Sociological Perspectives

This study engages theories of economic freedom and neoliberalism as alternative ways of understanding workers’ perceived job and labor market insecurity. The results of hierarchical ordered logit and linear models of multiple rounds/waves of European Social Survey and European Working Conditions Survey data between 2002 and 2016 reveal some support for one hypothesis derived from each set of theories in basic models: As theories of economic freedom anticipate, the levels of worker insecurity are generally lower in countries that are currently more “economically free”; as theories of neoliberalism anticipate, the levels of insecurity are higher in countries that have increased levels of economic freedom, or “neoliberalization,” in about the past five years, but this relationship is limited to pre-2010 survey data. Altogether, the findings, including of more complex models, suggest these theories account for worker insecurity in Europe, but neoliberalization’s effects are selective, unemployment also matters, and synthesis is needed.

This study investigated the role of a particular organizational mechanism called categorical matching—that is, the matching of a functional category (employment status) to a social category (gender) in organizations’ allocative processes. Using large-scale employer-employee matched data, we attempted to identify the organizational characteristics that are susceptible to categorical matching and the impacts of categorical matching on the gender wage gap. We found a significant association between the degree of categorical matching and the bargaining power of female workers net of the other organizational characteristics. Moreover, we found that the residual gender wage gap is larger in establishments that engage in more extensive categorical matching. Regardless of employment status, female workers experience greater wage penalties when they work in workplaces that match men to standard jobs and women to nonstandard jobs. These findings shed light on the importance of organizational processes in producing the gender wage gap and help explain the remarkably high gender wage gap in Korea.

Although a sizeable body of research has examined the labor market outcomes for sexual minority men, suggesting that gay and bisexual men earn less than their heterosexual counterparts, fewer studies have addressed whether any apparent earnings disadvantages for sexual minority men extend to economic insecurity more broadly. Using 1991–2016 U.S. General Social Survey (GSS) data, we examine three measures of economic insecurity—household income, perceived financial satisfaction, and views about family income—among gay and bisexual men. We find that most sexual minority men experience multiple types of economic insecurity with larger disparities present for bisexual men. Consistent with the labor market literature, we observe that family structure and human capital acquisition primarily accounted for economic insecurity disparities for gay men, and family structure partially explained disparities for bisexual men.

This study examines the relevancy of household bargaining processes, childrearing demands, and traditionally gendered breadwinning norms for explaining the implications of married women’s earnings relative to those of their spouse for depression. Drawing on 1992–2014 data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 Cohort, results indicate that shared breadwinning is negatively associated with depression among wives without minor children. Yet despite the salubriousness of employment, shared breadwinning is linked to worse depression for wives with a youngest child aged 0 to 12 or with two or more children 18 and younger. Contrary to expectations from the gender performance perspective, there is minimal evidence that greater relative earnings worsen depression among wives who out-earn their spouse. Results imply that when childrearing demands are high, mothers’ contributions to couples’ earnings function as an additional demand rather than a resource for their own well-being.

Resentment, that is triggered by deprived entitlement, was suggested as particularly salient for energizing action and change in labor relations. However, its relationship with estrangement has not yet been examined as relevant to social change in times of contracting out services. I investigate this question in my research of public procurement as a mode of contract-based service delivery, examining two types of related jobs. The analysis of interviews with 30 employees and 12 administrators, all women, revealed the emergence of managed resentment and the conditions of its coexistence with estrangement. I demonstrate a learning process in which resentment energizes action but encounters lack of recognition. Managed resentment follows but remains protected from estrangement only by positive emotions created in care relations. I discuss possible meanings of these subjective developments for social change in the contexts of women’s encounter with lack of recognition of their skilled or professional contributions.

People with disabilities in the United States experience different types of paid work than people without disabilities; however, less is known about patterns in voluntary work—another form of productive labor that takes place within organizations. This study uses the Volunteer Supplement of the Current Population Survey to evaluate disability segregation in volunteer organizations and activities. Net of sociodemographic characteristics, volunteers with disabilities have lower odds than volunteers without disabilities of participating in educational/youth organizations and sport/hobby/cultural organizations, and higher odds of participating in social/community organizations. Furthermore, volunteers with disabilities have lower odds of participating in professional or coaching/teaching/mentoring activities and higher odds of participating in distribution activities—suggesting less access to leadership roles and opportunities for skill development. Finally, indices of dissimilarity indicate higher levels of segregation by disability status than by gender, race, or ethnicity. Volunteer work—like paid work—is stratified by disability, mirroring broader patterns of inequality.

Although academics have focused on sugaring in various parts of the globe, sugar relationships in the United States have largely been ignored. The few studies that address these arrangements in the United States often frame them as a form of prostitution. Drawing from 48 in-depth interviews with women in the United States who have been in sugar relationships, I adopt a connected lives approach to explore the structure of these arrangements and to assess the extent to which they are a form of prostitution. Overall, I found that, although there is a dominant, subcultural relationship script that serves as a blueprint for sugar arrangements, they comprise their own unique relational package and take a variety of forms when enacted on an interpersonal level. Specifically, I identified seven types of sugar relationships, only one of which can be considered prostitution. These included sugar prostitution, compensated dating, compensated companionship, sugar dating, sugar friendships, sugar friendships with benefits, and pragmatic love.

Past research has examined straight allyship to the queer community from allies’ perspectives, but little is known about how queer people evaluate straight allies. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 20 LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) students from a large, public university in the southeastern United States, we show that respondents formulate their expectations by leaning on their understanding of their own queerness in relation to other privileged and marginalized identities they possess. We find two opposing camps of thought: one that allies should be attuned to the individual needs of queer people in their personal lives, and the other that they should be actively dedicated to supporting the broader queer community. Some respondents expressed sentiments of both camps, showcasing how expectations range with diverse identity constellations. We conclude with discussions of how diverse expectations complicate allyship as a vehicle for social change, and the implications of these results for allies’ roles in queer rights movements.