Real-Life Conundrums in the Struggle for Institutional Transformation

Intersecting systems of inequality (i.e., gender and race/ethnicity) are remarkably resistant to change. Many universities, however, seek National Science Foundation Institutional Transformation awards to change processes, procedures, and cultures to make science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments more inclusive. In this article we describe a case study with observations for eight years of before (2000–2007), five during (2008–2013), and seven after (2014–2020) intensive efforts to increase women through reducing barriers and increasing access to women. Finally, we reflect on flawed assumptions built into the proposal, the slow and uneven change in the proportion of women over time, the strengths and weaknesses of numeric assessments, and the value of a longer view for seeing how seeds planted with promising practices initiated during the award may end with the funding but can reemerge and bear fruit when faculty who engage in equity work are in positions of authority later in their careers

What Does the Research Teach Feminists about the Possibility of Organizational Change?

At the winter meeting of SWS [Sociologists for Women in Society] in 2019, Barbara [Risman] heard Julia [McQuillan] give her SWS Feminist Lecture and was totally fascinated. The U.S. National Science Foundation had been spending millions of dollars each year to promote gender transformation on college campuses, hoping to increase the participation of women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines. What had we learned about the organizational policies that were changed to overcome gender bias? What interventions made the most change? What did not seem to make any difference? Julia presented data on 19 years (at the time) at her own school, where she had been a major player in the feminist change agenda. When she gave the Feminist Lecture, she also talked about the potential for valuable insights from the many feminist sociologists who were working on institutional change projects with and without ADVANCE funding. . . . This special issue shows that the insights from feminist sociological research are vital for attempts to create more equitable universities. We must change structures and policies. But we should also pay close attention to how those policies begin to change cultural logics, and how that cultural change can simmer undetected for years. And then those seeds planted with ADVANCE grants can produce fruit in new organizational policies years later

Beyond Hispanic/Latino: The importance of gender/ethnicity-specific earnings analyses

The effect of economic change on the Latino to non-Latino White earnings gap has been well documented; however much of this research has focused on Latinos as a general category with little focus on subgroup variations. Despite varied histories and demographic characteristics Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans, the largest Hispanic subgroups, have usually been combined in analyses of earnings gaps. Consequently, we know little about differential effects of the “new economy” on earnings by subgroup across labor markets. Using a sample consisting of Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and non-Hispanic Whites residing in 106 metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) from the 2000 1-percent I-PUMS, we examine the influence of human capital, deindustrialization, immigration, and “new economy” measures on Latino/a earnings gaps. Multi-level model analyses reveal that Latino subgroups have differently sized earnings gaps, that human capital and demographic characteristics reduce the gaps by more than seventy percent, that the gaps vary independently across MSAs and that the effects of labor market characteristics on these gaps vary by subgroup. New economy characteristics are most important for non-Hispanic White males, thereby indirectly modifying gender-ethnicity gaps. These findings highlight the importance of gender/ethnicity- specific earnings analyses

Soc 898 Syllabus (Special Topics). Social Psychological Processes in the STEM Classroom: Activating STEM Identities Summer 2017

This class covers a broad range of social psychological topics and processes to help teachers better understand how social context impacts STEM learning. Students will learn about social inequality in STEM fields, and the individual, interactional, and institutional barriers to developing a science identity for youth from a variety of social locations (rural/urban, gender, race/ethnicity, Socioeconomic Status, ELL). The class will learn about implicit bias, stereotype threat, and identity theory, and how they impact formal and informal social interactions and learning in the STEM classroom. They will learn and help formulate practical strategies to reduce their negative impact in order to broaden and widen student engagement in STEM. Learning Objectives: • Teachers will understand the utility of social psychological concepts in their efforts to help youth become more interested in STEM. • Teachers will learn to use a sociological lens to identify how social structural forces influence youth identification with STEM. • Teachers will identify ways to use identity theory concepts and principles to activate youth STEM youth. • Teachers will create tools to integrate what they’ve learned about STEM identity into education practices

Network Science: Insights for Pandemics

The focus of our current project is on helping members of the public to better understand the role of network science theories and tools for improving public health because often public health is connected to complex systems. We’ll focus today on the relevance of network science for understanding how to contain viruses that cause diseases

Self-Rated Health Trajectories among Married Americans: Do Disparities Persist over 20 Years?

