Weiner, Lynn

English

Histoire sociale / Social History (E-Journal, York University)

190 mSTOIRE SOCIALE - SOCIAL mSTORYJerry A. Jacobs - Revolving Doors: Sex Segregation and Women' s Careers.Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1989. pp. xi, 230.In 1985, over two-thirds of women in the civilian labor force of the UnitedStates worked in occupations which were at least 70 percent female. Revolving Doors,by Jerry Jacobs - an assistant professor of sociology at the University ofPennsylvania -, examines how and why women continue to do "women's work"despite the rise in individual rates of mobility between male-dominated, sex-neutral,and female-dominated occupations. Throughout, he presents the metaphor of"revolving doors" to suggest that women pass in and out of occupations in a fluidlabor market which remains characterized by sex-typing and is reinforced by socialcontrol system which operates in both formal and informal ways. Although primarilya sociological study, Jacobs also refers to perspectives from the disciplines ofanthropology, history, and economics.The principal sources examined in this study are two National LongitudinalSurveys (NLS) of Labor Market Experience. The NLS of Young Women looks at asample of over 5,189 women aged 14-24 surveyed ten times between 1968 and 1980,and the NLS of Mature Women contains data on 5,083 women aged 30-44 inter-viewed eight times between 1967 and 1977. In addition, Jacobs looks at data from theCorrent Population Survey, National Center for Educational Statistics and the CensusBureau. He uses these materials to test several explanations for sex segregation andexplain how individual women move between "male" and "female" jobs despite thepersistance of large-seale gender segregation in the work place. Revolvmg Doorspresents this material in nine chapters, with 37 statistical tables, a bibliography, andan index.The book opens with a review of comparative data on the sexual division oflabor and its relationship to gender inequality. Jacobs examines the sex allocation ofactivities in 185 societies and representation of women in major occupations in 42countries in 1980, and suggests that the data for the United States show how womenhave made progress by being represented in a wider range of occupations over thecourse of the century, although they remain more concentrated than men. In general,though, sex segregation has remained stable over time.How has this segregation been maintained? Jacobs argues for a theory oflife-Iong social control which operates in three areas: early sex-mle socialization,education, and work. He diseusses, for example, the occupational aspirations of youngwomen. He looks at data on women who choose male-dominated occupations, butfinds that the connection between aspiration and career choice is weak. Socializationin the end tracks men and women into different occupations, and the revolving doormodel accounts for a pattern of individual change despite the reproduction of gendersegregation on the larger scale.Jacobs then explores the issue of sex segregation in higher education, andsuggests that this segregation, represented in the choice of a college major, hasdeclined for women since the 196Os, affected by the women's movement and sub-sequent programs aimed at reducing sexual inequities.Jacobs next looks at the extent of mobility among male-dominated, sex-neutral,and female-dominated occupations. The findings on mobility in this chapter areCOMPTE RENDUS - BOOK REVIEWS 191interesting, but occasionally limited by relatively small numbers in the data sets. Still,he documents career movement hetween the types of occupations, and cautions thatthis mobility is not evidence of equal access alone, but also reflects attrition, par-ticularly because women who leave male-dominated occupations tend to enterfemale-dominated occupations instead. Jacobs also suggests that sexual harassmentmay contribute to the decision of sorne women to leave male-dominated professions.Looking more closely at the cases of physicians and attorneys, he finds in bothoccupations the choice and timing of specialization to be a microcosm of the samepattern of career circulation in the labor force as a whole.Finally, Jacobs tums to economic theory to test bis conclusions. He proposesthree kinds of economic arguments to predict the maintenance of a sex-segregatedlaboT force. First, he examines the argument that feedback from historical discrimina-tion can result in its persistence, and suggests that changes in values can affect thiscycle. Second, he looks at such new developments in labor economics as implicitcontracts, efficiency wage theory, and stable employment conditions to see how theseexplain the persistence of segregation. The third perspective on discrimination ineconomic theory looks at workplace interactions that limit the efficiency of victimsof discrimination, and undermine forces against discrimination.Jacobs suggests that the social control theory is most useful for understandingthe revolving door pattern in the labor force. As to implications for policy, he arguesfor two strategies to combat discrimination: comparable worth and the provision ofchild care. Comparable worth might lessen men's resistance to women's entry intomale dominated professions, by reducing financial inequities, and child care forobvious