FYSP 163: She Works Hard for the Money: Women, Work and the Persistence of Inequality
MWF 11-11:50 King 321
Dr. Daphne John
Office: King 305b
Phone: x 58377
Email: daphne.john@oberlin.edu
Office Hours: W: 1:30-3:00, TH: 11:00-12:00
Course Description
Current U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports indicate that women in the U.S. who are
employed full-time earn 80.2% of what men who are employed full-time earn. In this course, we
will explore the causes and consequences of gender based wage discrepancy. Topics to be
covered include: occupational segregation, comparable worth, shift work, “the Mommy Track”,
gender based job queuing, career trends, unpaid labor, and globalization. In addition to class
reading, each student will choose an occupation and research it throughout the semester.
Required Texts
Cassell, Joan. 1998. The Woman in the Surgeon’s Body. Harvard University Press.
Hesse-Biber, Sharlene and Gregg Lee Carter. 2005. Working Women in America: Split Dreams.
2nd Edition, Oxford University Press.
Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette. 2007. Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the
Shadows of Affluence. 2nd Ed. University of California Press.
Salzinger, Leslie. 2003. Genders in Production. Making Workers in Mexico's Global Factories.
University of California Press.
Required Assignments
Attendance and Participation
10%
Two Essay Responses to Questions
#1-10%, #2- 15% (DUE DATES: 9.28 and 11.6)
Reading a Journal Article Exercise
15%
(DUE DATE: 10.14)
Written Report on Occupation
20%
(DUE DATE: 12.2)
Oral Presentation of Occupation Report
15%
(TBS: 12.04-12.11)
Video Discussion Paper—Take Home Final
15%
(DUE DATE: 12.17)
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Instructor policies
(1) Class Attendance and Participation: It is your commitment to this class and your classmates
that you will be present and ready to begin work at the start of class. Participation includes inclass group work, engagement in response to instructor queries and active listening. The
instructor will occasionally ask students to be responsible for particular readings and be able to
discuss the material with the class. Repeated lateness may result in significant deductions to your
final grade in this course. After two absences, additional absences will generally lower your final
grade in the course (1/3 of a grade per two additional absences). In case of illness or personal
emergency, absences may be excused through a doctor or dean’s note.
(2) Assignments are due IN CLASS the day they are due. An extension will be automatically
applied to all assignments until 4:30 the day they are due. After this grace period, 1/3 of a letter
grade (e.g. an A would be reduced to an A-) will be deducted for each day of lateness, unless you
have previously made arrangements with the instructor because of illness or emergency. I prefer
assignments to be handed in on paper (double sided is fine), but will accept assignments via the
Digital Drop Box on the course Blackboard site. NOTE: Any material placed in the Digital
Drop Box MUST be formatted as an MS Word file or in Rich Text Format. Regardless of
whether you hand papers in as digital or physical—please retain a copy of this work for yourself.
Please use the Times New Roman 12pt font or an equivalent.
(3) Office Hours are listed at the top of this syllabus. If you would like to meet at a specific time
during my office hours, please sign up on the sheet next to my office door. You may also drop in
if no one has signed up for the time. Upon special request, I will meet with students at times
outside of my office hours. Please see me IN PERSON to set up such an appointment.
(4) I receive up to 30 or more e-mails per day. Please do not expect me to reply immediately to
an e-mail question or request. If something is urgent, please CALL ME in my office or signify in
the e-mail header that it is urgent.
(5) In order to receive QPh credit you must average a B- or better on the quantitative
assignments.
(6) Honor Code: This course will follow the policies described in the Oberlin College Honor
Code and Honor System. Please include the statement “I affirm that I have adhered to the Honor
Code in this assignment” in all written work. Please contact me if you have any questions about
citation, or the relationship of the Honor Code to your work in this course. For more information
on the Honor Code, see http://www.oberlin.edu/students/student_pages/honor_code.html.
(7) Students with Disabilities: If you need disability-related accommodations for your work in
this course, please let me know. Support is available through Student Academic Services—
please contact Jane Boomer, Coordinator Office of Disability Services, (Room G27/28 Peters
Hall, ext. 55588, http://www.oberlin.edu/disability) for assistance in developing a plan to address
your academic needs.
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(8) The instructor reserves the right to modify the syllabus during the semester, if needed.
Description of Assignments
Essays: Students will be given a choice of essay questions, from which they will select one to
answer, approximately one week before the due date. The answers should reference as much of
the reading as possible to support the answers. A bibliography should be attached. Each essay
should be approximately 4-5 pages and double-spaced.