The purpose of this study is to understand self-rated health (SRH) trajectories by social location (race/ethnicity by gender by social class) among married individuals in the United States. We estimate multilevel models of SRH using six observations from 1980 to 2000 from a nationally representative panel of married individuals initially aged 25–55 (Marital Instability Over the Life Course Study). Results indicate that gender, race/ethnicity, and social class are associated with initial SRH disparities. Women are less healthy than men; people of color are less healthy than whites; lower educated individuals are less healthy than higher educated individuals. Women’s health declined slower than men’s but did not di@er by race/ethnicity or education. Results from complex intersectional models show that white men with any college had the highest initial SRH. Only women with any college had significantly slower declines in SRH compared to white men with any college. For married individuals of all ages, most initial SRH disparities persist over twenty years. Intersecting statuses show that education provides uneven health benefits across racial/ethnic and gender subgroups

Pregnancy happiness: implications of prior loss and pregnancy intendedness

Objective: This study aimed to examine the interaction between pregnancy loss and pregnancy intentions on women’s happiness about a subsequent pregnancy. Background: Anxiety about prior loss persist for women, even during subsequent pregnancies. It is unclear from prior research, whether a prior pregnancy loss shapes attitudes towards and feelings about a subsequent birth. Methods: Using data from the 2002–2013 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), we used logistic regression analyses to explore the implications of a prior pregnancy loss for happiness about a subsequent pregnancy that ends in a live birth. We compared births classified as on-time, mistimed, unwanted, and ambivalent. Results: Births were more likely to be characterized as on-time if they occurred following a pregnancy loss, and women were less likely to report being happy about a conception if they were ambivalent about the conception and experienced a previous loss. Overall, pregnancy loss alone was not associated with lower levels of happiness about a subsequent birth. Conclusions: Pregnancy loss can be a highly distressing experience, women’s happiness about a subsequent pregnancy is not reduced due to prior pregnancy loss. Future research should explore why women who were ambivalent about pregnancy reported lower levels of happiness following a loss

Expanding Graduate Education and Career Placement through CER

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is an R1 (doctoral granting and high research activity) institution with decades of experience with community-engaged research (CER). The UNL Sociology Department has long emphasized research methods, particularly survey methodology and social network analyses, in academic and practice settings. The department offers many opportunities to conduct CER, as well as general applied sociology, and encourages faculty to publish with students out of those opportunities. In part through insights gained through ASA efforts (e.g., leadership development about careers in practice settings), and in part learning from graduate students who perceived discouragement from considering jobs in applied settings, as department chair coauthor McQuillan encouraged efforts to promote paths to possible careers in multiple kinds of settings (e.g. as professors, in government agencies, nonprofit, and for-profit settings). Our impression is that many faculty in R1 universities are most comfortable mentoring students to careers in academia. Lack of familiarity with applied careers can lead to unfortunate concerns, such as faculty telling students they are “throwing away a career.” However, graduates from the UNL Sociology Department make vital contributions to societal wellbeing through studying and effectively communicating results in settings such as a global religious organization, global hiring consulting firms, government agencies, for-profit companies, and health research. There can also be worries about department reputational prestige if students are not placed in academic positions. UNL department members in 1998 explored the question of what matters most for reputational prestige and found that past prestige was so much more important than student placement and current faculty publishing that many of us decided to focus on supporting our students in their chosen career path rather than trying to mold students to pursue positions that we thought would elevate the department reputation

The experience of infertility: A review of recent literature

About 10 years ago Greil published a review and critique of the literature on the socio-psychological impact of infertility. He found at the time that most scholars treated infertility as a medical condition with psychological consequences rather than as a socially constructed reality. This article examines research published since the last review. More studies now place infertility within larger social contexts and social scientific frameworks although clinical emphases persist. Methodological problems remain but important improvements are also evident. We identify two vigorous research traditions in the social scientific study of infertility. One tradition uses primarily quantitative techniques to study clinic patients in order to improve service delivery and to assess the need for psychological counseling. The other tradition uses primarily qualitative research to capture the experiences of infertile people in a sociocultural context. We conclude that more attention is now being paid to the ways in which the experience of infertility is shaped by social context. We call for continued progress in the development of a distinctly sociological approach to infertility and for the continued integration of the two research traditions identified here

Psychological distress by type of fertility barrier

BACKGROUND: We examined fertility-specific distress (FSD) and general distress by type of fertility barrier (FB). METHODS: In a random sample telephone survey, 580 US women reported their fertility intentions and histories. Six groups of women were identified: (i) no FBs, (ii) infertile with intent, (iii) infertile without intent, (iv) other fertility problems, (v) miscarriages and (vi) situational barriers. Multiple regression analyses were used to compare groups with FBs. RESULTS: Sixty-one percent reported FBs and 28% reported an inability to conceive for at least 12 months. The infertile with intent group had the highest FSD, which was largely explained by (a) self-identification as infertile and (b) seeking medical help for fertility. The no FB group had a mean Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale score above the commonly used cut-off of 16, although 23% of the women with FBs did score above 16. CONCLUSIONS: FBs are common. Self-identification as infertile is the largest source of FSD. More women with FBs had elevated general distress than women without FBs; mean general distress was below 16 for all FB groups. It may be that, for some women (even those with children), FBs can have lasting emotional consequences, but many women do heal from the emotional distress that may accompany fertility difficulties