in this area. Textbooks on social problems, with several notable exceptions, typically relegate international issues to a restricted set of topic areas, such as the environment, climate change and health care. Our findings suggest that too great a focus on the US experience may constrain the sociological imagination and result in a limited sociological toolkit that is ill-suited for understanding the challenges facing contemporary societies. The article concludes with a discussion of the obstacles that need to be surmounted in order to advance a more international approach to social problems