Rachel Brown-Weinstock, Sarah L Gold, K. Edin, T. Nelson
Fatherhood has become an achieved status among complex, disadvantaged families. Stepfathers may have an advantage over nonresident biological fathers in earning the father role; in-depth interview studies reveal that nonresident fathers are often stripped of the father label while stepfathers commonly achieve it instead. This stepfather advantage is surprising given extant institutionalization theory, which suggests that the stronger institutionalization of the biological father role should benefit nonresident fathers over stepfathers. Drawing on 55 in-depth interviews with adolescents and their primary caregivers, we recenter youth agency in family theory by exploring how some men and not others earn the father role from the perspective of their adolescent children. We find that the strongly institutionalized role obligations of biological fathers impeded rather than aided nonresident father-child engagement. When nonresident fathers did not meet institutionalized expectations, adolescents experienced psychological trauma and usually resisted their attempts to become more involved. In contrast, the incomplete institutionalization of the stepparent role benefited stepfather-stepchild relations by allowing stepfathers to flexibly adapt to complex family dynamics. Further, stepfathers more easily met, and even exceeded, their stepchildren’s limited expectations of them. Thus, stepfathers may face a lower cultural bar for and gain greater satisfaction from fulfilling the father role than nonresident biological fathers.
{"title":"Earning the Role: Father Role Institutionalization and the Achievement of Contemporary Fatherhood","authors":"Rachel Brown-Weinstock, Sarah L Gold, K. Edin, T. Nelson","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spad022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad022","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Fatherhood has become an achieved status among complex, disadvantaged families. Stepfathers may have an advantage over nonresident biological fathers in earning the father role; in-depth interview studies reveal that nonresident fathers are often stripped of the father label while stepfathers commonly achieve it instead. This stepfather advantage is surprising given extant institutionalization theory, which suggests that the stronger institutionalization of the biological father role should benefit nonresident fathers over stepfathers. Drawing on 55 in-depth interviews with adolescents and their primary caregivers, we recenter youth agency in family theory by exploring how some men and not others earn the father role from the perspective of their adolescent children. We find that the strongly institutionalized role obligations of biological fathers impeded rather than aided nonresident father-child engagement. When nonresident fathers did not meet institutionalized expectations, adolescents experienced psychological trauma and usually resisted their attempts to become more involved. In contrast, the incomplete institutionalization of the stepparent role benefited stepfather-stepchild relations by allowing stepfathers to flexibly adapt to complex family dynamics. Further, stepfathers more easily met, and even exceeded, their stepchildren’s limited expectations of them. Thus, stepfathers may face a lower cultural bar for and gain greater satisfaction from fulfilling the father role than nonresident biological fathers.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43431642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A substantial body of research focuses on racial disparity in the criminal justice system, with mixed results due to difficulty in disentangling differential offending from racial bias. Additionally, some research has demonstrated that victim characteristics can exacerbate racial disparity in outcomes for offenders, but little research has focused on the arrest stage. We use a quasi-experimental approach that examines incidents involving co-offending pairs to isolate the influence of offender race on arrest, beyond any characteristics of the incident itself, and we test for moderating effects of victim race and sex on racial disparities in arrest. Our findings reveal that, on average, when two offenders of different races commit the same offense together against the same victim, Black offenders are significantly more likely to be arrested than their White co-offending partners, especially for assault offenses. More importantly, this effect-for both assaults and homicides-is particularly strong when the victim is a White woman. Because these differences are between two offenders who commit the same offense together, we argue that the most plausible explanation for the differences is the presence of racial bias or discrimination.
