Sociology 225: Assignment 1

data due during precept of week of March 9 (either March 10 or 11)

You will use Stephen Rose's book, Social Stratification in the United States, to present what stratification looks like in this country. This book and the accompanying poster show the kinds of families at different income levels, and the kinds of occupations of these families. You must simplify the material from this book and poster to clearly illustrate stratification in our country. You should also collect the same general information from members of the class - family structure (married couple, single parent, etc.) other information about the backgrounds of students in the class (educational background of parents, type of high school attended, etc.) and present this information to the class. Constructing a poster similar to the one in Rose's book may help clarify your comparisons between Princeton students and the general population.

B. Comparison of Academic Majors by Gender

You will be exploring the ways in which gender may or may not determine the fields in which people choose to major. Begin by reading research that has shown that women and men become "tracked" into different fields, despite the fact that no clear differences exist between women's and men's intellectual abilities in these different fields. You will be researching whether this trend is apparent at Princeton. You must find a way to collect information about the number of men and women majoring in different departments (around 10). Try to get trends in this data since 1980.

see: Jacobs, Jerry. 1995. "Gender and Academic Specialties: Trends Among Recipients of College Degrees in the 1980s." Sociology of Education 68:81-98.

C. Gender/Race Bias in Faculty Positions

You will be exploring whether stratification by gender and race among faculty members in colleges and universities does or does not exist. Research suggests that differences still exist in the ways in which men and women faculty members and white and minority faculty members are hired and advance in their careers. You will research whether these differences are notable at Princeton. You should confine yourself to the rank that reflects their status. In most cases, ranks from lowest to highest are temporary/visiting (nontenure track), assistant professors, associate professors, and full professors. Look for any clear differences in the numbers of men, women, whites and minorities on the faculty at these different ranks, and determine if these reflect societal differences or some form of bias. You should also collect the rate of Ph.D's by gender and race for these disciplines over the past 20 years, and compare these rates to distributions in faculty positions. You may also want to talk to some faculty members to get a sense of their perceptions of these processes.

See: Milem, Jeffrey F. and Helen S. Astin. 1993. "The Changing Composition of the Faculty: What Does it Really Mean for Diversity?" Change. March/April. Pp. 21-27.

Long, Scott, Paul Allison and Robert McGinnis. 1993. "Rank Advancement in Academic Careers: Sex Differences and the Effects of Productivity." American Sociological Review. 58:703-22.

D. Job Opportunities and Stratification

You will be exploring the ways the jobs that students plan to pursue after graduation tend to be stratified by gender and race. Much research suggests that careers tend to be stratified by race and gender, and that salaries vary by racial/gender groups. First, you will need to determine the career paths of most Princeton undergraduates. Then you will research some of the most common fields and show whether those careers reflect any kind of stratification by gender or race, in terms of subfields (for example, many studies show that women doctors tend to be present in less prestigious fields such as pediatric medicine) or in terms of wages and salaries (i.e., studies show that male students directly out of MBA programs receive higher salaries than women directly out of the same programs.)

see: Reskin, Barbara and Irene Padavic. 1994. "Sex Segregation in the Workplace." Pp. 45-79 in Women's Work, Men's Work: Sex Segregation in the Workplace. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

E. Content Analysis of The Princetonian

As an example of how to do this see:

Coltrane, Scott and Kenneth Allan. 1994. ""New" Fathers and Old Stereotypes: Representations of Masculinity in 1980s Television Advertising." Masculinities, vol. 2, No. 4. Pp. 43-66.

To provide students with some insight into content analysis as well as the implicit messages society sends about gender.

Culture can be seen as "those solutions to basic problems accumulated by a society and passed along to the young." These "solutions" can be passed along through the socialization process. In this process, children and adults are initiated into the statuses and roles that characterize society. They are taught the appropriate behavior which corresponds with each of the positions, the norms and values and beliefs of the society. In American society children are socialized by the mass media as well as by parents, schools, and peers. Newspaper articles and advertisements can be viewed as very

effective tools of socialization, suggesting the statuses that are available in the society. People are always observing what goes on around them. But sociologists' analysis differs from everyday observation that it is more purposeful and systematic, as well as being recorded.

In this research project you are asked to examine 3 weeks of the Princetonian. Observe and record the gender statuses and roles presented by different stories, authors, and articles. Note the extent to which the authors' descriptions, their language, the headlines, the photos accompanying the articles, the relative importance of the article (placement on the page or in the section), imply gender statuses or roles. You should probably quantify your data (e.g. count stories, pictures, placements, headlines). Also, you may want to follow some particular stories that have a gender angle. How are the stories followed over time? What is the language used to describe individuals and events? How does it conform to gender stereotyping?

YOUR PAPER FOR ASSIGNMENT 1 SHOULD BE ORGANIZED IN THE FOLLOWING
WAY:

It should be 3-5 pages, not including tables and graphs. AND, make tables
and graphs that summarize information, are clearly presented and labeled,
and make your point - do not put too much information in a table and make
it unreadable - this presentation will be an important part of your
grade).

OUTLINE OF YOUR PAPER:

1.  Introduction (this section tells the reader what to expect)

2.  Motivation (why is this an interesting topic?) e.g.
 
    a)  understanding where you stand relative to others in society may
    reveal how your opportunities are structurally different than others.

    b)  understanding the sorting of men and women by majors, faculty, and
    post graduate careers reveals the importance of life course choices,
    role models, and social structure (group composition influencing individual
    behavior)

    c)  gender differences in society are often reinforced by the
    language used, the role models presented, etc.  Thus, an analysis of 3 weeks of the
    Princetonian may reveal how these gender differences continue to be
    reinforced.

3.  Method and Data (describe your data and how it was collected and
analyzed)

EACH GROUP (A, B, C, D, E) SHOULD PROVIDE THIS WRITTEN SECTION FOR THE
OTHER MEMBERS OF THE PRECEPT, ALONG WITH THE DATA AND TABLES.

4.  Discuss your results

    a)  comparing stratification….
    b)  comparing academic majors
    c)  gender/race bias in faculty
    d)  job opportunities and stratification
    e)  content analysis

5. Conclusion (summarize your results and decide how gender stratification
is or is not reproduced at Princeton and relative to the rest of the
U.S.).