Stephanie Howling
Graduate Student in Sociology
10/23/2007
- Research Interests
- gender stratification; marriage and family; economics of the family; occupational sex segregation; social stratification
- Previous Degrees
- B.A., Boston College 2003, Sociology
| Teaching Experience | ||
|---|---|---|
| SOC 99s | Senior Thesis Workshop | Teaching Fellow |
| SOC 165 | Inequalities in Health Care | Teaching Fellow |
| WGS 1125 | Gender and Health | Teaching Fellow |
| SOC 22 | Gender Stratification | Teaching Fellow |
- Qualifying Paper Title
- The Household as a Locus of Economic Stratification Along Gendered Lines
- Committee
- Mary Brinton, Mariko Chang, Annemette Sorensen
- Abstract
- A central assumption of stratification theory is that husbands and wives share equal ownership over family finances. This presumption has been challenged by qualitative studies of household finances which find widespread inequality in financial ownership between spouses. This paper engages this debate by developing and testing a model of financial asset control in marriage. Using insights from stratification theory, exchange theory, gender display theory, and gendered exchange theory, models of plausible theoretical relationships between the amount of relative income an individual contributes to a marriage and the amount of family assets they control are presented. Tested against the U.S. Census Bureau’s SIPP dataset, results find most families are considerably unequal in the division of control over financial assets. In accounting for these patterns of control, results are found to be consistent with predictions made by the gendered exchange model. A heuristic model of income redistribution is also formulated to examine the potential consequences of these patterns of financial control on women’s economic well-being within the home. Modifying the work of Sorensen and McLanahan (1987), this model suggests that married women’s economic vulnerability stems not from their economic dependence on their spouse for financial resources, but from a lack of access to at least half the family’s financial assets and a limited ability to retain control over their own earnings when they participate in the labor market. In light of gendered exchange theory, I argue that these economic conditions reflect broad cultural devaluations of women’s paid employment and wages and reflect how the household is a locus of economic stratification along gendered lines.
- Prospectus Title
- The Effects of Parents’ Occupational Experiences on Children’s Socioeconomic Attainment in Adulthood
- Committee
- Mary Brinton, Annemette Sorensen, Christopher Winship
Contact
617-496-5794 (FAX)
609 William James Hall
33 Kirkland Street
Cambridge, MA 02138