Abstract
Through an imaginary trip along the iconic Route 66, William J. Scarborough maps the diversity of gender norms among American towns and cities throughout the book Gendered Places: The Landscape of Local Gender Norms across the United States. Scarborough first identifies and describes how gender‐based expectations of citizens vary based on their environment. The Beverly Hillbillies acts as a creative introduction to the idea that local environment matters in citizens’ evaluations of “appropriate” gender performances. Through Elly May Clampett's complex expressions of gender, the author demonstrates that behaviors that may be considered unremarkably feminine in one locale, like Arkansas, may be interpreted as jarringly incongruous with “womanhood” when transplanted into another environment, like Southern California. Given that people draw from their cultural “tool kit” (Swidler 1986, 2001) to perform gender, Scarborough seems particularly interested in understanding how gender norms influence “place character” (Molotch, Freudenburg, and Paulsen 2000; Paulsen 2004).
Scarborough investigates potential mechanisms for producing and sustaining these gender norms in Chapter Two. The author presents an integrated framework for examining gender norm configurations, particularly as they relate to four dimensions: (1) women's advancement in the public sphere, (2) intensive mothering (Hays 1998), (3) public sphere essentialism, and (4) private sphere gender essentialism (Charles and Grusky 2004). Using data from the General Social Survey (GSS) in order to evaluate attitudes toward working mothers and a gendered division of labor, Implicit Association Test (IAT) data from Project Implicit's Gender-Career IAT and Gender-Science IAT to account for cognitive biases, Tweets to identify public discourses, and college major selection trends to observe gendered behaviors, Scarborough then tests this integrated framework alongside a unidimensional (traditional to egalitarian) gender norms framework, a public/private sphere model of work and family, and a horizontal/vertical model concentrated on women's advancement. Through latent modeling, the author asserts that his four‐dimensional framework is more accurate and therefore potentially useful, depending on the necessary level of detail in one's analysis. However, Scarborough cautions that these frameworks should be interpreted as complementary, not contradictory.
Scarborough applies his four‐dimensional framework to regions of the United States and then three pairs of labor sheds, or “commuting zones”: Boston and Minneapolis, Salt Lake City and Columbus, and San Francisco and New Orleans. The author finds that traditional gender norms are particularly pronounced in the American South and Midwest, while egalitarian gender norms are more common in the West Coast and Northeast. However, these regional norms should not be reduced to wholly traditional or egalitarian. Instead, when other dimensions of the framework are included, we see that, for example, “the West Coast is no better than the South when it comes to supporting mothers’ employment” (p. 86). Using secondary qualitative data, the author further investigates these potentially surprising findings.
Scarborough posits that a locale's socio‐historical and cultural traits, such as a history of feminist organizing (Boston) and family‐friendly employer policies (Minneapolis), may contribute to elevated levels of egalitarianism across all four dimensions of the integrated model. At the other end of the spectrum, the relationship between fundamentalist religion and politics in places such as Salt Lake City may contribute to citizens’ pronounced endorsements of traditional gender norms, particularly as they relate to a “woman’s place” in the home and a maternal role in the family. Nevertheless, places like Columbus, Ohio, may also be categorized as traditional, even if they do not share Salt Lake City's religiosity. In some cases, commuting zones can even be contradictory among the four dimensions. In New Orleans, for example, egalitarian norms toward intensive mothering exist, but gender norms may be categorized as traditional considering public and private sphere essentialisms and women's advancement. Despite its history of liberal politics and social organizing, the Bay Area has more traditional norms regarding intensive mothering, even if the remaining dimensions trend egalitarian. However, as Scarborough notes, “support for women's leadership is lower in San Francisco than what we observed in Boston and Minneapolis” (p. 98). In order to understand these findings, Scarborough asks the always relevant question, “Why?”
In Chapter Four, Scarborough examines the compositional and contextual effects that may sustain local gender norms using hierarchical regression. In terms of compositional effects, research shows that the following groups of people are more likely to support egalitarian gender norms: women, African Americans, liberals, immigrants, people with college degrees, younger folks, employees in managerial/professional occupations, service sector employees, and those who belong to moderate or liberal religions or have no religious affiliation. Using GSS and IAT data, Scarborough finds that compositional effects are less influential than one might expect. In the end, compositional effects are more influential in intensive mothering and private sphere gender essentialism than in women's advancement and public sphere gender essentialism.
In contrast, contextual effects, perhaps best summarized as the effect of locale‐specific social contexts, were more pronounced with regard to women's advancement and public sphere gender essentialism than compositional effects. Scarborough's findings suggest that the attitudes of religious moderates and liberals, as well as college‐educated individuals, are likely to be shaped and even swayed by local gender norms, particularly if they lived in a place with traditional norms. Furthermore, contextual effects had a larger role in sustaining local gender norms compared to compositional effects.
In the final substantive chapter, Scarborough examines some of the implications associated with local gender norms, namely occupational sorting and the gender wage gap. First, the author examines the relationship between local gender norms and occupational segregation in management, STEM, office administration, and blue‐collar occupations through hierarchical logistical regression using American Community Survey (ACS) data. Findings demonstrate that local public sphere gender essentialism norms have an important relationship with occupational segregation. In occupations where men are overrepresented, egalitarian gender norms in public sphere essentialism were related to increased representation for women in management, STEM, and blue‐collar occupations. Furthermore, when all four dimensions are characterized as egalitarian in commuting zones, office administration, an occupation typically dominated by women, is more integrated.
Scarborough also applies the integrated framework to occupational gender wage gaps in Chapter Five. Results indicate that local gender norms are related to the size of the wage gap in occupations that are not overwhelmingly composed of men. In management and office administration, for example, more egalitarian norms toward women's advancement and public and private sphere essentialisms are associated with smaller wage gaps. However, the author posits that employees in fields overwhelmingly composed of men, like STEM and blue‐collar occupations, “may seek to maintain their advantages through direct wage discrimination in pay setting or indirectly through neglecting women's workplace contributions and expecting them to undertake ‘office housework’” (pp. 195–96).
Overall, Gendered Places is an important milestone in research on gender inequality. Although future research could benefit from primary qualitative data in the form of interviews with residents in the commuting zones of interest, this study was well‐grounded in theory and rigorous in its methodology and corresponding analysis. Furthermore, as Scarborough himself argues, there is a tendency for researchers to discuss gender inequality using metrics like the gender pay gap or occupational segregation at the national or state level. At the same time, scholars have paid attention to the micro‐level interactions that reproduce gender inequality. While there is always more work to be done in these areas, rarely have we had the opportunity to bridge the macro‐micro gap. Through a thorough examination of how local gender norms are created and sustained, as well as their real‐life consequences, Scarborough provides researchers with an opportunity to bridge the macro‐micro gap and, ultimately, a detailed picture of and nuanced explanation for why such inequalities persist.