Browsing by Author "Steve McDonald, Committee Member"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

Gender, Social Capital and Migration from the Dominican Republic to the United States
(2009-12-03) Leach, Brandi Lynn; Steve McDonald, Committee Member; Martha Crowley, Committee Chair; Theodore Greenstein, Committee Member
Existing research argues that gender affects social capital usage in migration. The power perspective suggests that unequal power relationships encourage potential migrants to rely on social capital from members of the dominant group, typically men. Conversely, the homophily perspective posits that relatively equal power relations may allow a tendency for gender homophily in social capital use to become evident. Because evidence for the power perspective comes largely from Mexico and evidence for the homophily perspective comes from Thailand, these perspectives must be tested in an alternative national context to determine their generalizability and the extent to which power differentials mask a tendency towards gender homophily in migrant social networks. Using data on migration from the Dominican Republic to the United States, this paper finds limited support for the power perspective and no support for the homophily perspective.
"Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See": An Analysis of Workplace Surveillance, Resistance and Consent
(2008-10-20) Payne, Julianne; Jeffrey Leiter, Committee Member; Martha Crowley, Committee Chair; Steve McDonald, Committee Member
Since the 1990s, workplace surveillance has become a popular topic of sociological investigation. Researchers debate whether monitoring schemes elicit consent and self-control among workers or provoke pervasive worker resistance. I use quantitative data culled from 158 detail-rich, book-length, workplace ethnographies to analyze how direct supervision, electronic surveillance, peer monitoring, and customer surveillance influence workplace behavior. I find that workers neither consent wholeheartedly to surveillance, nor do they uniformly resist their control. Instead, my analyses reveal that the effect of surveillance on workplace behavior depends on the form of surveillance employed. Notably, the effects of peer monitoring on resistance and consent differ markedly from those of other forms of surveillance.
Race, Social Networks, and the Coaching Carousel: The Interactive Effects of Race and Social Networks on College Football Coaches? Occupational Mobility and Status
(2008-02-07) Day, Jacob C.; Michael D. Schulman, Committee Chair; Margaret A. Zahn, Committee Member; Steve McDonald, Committee Member
Social Movement Framing and the Reproduction of Inequality: Immigrant Restrictionists Constructing Virtual Selves on the Internet
(2009-09-14) Bloch, Katrina Rebecca; Jeffrey Leiter, Committee Member; Steve McDonald, Committee Member; Richard Della Fave, Committee Member; Michael Schwalbe, Committee Member; Michael Schulman, Committee Chair
This study analyzes the websites and discussion forums of immigrant restrictionist groups. The research combines the literature on social movement framing and theories of the generic processes of inequality. The research questions include: (1) How are the emotional framings of an organizationÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s website and discussion forums similar and how are they different? (2) How do the organizations use gendered symbols in their social movement frames, and (3) How do the immigrant restrictionist organizations construct a Latino/citizen binary? In total, 91 websites and 200 threads from three discussion forums are included in the study. To answer the first research question, I focus on the website and discussion forum for the organization, Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC). The results suggest that the main website presents a guise of rationality, while participants of the discussion forum openly discuss emotions. In particular, participants privilege powerful emotions. To examine the second and third research questions, I analyze all the websites and forum threads. The organizations and forum participants portray immigrants as part of an invasion that threatens the sovereignty of the nation. Many of the groups and forum members claim to rely on legal distinctions between immigrants, but they often conflate Latinos with immigrants. Further, immigrant restrictionists discuss Latinos as if they are a homogenous group, as opposed to individuals with different national heritage and class backgrounds. In contrast, immigrant restrictionists portray themselves as soldiers who are protecting the nation and mothers who are protecting their children. Immigrant restrictionists also argue that politicians and corporations are greedy, but they fail to challenge the system at large. Instead of advocating a larger redistribution of wealth that would provide more stability for the working and middle class, immigrant restrictionists attempt to maintain the rights and privileges that they perceive illegal immigrants to threaten. Immigrant restrictionists reinforce an achievement ideology, whereby hard work should lead to success. However, group members argue that immigrants receive special privileges for breaking the law, while citizens are unable to achieve success through hard work. The immigrant restrictionists make sense of their position by drawing on widely held and available meanings related to race and gender. These ideologies influence their construction of an ideal national identity, a white male. The dissertation adds to the sociological literature in three ways. First, it combines the scholarship on social movement framing and the generic processes of inequality. The social movement frames draw from and reinforce group distinctions that legitimate the reproduction of inequality. Secondly, the study contributes to the understudied importance of emotional framing and gendered frames within social movement theory. Immigrant restrictionists privilege emotions associated with men, such as rationality, power, and pride. Further, the gendered symbols of soldiers and mothers are emotionally powerful symbols within the United States, because of ideals regarding what it means to be a man or woman. Finally, I show how the emotional framing is important for legitimating inequality. The immigrant restrictionists have identity stakes in being race neutral, but simultaneously say things that marginalize racial minorities. Thus, relying on claims of rationality, using specific discourses (e.g. anchor baby vs. infant), and using stigma transference are ways in which the group members engage in emotional framing activities that allow them to maintain positive self-appraisals despite contradictions in their social movement frames.