Journal Article Exercise: Students will be given an empirically based article to read from a
scholarly journal. Specific questions will be asked regarding the content and structure of the
article as well as interpretation of statistical findings.
Occupation Report: Each student will select an occupation (or occupational category) to
examine. The research should address the following:
What is the history of this occupation?
What is the nature of the work in this occupation?
Is this occupation considered to be male-dominated, female-dominated or gender balanced?
Is gender and/or racial segregation present within the occupation by job category?
What are the requirements for employment in this occupation and how do those requirements vary by job
category?
What sectors of the labor market are the jobs in this occupation in?
What are the experiences of women in this occupation?
What are the typical wages and benefits of the jobs in this occupation?
Is there job growth or decline in this occupational area?
What are the positive and negative aspects of employment for women in this area?
(A variety of resources (eg. books, journal articles, The Occupational Outlook Handbook,
TheMonthly Labor Review, Statistical Abstracts of the United States) should be utilized when
gathering information.)
The in-class PowerPoint presentation (during the last week of class) will consist of highlights
from the research. Each presentation will be 15 minutes in length. Student will receive
instruction on the use of PowerPoint.
The written component will be in the form of a 10 page paper reviewing the literature and
empirical studies in regard to the questions above. A bibliography must be included with the
paper. This assignment serves as the final exam for the course.
Video Discussion Paper—Take Home Final: Students will be asked to respond to several essay
questions based on the films we will watch (and some that will be on reserve for viewing) during
the semester. These essays will focus on comparison of particular themes in the documentaries
as well as links to the semester readings. The exam is open book/open note.
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Learning Objectives:
1. To enable students to place women’s labor related issues within historical and social contexts.
2. To understand and apply key concepts including the social construction of gender, labor and
work, theories of inequality and stratification, and globalization.
3. To investigate the relationship between work/labor and gender from an intersectional
framework.
4. To equip students to manage and analyze information from a social science perspective.
5. To develop critical analytic skills through discussion, writing and oral presentation.
Course Outline
8.31-9.9
I. Introduction/History
Hesse-Biber and Carter:
Preface, Chapter 1: Models of Women and Work, Chapter 2: A Brief
History of Working Women
On Blackboard
Amott and Matthaei: Race, Class, and Gender and Women’s Work
Edwards: Contested Terrain
Hall: Gender and Work
Ortiz: Puerto Rican Women in the Garment Industry of New York City,
1920-1980
Dublin: Lowell Millhands, Lynn Shoeworkers, Working Women in New
England, 1900
Borden: Maybe I should Forget the Union and the Factory
Brush: Gender, Work, Who Cares?! Production, Reproduction,
Deindustrialization and Business as Usual
Thistle: The New Economy and the Transformation of Women’s Work
Sayer: Gender, Time and Inequality
VIDEO: The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter
The Phantom of the Operator
The Trickle Down Theory of Sorrow
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9.11-9.18
II. Indicators and Explanations of Inequality
Hesse-Biber and Carter:
Chapter 3: Gender Inequality: Economic and Legal Explanations
On Blackboard
Marx: Alienated Labor
Durkheim: The Social and Political Role of Occupational Groups
Weber: Bureaucracy
Federal Glass Ceiling Commission: The Glass Ceiling
Tomaskovic-Devey: Sex and Racial Segregation and Pay Gaps
Ferdman: The Color and Culture of Gender in Organizations
England, Thompson and Aman: The Sex Gap in Pay and Comparable
Worth: An Update
Hossfield: The Logic Against Them
Reskin and Roos: Occupational Sex Segregation: Persistence and Change,
Queueing and Changing Occupational Composition, Consequences
of Desegregation: Occupational Integration and Economic Equity?
Elliot: Comparing Occupational Segregation in Great Britain and the
United States: The Benefits of Using a Multi-Group Measure of
Segregation
9.21-9.25
III. Work, Racial and Ethnic Inequalities, and Socialization
Hesse-Biber and Carter:
Chapter 4: Gender Inequality and Socialization: The Influences of Family, School,
Peers and the Media
On Blackboard
Freeman: Parental Influence and Women’s Careers
Hattery: Theoretical Paradigms for Understanding Maternal Labor Force
Participation
Helgeson: Women’s Ways of Leading
Cintron-Velez: Generational Paths into and out of Work: Personal Narratives of
Puerto Rican Women in New York
Baker: Mexican-Origin Women in the Southwestern Labor Markets
Stier: Immigrant Women Go to Work: Analysis of Immigrant Women’s
Labor Supply for Six Asian Groups
Loo and Ong: Slaying Demons with A Sewing Needle: Feminist Issues for
Chinatown’s Women
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England, Garcia-Beaulieu and Ross: Women’s Employment among Blacks,
Whites and Three Groups of Latinas: Do More Privileged Women Have
Higher Employment?