{"title":"What If They Were White? The Differential Arrest Consequences of Victim Characteristics for Black and White Co-offenders.","authors":"Brendan Lantz, Marin R Wenger, Chloe J Craig","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spab043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spab043","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A substantial body of research focuses on racial disparity in the criminal justice system, with mixed results due to difficulty in disentangling differential offending from racial bias. Additionally, some research has demonstrated that victim characteristics can exacerbate racial disparity in outcomes for offenders, but little research has focused on the arrest stage. We use a quasi-experimental approach that examines incidents involving co-offending pairs to isolate the influence of offender race on arrest, beyond any characteristics of the incident itself, and we test for moderating effects of victim race and sex on racial disparities in arrest. Our findings reveal that, on average, when two offenders of different races commit the same offense together against the same victim, Black offenders are significantly more likely to be arrested than their White co-offending partners, especially for assault offenses. More importantly, this effect-for both assaults and homicides-is particularly strong when the victim is a White woman. Because these differences are between two offenders who commit the same offense together, we argue that the most plausible explanation for the differences is the presence of racial bias or discrimination.</p>","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10321492/pdf/nihms-1772744.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10180409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Scholars have only begun exploring how cisgenderism and its byproduct, cissexism, shape organizational processes and how classification systems produce categorical exclusions that harm transgender and non-binary people in cisgendered organizations. Drawing from in-depth interviews with transmasculine and non-binary sex workers, I build on burgeoning research on categorical exclusion in cisgendered organizations, examining how cisgenderism and cissexism, alongside racism, shape what I call cisgendered workspaces. Cisgendered workspaces is a conceptual framework that scholars can use to analyze the complex ways that cisgenderism and cissexism shape the design of workspaces, the administration of gender, workers’ labor experiences, and the adverse effects of cissexist exclusion. I argue that cisgendered workspaces produce two distinct modes of exclusion: outright exclusion and categorical exclusion. I demonstrate how transmasculine and non-binary sex workers experience outright exclusion (e.g., brothels or agencies that refuse to hire them) and categorical exclusions (e.g., escort advertising sites that have options for only cisgender women and men). I explore how cissexist exclusions and racism contribute to workers’ lack of access to critical resources and produce adverse mental health outcomes—all conditions that adversely affect worker job satisfaction and thwart experiences of joy and pleasure.
{"title":"Cisgendered Workspaces: Outright and Categorical Exclusion in Cisgendered Organizations","authors":"Angela Jones","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spad017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad017","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Scholars have only begun exploring how cisgenderism and its byproduct, cissexism, shape organizational processes and how classification systems produce categorical exclusions that harm transgender and non-binary people in cisgendered organizations. Drawing from in-depth interviews with transmasculine and non-binary sex workers, I build on burgeoning research on categorical exclusion in cisgendered organizations, examining how cisgenderism and cissexism, alongside racism, shape what I call cisgendered workspaces. Cisgendered workspaces is a conceptual framework that scholars can use to analyze the complex ways that cisgenderism and cissexism shape the design of workspaces, the administration of gender, workers’ labor experiences, and the adverse effects of cissexist exclusion. I argue that cisgendered workspaces produce two distinct modes of exclusion: outright exclusion and categorical exclusion. I demonstrate how transmasculine and non-binary sex workers experience outright exclusion (e.g., brothels or agencies that refuse to hire them) and categorical exclusions (e.g., escort advertising sites that have options for only cisgender women and men). I explore how cissexist exclusions and racism contribute to workers’ lack of access to critical resources and produce adverse mental health outcomes—all conditions that adversely affect worker job satisfaction and thwart experiences of joy and pleasure.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43447444","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article bridges the gap between insights from a theory of racialized organizations and insights from a theory of racialized emotions by asking what role these emotions play in organizations. Drawing on a combined four years of ethnographic data from two predominantly White organizations in the Pacific Northwest – a conservative evangelical mega-church and a progressive public high school – we argue that these two organizations address racial inequality with a set of racialized emotions that we call a “love discourse.” A love discourse is a seemingly apolitical way of addressing inequality that frames the solution to it as a matter of individual feelings of love and kindness rather than as a social problem that requires collective, political, or systemic solutions. A love discourse is grounded in and supports White racial ignorance. By providing a way to avoid politics, a love discourse allows two organizations with different political cultures and value systems to engage in diversity work that seems to address racial inequality, without actually challenging it. Love, in this sense, is a racialized emotion that appears to address racial inequality while also sustaining it.