Sociological Explorations of the Marital Wage Premium
(2010-04-04) Fahrney, Kristine Marie; Feinian Chen, Committee Member; Steve McDonald, Committee Member; Maxine Atkinson, Committee Member; Theodore N. Greenstein, Committee Chair
One of the most robust findings within the literature on wages is that married men have been found to have higher personal wages than unmarried menâ€”a phenomenon called the marital wage premium. Although the literature documenting the marital wage premium is extensive, an examination of this literature through a sociological lens reveals three key unexplored issues. First, one theoretical explanation of the marital wage premium is that being married involves more responsible decisionmaking and lifestyle changes that help men be more productive. The literature also shows a connection between marriage and mental and physical health, both of which are shown to be related to worker productivity. Numerous studies have been published on the effects of marriage on alcohol and drug use and criminal behavior, physical and mental health, and other health behaviors; however, within the marital wage premium literature, little, if any, empirical attention has been directed at these potential explanations of the marital wage premium. Second, much of the sociological literature on the benefits of marriage in terms of child academic and emotional well-being and adult physical and psychological well-being has suggested the importance not just of marital status, but of marital quality; however, considerations of marital quality have been almost entirely absent from the marital wage premium literature. Third, the extent to which the marital wage premium can be generalized across race/ethnicity groups is not clear. In fact, most empirical marital wage premium studies have excluded people of color. In response to these identified gaps in the marital wage premium literature, I conduct three distinct studies using the Survey of Americansâ€™ Changing Lives (ACL). Overall, the results did not support the research hypotheses. Lifestyle did not mediate the marital wage premium. Although being divorced or never having been married was associated with an increased number of chronic and debilitating health conditions, these variables did not mediate the marital wage premium. In addition, marital quality was not found to be relevant to the marital wage premium. Wages did not differ significantly for men in either high- or low-quality marriages, relative to men from a marriage of average quality. Finally, lifestyle, physical health variables, and marital quality did not account for the difference in magnitude in the marital wage premium for White and Black men. However, marriage was shown to decrease depression, but only for White men, and depression was shown to decrease wagesâ€”but, again, only for White men. Still, depression accounts for less than 5 percent of the wage premium for White males. Although it was not possible to directly test with the ACL data, the collective results from the present research and a review of adjacent literature suggest that it may be employer discrimination, rather than some productivity-enhancing dynamic occurring within marriage, that accounts for the marital wage premium.
Soscial Support and Mental Well-being: The Intersectionality of Age, Race, Gender, and Class
(2007-10-15) Mair, Christine Armstrong; Feinian Chen, Committee Chair; Theodore N. Greenstein, Committee Member; Steve McDonald, Committee Member
Aging literature often links social support to higher levels of mental well-being for older adults. Findings concerning variations in the impact of social support on mental well-being according to race, age, gender, and class, however, are not consistent. This paper argues that the reason for these inconsistencies is due to a lack of attention to the intersectionality of inequality in older populations and resulting cumulative disadvantages. I employ an intersectionality perspective to examine how processes of social support (marriage, children, frequency, proximity, and perceptions) interact with race, age, gender, and class to produce differential outcomes in terms of mental well-being. Using data from the 2004 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), I use split samples to test the effect of social support and intersections of inequality on the depressive symptoms of adults over the age of 50. Findings indicate that there is a clear interaction between social support and inequality. Contrary to many theories, women and minorities in this sample are more different than similar. Individuals aged 80 and older of all race and gender groups are less responsive to social support than other age groups. Black men, in particular, emerge as a group particularly at risk for higher depression. The findings demonstrate the necessity of using an intersectionality perspective when studying (increasingly diverse) aging populations.