reasons would assist the entry of women into the labor force (although whythat would he into male-dominated jobs is not clear). To really end the revolving doormodel, of course, comparable worth should work to ways, bringing men into female-dominated occupations, such as elementary school teaching and nursing, and childcare would be seen as an issue for fathers as weIl as for mothers.Jacobs concludes with sorne suggestions about possible future resolutions to the"revolving door". One is that women will solidify their gains, which would likelyrequire extension ofcbild care and a flexible approach to career patterns which wouldmesh more neatly with family needs. This resolution would depend on the persistenceof social definitions about gender equality. A second possibility would he that womenwould again hecome a secondary labor supply, because of the resurgence of conser-vative values emphasizing the importance ofwomen staying home with their children,as weIl as the lack of child care alternatives. A third possibility is that of thecontinuance and extension of the two-tiered female labor force, where one group ofwomen work in bigh status careers, and another in more marginal jobs. This latterscenario is, Jacobs argues, most likely, unIess educational access for women improvesand child care support increases. In the end, he suggests, the revolving door patternwill continue, unless social supports become institutionalized which facilitate thecareers of women, or unless barriers are formed against the continued movement ofwomen into male-dominated professions.Revolving Doors is an important book, for it contributes to the understanding ofthe historical and contemporary context of sex segregation in the U.S. labor force.This book will he of interest to scholars of labor force dynamics, sex discrimination,and public policy. Though sometimes the book's readibility is marred by overly-dense192 HISTOIRE SOCIALE - SOCIAL HISTORYdiscussion of statistical data, still Jerry Jacobs presents an interdisciplinary, originaland provocative discussion of one the most pressing economie issues facing womenand men 1oday.Lynn WeinerRoosevelt University***Ono Kazuko - Chinese Women in a Century ofRevolution, 1850-1950, edited byJoshua A. Foge!. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1989. pp. xxvi, 255.The English translation of Ono Kazuko's Chinese Women in a Century ofRevolution, 1850-1950 represents a splendid addition to the growing westem-language literature on women in China. First published in Japanese in 1978, and nowtranslated into elegant English by a tearn of translators working under the direction ofJoshua A. Fogel, this is an important work. It is welcome for the wealth of detail itpresents 10 English-speaking audiences and for its woman-eentered analysis of acentury of Chinese history.As Fogel and Susan Mann write in their introduction, the book is "more ahis10ry of women in the evolution of the Chinese revolution than it is a modem his10ryof Chinese women" (xxiv). And in Ono's telling, the Chinese revolution of the pastcentury represents, albeit in fits and starts, nothing less than the transformation ofChinese society. For Ono, the revolution in gender relations is as essential as therevolution in land relations to the process of socialist transformation. Where she partscompany with sorne other analysts is the degree to whieh she concludes that theChinese revolution has in fact effected a transformation in gender relations. Ono's isa triumphal his1ory, a his10ry of individual heroism articulated in individual voices,and portrayed with clarity and compassion. It is a heroie s1ory, and the heroes are thewomen of China, with socialism as the tool which empowers them.This rendering audible the voices of Chinese women is one of the book's greatstrengths. Another is the way in which the discussion ofwomen and gender is deeplyintegrated in10 the social and political his10ry of the last century. This work chartsways in which women have participated in the revolutionary changes that havetransformed China since 1850. It opens with several earthy songs of the nineteenth-century Rakka peasant women: it is a felici10us beginning. (The Hakka are a peoplewho live in southern China, whose culture differs from mainstrearn Han culture in anumber of ways, many of them having 10 do with gender markers. Rakka women, forexarnple, do not bind their feet.) The songs celebrate work and they celebrate love. Inthe voices of this minority group, Ono has identified two of the themes that willdominate the revolutionary quest of Chinese women for the next century: work andlove.After her discussion of the role of women in the massive Taiping rebellion, shetreats the late-nineteenth-century reformers, Liang Qiehao, Tan Sitong and KangYouwei, in gendered terms. Because the farnily, particularly with respect 10 hierarchy,was targeted by reformers as key to China's backwardness, gender issues of crucialinterest 10 reformers. After a brief discussion of the participation of women in the

Jerry A. Jacobs - Revolving Doors: Sex Segregation and Women's
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Jerry A. Jacobs - Revolving Doors: Sex Segregation and Women's Careers

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Histoire sociale / Social History (E-Journal, York University)