{"title":"In the Name of Love: White Organizations and Racialized Emotions","authors":"Sarah Diefendorf, C. Pascoe","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spad019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad019","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article bridges the gap between insights from a theory of racialized organizations and insights from a theory of racialized emotions by asking what role these emotions play in organizations. Drawing on a combined four years of ethnographic data from two predominantly White organizations in the Pacific Northwest – a conservative evangelical mega-church and a progressive public high school – we argue that these two organizations address racial inequality with a set of racialized emotions that we call a “love discourse.” A love discourse is a seemingly apolitical way of addressing inequality that frames the solution to it as a matter of individual feelings of love and kindness rather than as a social problem that requires collective, political, or systemic solutions. A love discourse is grounded in and supports White racial ignorance. By providing a way to avoid politics, a love discourse allows two organizations with different political cultures and value systems to engage in diversity work that seems to address racial inequality, without actually challenging it. Love, in this sense, is a racialized emotion that appears to address racial inequality while also sustaining it.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61427072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
I leverage the case of Nuevomexicanos, New Mexico’s long-standing Mexican American population, to extend our understanding of how legacies of Spanish and American conquest—that is, double colonization—can inform Latinxs’ understandings of discrimination and race. I show that while most Nuevomexicanos reported experiences with discrimination, they often minimized their racialized experiences because such instances were incompatible with the idea that living in a Hispanic-majority state sheltered them from racism. The Hispanic-majority frame was often paired with rationales that addressed spatial comparisons, cultural diversity or class inequality to deflect race. Nuevomexicanos struggled with viewing themselves as a low-status group due to their substantial representation in New Mexico yet still managing White racism. I argue that Nuevomexicanos’ race-minimizing frames parallel strategies that date back to Spanish colonization to leverage whiteness in order to contest discrimination. Nuevomexicanos race-minimizing claims, therefore, embody resistance strategies to claim equality with Whites. This study details how double colonization and region reflect variations in Latinxs’ conceptions of race.
{"title":"Latinxs and Racial Frames: The Evolution of Settler Colonial Ideologies in New Mexico","authors":"Casandra D. Salgado","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spad004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 I leverage the case of Nuevomexicanos, New Mexico’s long-standing Mexican American population, to extend our understanding of how legacies of Spanish and American conquest—that is, double colonization—can inform Latinxs’ understandings of discrimination and race. I show that while most Nuevomexicanos reported experiences with discrimination, they often minimized their racialized experiences because such instances were incompatible with the idea that living in a Hispanic-majority state sheltered them from racism. The Hispanic-majority frame was often paired with rationales that addressed spatial comparisons, cultural diversity or class inequality to deflect race. Nuevomexicanos struggled with viewing themselves as a low-status group due to their substantial representation in New Mexico yet still managing White racism. I argue that Nuevomexicanos’ race-minimizing frames parallel strategies that date back to Spanish colonization to leverage whiteness in order to contest discrimination. Nuevomexicanos race-minimizing claims, therefore, embody resistance strategies to claim equality with Whites. This study details how double colonization and region reflect variations in Latinxs’ conceptions of race.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49219315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article investigates the sources of ethnic disparities in confidence in police and courts. After reviewing studies of ethnicity and trust in legal authorities and comparative research on prisons, I argue that ethnic divides in confidence in police and courts are based on power imbalances between majority and minority groups and exacerbated by punitive legal systems. I test these claims using data from waves 6 and 7 of the World Values Survey, including 99,480 people in 59 countries. Results from mixed effects logistic regressions indicate that, overall, ethnic majority group members are more likely than minority group members to be confident in police and in courts. However, the differences are larger in countries with higher imprisonment rates. In fact, there are no ethnic differences in confidence in police or courts in countries with low imprisonment rates. The patterns remain net of individual- and country-level controls for crime and other factors. These results suggest that ethnic disparities in confidence in legal authorities are rooted in power dynamics intrinsic to the minority-majority dichotomy and that punitive legal authorities amplify the divides.
