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"This book provides a reasoned, unflinching analysis of how race and paid work are linked in U.S. society. It offers readers the rich conceptual and empirical foundation needed to understand key issues surrounding both race and work. Loscocco traces current patterns to their historical roots, showing that the work lives of people from different race and ethnic groups have always been interrelated. Chapters document the U.S.'s multicultural labor history, discuss how labor markets and jobs became segregated, and explain key racial-ethnic patterns in work opportunities. The book also addresses common misconceptions about why women and men from some racial-ethnic groups end up with better jobs than others. It closes with a look at contemporary developments and suggests a future in which race-ethnicity no longer affects work opportunities and experiences. Race and Work deepens understanding and elevates the discussion of race, racism, and work in an engaging, accessible style. It will be an essential resource for anyone interested in work, race-ethnicity, social inequality, or intersections among race, gender, and class"--

It is hypothesized that employees within internal labor markets (ILMs) will be the most committed to work & organization & that ILM or non-ILM membership interacts with commitment, aging, & education at different stages in careers. Analysis is based on questionnaire data collected in 1982 on the job & work attitudes of 493 employees (86% male, 82% white) in a midwest manufacturing plant; semistructured interviews conducted with an employee subsample (N = 29) & plant managers (N not specified) provided additional detailed information about work lives, plant organization, & plant functioning. Findings show that career structures influence employee commitment overall: ILM membership has positive consequences for work commitment short & long range, but not for organizational commitment; younger, more educated, non-ILM workers were the most dissatisfied with their short- & long-range career opportunities. It is suggested that organizational commitment is maintained only when progress can be made on an established career structure but that the context of career structures is not always accepted passively. Given predicted age patterns, lower levels of commitment among non-college-educated workers of all ages may be expected in the future. 2 Tables, 38 References. V. Wagener

This theoretical narrative extends Andrew Cherlin's argument about the role of clashing values in high rates of marital disruption in the United States. Cherlin explains challenges to American marriages as deriving from tension between cultural ideals of marriage and individualism. Drawing on social construction and gender theory, we contend that gender differentiation affects both the institution of marriage and married people's personal dissatisfactions. We further suggest that racial/ethnic and class positions are likely to influence how people enact marriage and that accountability to gendered norms intersects with these positions. Unlike dominant cultural messages that signal that wives should accept the negative influence of gender differentiation, we argue that prevention of marital disruption requires critique of socially constructed "his and hers" marriages.

Considerable attention has been given to the division of household labor in male-female couple households & to assessments of its equity. While women's experience of housework has been characterized as either tedious & thankless or a more positive expression of love & care, there is very limited empirical evidence about how women (or men) actually experience the work. We assess these reactions & investigate how they are influenced by women's & men's household & paid work contexts & the content of the housework performed. Data are from married & cohabiting men & women respondents to the 1987/88 wave of the National Survey of Families & Households. Results show that while women's reactions to housework are slightly less positive than men's, both are similar & are more positive than negative. There is also similarity across gender in the factors explaining these attitudes. The unpleasantness of housework (especially for women) may be less a reflection of the qualities of the work itself than of the consequences of its allocation for women's ability to perform outside roles & for their sense of marital equity. 3 Tables, 25 References. Adapted from the source document.

Survey data are used to compare pay satisfaction between female (F) & male (M) employees (N = 1,070 & 2,489, rspectively) from 52 factories in 7 different industries in south-central Ind. Results indicate that Fs & Ms make similar equity judgments. While previous work has suggested that Fs are satisfied with low pay because they use other Fs as referents, results here show that as Fs move into gender-balanced work contexts their comparisons with Ms decrease their satisfaction. Findings demonstrate the importance of a contextual approach to the understanding of reference groups, gender, & pay satisfaction. 3 Tables, 37 References. Adapted from the source document.

Marriage continues to be a major life goal in the United States. The grim news about the state of Black heterosexual marriage can be found in headlines that bemoan the lack of marriageable Black men, and statistical studies that routinely show Black marriages are difficult to maintain. We argue that the stresses on Black marriages are best understood by looking at them through a prism that highlights the intersection of gender and race. We show that the role of Black wife is particularly challenging. When people reason from an unquestioned White model of marriage and relationships, they often suggest that there is something pathological about the marital patterns of Blacks. Yet using the race/gender prism, we construct an argument that these patterns are pioneering and call into question the logic of the White middle-class model of intimate relationships between women and men.

The promise of small business ownership as a route to equality has yet to be realized. The authors draw from social construction perspectives and a detailed data set to model directly the various options individuals must balance—as owners and as family members—in the course of running their businesses. The authors' findings suggest that gendered structural constraints exist not only in the labor markets in which people work before becoming owners but also "closer to home" in terms of decisions they make about whether to try to use ownership to achieve more work–family balance and how much time and effort to put into growing their businesses.

Recent research on women business owners de‐emphasizes home‐based business ownership, despite the fact that home‐based ownership is on the rise. This study uses data from the Upstate New York Small Business Project to compare women engaged in home‐based businesses to their counterparts, who locate their businesses outside the home. The results indicate that the women engaged in home‐based business ownership experience less work to family conflict than their counterparts. Yet their businesses enjoy less economic success than those run by their non‐home‐based counterparts. This suggests that home‐based ownership may be a good option only for women who do not have strong financial needs.