From the Great Recession to Greater Gender Equality? Family Mobility and the Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender

Abstract

In the early stages of the recent recession, men were disproportionately among the ranks of the unemployed. Current economic times provide a researchable moment, as more women are likely to be in positions of power vis-à-vis earnings. This article uses a unique nationally representative dataset of married individuals (n = 158) to examine expected level of support for relocation if the respondent's spouse were offered a hypothetical job opportunity. Although there do appear to be gender differences in the associations between background characteristics and expected level of support, we find no basis for our hypotheses about the nature of the relationships between race, class, and expected level of support. Black women have higher levels of expected support than do White women, whereas Black men have lower levels of expected support than do White men; there are no class differences in expected level of support. We interpret these findings in the context of the complicated performance of gender in challenging economic times.

KEYWORDS:

• costs in exchange theory
• decision-making
• marriage
• quantitative research

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research was supported by funding awarded to the first author by the American Sociological Association Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline, George Mason University College of Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty Research and Development Award, and George Mason University Center for Social Science Research Faculty Survey Award.

Notes

^a Mplus allows for estimation with missing data.

^b Social class was constructed as a standardized factor based on information on all five indicators from all 158 individuals in these analyses.

^c Occupational prestige variables were standardized with the pooled sample.

^† p < .10; *p < .05, two-tailed tests. n = 99. (Standard errors in parentheses). (std) = standardized.

^† p < .10; *p < .05, two-tailed tests. n = 59. (Standard errors in parentheses). (std) = standardized.

Previous analyses controlling for the age of each spouse and region of residence revealed no significant correlations with expected level of support for either women or men (results available upon request). Therefore, we excluded those variables from our final models.

We hypothesized that this relationship was due to gender ideology, the extent to which individuals believe in separate spheres for women's and men's paid and unpaid work responsibilities. Including a measure of gender ideology in the analysis does not change the associations between number of children and expected level of support, nor is it a significant predictor of expected level of support for either women or men.