{"title":"Ethnicity, Imprisonment, and Confidence in Police and Courts: Evidence from an International Survey","authors":"Timothy L. O’Brien","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spad011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad011","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article investigates the sources of ethnic disparities in confidence in police and courts. After reviewing studies of ethnicity and trust in legal authorities and comparative research on prisons, I argue that ethnic divides in confidence in police and courts are based on power imbalances between majority and minority groups and exacerbated by punitive legal systems. I test these claims using data from waves 6 and 7 of the World Values Survey, including 99,480 people in 59 countries. Results from mixed effects logistic regressions indicate that, overall, ethnic majority group members are more likely than minority group members to be confident in police and in courts. However, the differences are larger in countries with higher imprisonment rates. In fact, there are no ethnic differences in confidence in police or courts in countries with low imprisonment rates. The patterns remain net of individual- and country-level controls for crime and other factors. These results suggest that ethnic disparities in confidence in legal authorities are rooted in power dynamics intrinsic to the minority-majority dichotomy and that punitive legal authorities amplify the divides.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45535016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ed-Dee G. Williams, Allura Casanova, Daphne C. Watkins
Despite growing research dedicated to investigating the mental health of Black boys, few directly examine experiences with their perceptions and understanding of mental health conditions such as depression. This study uses data from a social media-based intervention for Black males, the Young Black Men, Masculinities, and Mental Health project. In a focus group with 8th-grade Black boys, facilitators asked open-ended questions about perceptions of mental health and depression, views of manhood, and experiences with social support. Findings revealed this group of Black boys – while well versed in many of the causes, symptoms, and treatments for mental health challenges and depression – preferred to address mental health needs on their own and through informal familial support. It also revealed the boys wrestled with the complex ways in which their racial identity would affect their experiences with mental health. The findings speak to the importance of mental health education for Black boys and the need for further research incorporating Black boys’ voices in their perceptions, experiences, and understandings of mental health. Finally, the study connects Black boys’ perspectives with many of the perspectives of their racially diverse peers.
{"title":"Black Boys’ Perceptions of Depression and Mental Health: Findings from the YBMen Project","authors":"Ed-Dee G. Williams, Allura Casanova, Daphne C. Watkins","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spad018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad018","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Despite growing research dedicated to investigating the mental health of Black boys, few directly examine experiences with their perceptions and understanding of mental health conditions such as depression. This study uses data from a social media-based intervention for Black males, the Young Black Men, Masculinities, and Mental Health project. In a focus group with 8th-grade Black boys, facilitators asked open-ended questions about perceptions of mental health and depression, views of manhood, and experiences with social support. Findings revealed this group of Black boys – while well versed in many of the causes, symptoms, and treatments for mental health challenges and depression – preferred to address mental health needs on their own and through informal familial support. It also revealed the boys wrestled with the complex ways in which their racial identity would affect their experiences with mental health. The findings speak to the importance of mental health education for Black boys and the need for further research incorporating Black boys’ voices in their perceptions, experiences, and understandings of mental health. Finally, the study connects Black boys’ perspectives with many of the perspectives of their racially diverse peers.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61426961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Relatively little scholarship centers the experiences of Black youth to understand how young people interact with their neighborhood contexts, evaluate the differences between neighborhoods, and adapt to new neighborhoods. Using interviews with 120 Black youth whose families moved from high-poverty central city neighborhoods into lower-poverty, more racially diverse suburban neighborhoods with the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program, we find that Black youth describe tradeoffs that come with living in both city and suburban neighborhoods. While youth viewed their suburban neighborhoods as safer, the young people encountered new repertoires of socializing and space use after moving to the suburbs, with fewer opportunities to spontaneously hang out with peers. This made it challenging to establish new social ties. In response, youth adopted varied strategies, some aligned with new patterns of socializing, others stayed inside, and some returned to the city to reconnect with friends, even if this involved returning to neighborhoods they perceived as less safe. Our work underscores the idea that neighborhoods do not impose culture on youth in enduring or inflexible ways; rather they offer strategies of action that youth can decide to take up. How youth perceive the qualities of their neighborhoods shapes where and how they choose to spend their time.
{"title":"“I Thought This Was a Ghost Neighborhood”: How Youth Respond to Neighborhood Change","authors":"A. Rhodes, A. Young, Jennifer Darrah-Okike","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spad015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Relatively little scholarship centers the experiences of Black youth to understand how young people interact with their neighborhood contexts, evaluate the differences between neighborhoods, and adapt to new neighborhoods. Using interviews with 120 Black youth whose families moved from high-poverty central city neighborhoods into lower-poverty, more racially diverse suburban neighborhoods with the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program, we find that Black youth describe tradeoffs that come with living in both city and suburban neighborhoods. While youth viewed their suburban neighborhoods as safer, the young people encountered new repertoires of socializing and space use after moving to the suburbs, with fewer opportunities to spontaneously hang out with peers. This made it challenging to establish new social ties. In response, youth adopted varied strategies, some aligned with new patterns of socializing, others stayed inside, and some returned to the city to reconnect with friends, even if this involved returning to neighborhoods they perceived as less safe. Our work underscores the idea that neighborhoods do not impose culture on youth in enduring or inflexible ways; rather they offer strategies of action that youth can decide to take up. How youth perceive the qualities of their neighborhoods shapes where and how they choose to spend their time.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47647941","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Evidence suggests that Americans became more sympathetic toward people who experienced sexual harassment as the MeToo movement surged. Yet how comprehensive these shifts in public opinion have been remains unclear. I hypothesize that women who experience workplace sexual harassment are judged against the archetype of an idealized target of sexual harassment and deemed less credible when they fall short. Using data from a novel multifactorial survey experiment, I find that net of other factors, a Black woman is deemed less credible than a white woman. A woman is also deemed less credible when she does not assertively confront the harassment in the moment and when she does not report it to her organization. Further, she is deemed less credible when there are no witnesses and when her alleged harasser has not been publicly accused of harassment by others. Her credibility is not affected by a power disparity with the harasser, the presence of alcohol, or a prior romantic relationship with the harasser. Finally, the more facets of the archetype a target conforms to, the more credible she is perceived to be. These results demonstrate a hierarchy of sexual harassment targets, in which some are deemed more credible than others.