9.28
IV. Queer Experiences
On Blackboard
Dozier: Beards, Breasts and Bodies: Doing Sex in a Gendered World
Griffith and Hebl: The Disclosure Dilemma for Gay Men and Lesbians: “Coming
Out” at Work
Myers, Forrest and Miller: Officer Friendly and the Tough Cop: Gays and
Lesbians Navigate Homophobia and Policing.
9.30
V. Sexual Harassment
On Blackboard
Espinosa: Sexual Harassment Protection for Whom?
Welsh, Carr, MacQuarrie and Huntley: I’m Not Thinking of it as Sexual
Harassment: Understanding Harassment Across Race and Citizenship
IV. Occupations, Professions and the Experience of Working
10.2
Hesse-Biber and Carter:
Chapter 5: Women in Everyday Jobs: Clerical, Sales, Service and Blue-Collar
Work
On Blackboard
Bronfenbrenner: Organizing Women: The Nature and Process of Union
Organizing Efforts Among U.S. Women Since the mid-1990’s.
VIDEO: The Wilmar 8
10.5-10.7
On Blackboard
Casey: New Tappings on the Keys
Garson: The Electronic Sweatshop
Parker: Temporary Clerical Work
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Connoley and Rhoton: Women in Direct Sales
Hall: Waitering/Waitressing
Paules: “Getting” and “Making” a Tip
Reskin and Roos: Women Behind Bars
Zhou and Nordquist: Work and Its Place in the Lives of Immigrant Women:
Garment Workers in New York City’s Chinatown
Juravich: Women on the Line
Reskin and Roos: Hot-Metal to Electronic Composition
Wang and Kleiner: Sex Discrimination in Fire Fighting Organisations
VIDEO: Some Real Heat
Hammering it Out
North Country
Waging a Living
Clockwatchers
10.9-10.16
Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette. 2007. Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring
in the Shadows of Affluence. University of California Press.
VIDEO: Maid in America
Maid to Stay
10.26-11.2
Hesse-Biber:
Chapter 6: Professional and Managerial Women
On Blackboard
Sokoloff: The Half-Full Glass, The Professions, White Women: Movement an
Change, Black Women: Beyond the Myth of Double Advantage, The
Half-Empty Glass: Can it Ever Be Filled?
Higginbotham: Black Professional Women: Job Ceilings
Rosenberg, Perlstadt and Phillips: “Now That We Are Here:” Discrimination,
Disparagement and Harrassment at Work and the Experience of Women
Lawyers
Bird: An Analysis of Gender Differences in Income among Dentists, Physicians
and Veterinarians, 1987
Glazer: “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”: Racial, Ethnic, and Class
Inequalities in Women’s Professional Nursing Organizations
Reskin and Roos: Industrial and Occupational Change in Pharmacy; A Woman’s
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Place is Selling Homes; High Finance, Small Change
Colwill: Women in Management: Power and Powerlessness
Schwartz: Management Women and the New Facts of Life
Reskin: Culture, Commerce, Gender
VIDEO: Lifetime’s Women Docs (instructor copy)
11.4-11.11
Cassell, Joan. 1998. The Woman in the Surgeon’s Body. Harvard University Press.
V. Work and Family
11.13-11.18
Hesse-Biber and Carter:
Chapter 7: Working Women and Their Families
On Blackboard
Torruellas, Benmayor and Juarbe: Negotiating Gender, Work and Welfare:
Familia as Productive labor among Puerto Rican Women in New York
City
Hattery: Balancing and Weaving to be a “Good” Mother, To Work or Not to
Work? That is the Question, Are Children Better Off if they have
New Bikes Rather than Having You at Home?
Devault: Feeding the Family
Shelton and John: The Division of Household Labor, Who Does What and How
Much Do They Do? Gender and Total Work Time
VIDEO: Juggling Work and Family
VI. Social Change and the Global Economy
11.20
Hesse-Biber and Carter:
Chapter 8: Changing the Lives of Working Women
On Blackboard
Moghdam: Gender and the Global Economy
Hu-Dehart: Globalization and Its Discontents: Exposing the Underside
Nash: Women in Between: Globalization and the New Enlightenment
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11.23-11.30
Salzinger, Leslie. 2003. Genders in Production. Making Workers in Mexico's Global
Factories. University of California Press.
VIDEO: Maquilapolis
Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night
12.2
North Country
The Instructor reserves the right to modify this syllabus at any time during the semester.
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