{"title":"Is There an Idealized Target of Sexual Harassment in the MeToo Era?","authors":"C. Hart","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spad016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad016","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Evidence suggests that Americans became more sympathetic toward people who experienced sexual harassment as the MeToo movement surged. Yet how comprehensive these shifts in public opinion have been remains unclear. I hypothesize that women who experience workplace sexual harassment are judged against the archetype of an idealized target of sexual harassment and deemed less credible when they fall short. Using data from a novel multifactorial survey experiment, I find that net of other factors, a Black woman is deemed less credible than a white woman. A woman is also deemed less credible when she does not assertively confront the harassment in the moment and when she does not report it to her organization. Further, she is deemed less credible when there are no witnesses and when her alleged harasser has not been publicly accused of harassment by others. Her credibility is not affected by a power disparity with the harasser, the presence of alcohol, or a prior romantic relationship with the harasser. Finally, the more facets of the archetype a target conforms to, the more credible she is perceived to be. These results demonstrate a hierarchy of sexual harassment targets, in which some are deemed more credible than others.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44565517","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Despite recent efforts to diversify their workplaces, tech companies remain predominantly White, Asian, and male—drawing on in-depth interviews with 50 tech workers in the San Francisco Bay Area, this article examines how these workers think about the term “diversity” with respect to their own companies. While previous research on diversity within organizations largely centers on Human Resource professionals or policy makers, this article unpacks how workers themselves define and discuss diversity. Although most respondents acknowledged a “diversity problem” in the tech industry, they saw their own companies as “better than most.” They made this claim by 1) drawing relative comparisons with other tech companies; 2) citing evidence of efforts their companies were making to increase diversity; and 3) using expansive definitions of the term “diversity.” Yet perceiving their companies as “better than most” may breed a kind of complacency where workers consider their companies “above average” on diversity when they look similar to other companies. These interviews provide evidence that the diversity initiatives at tech companies – while not necessarily effective in reducing racial or gender inequality – are effective in convincing some workers that their companies are diverse. This article provides insight into why efforts to increase diversity within organizations may stall.
{"title":"“We’re Better than Most”: Diversity Discourse in the San Francisco Bay Area Tech Industry","authors":"S. Luhr","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spad014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad014","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Despite recent efforts to diversify their workplaces, tech companies remain predominantly White, Asian, and male—drawing on in-depth interviews with 50 tech workers in the San Francisco Bay Area, this article examines how these workers think about the term “diversity” with respect to their own companies. While previous research on diversity within organizations largely centers on Human Resource professionals or policy makers, this article unpacks how workers themselves define and discuss diversity. Although most respondents acknowledged a “diversity problem” in the tech industry, they saw their own companies as “better than most.” They made this claim by 1) drawing relative comparisons with other tech companies; 2) citing evidence of efforts their companies were making to increase diversity; and 3) using expansive definitions of the term “diversity.” Yet perceiving their companies as “better than most” may breed a kind of complacency where workers consider their companies “above average” on diversity when they look similar to other companies. These interviews provide evidence that the diversity initiatives at tech companies – while not necessarily effective in reducing racial or gender inequality – are effective in convincing some workers that their companies are diverse. This article provides insight into why efforts to increase diversity within organizations may stall.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43649948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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