Christine L. Williams

Introduction -- The oil and gas pipeline -- The stayers -- Voluntary separations -- Corporate downsizing -- Conclusion -- Methodological appendix.

How the Oil and Gas Industry Shortchanges Women Scientists

Gaslighted

Men who do "women's work" have consistently been the butt of jokes, derided for their lack of drive and masculinity. In this eye-opening study, Christine Williams provides a wholly new look at men who work in predominantly female jobs. Having conducted extensive interviews in four cities, Williams uncovers how men in four occupations—nursing, elementary school teaching, librarianship, and social work—think about themselves and experience their work. Contrary to popular imagery, men in traditionally female occupations do not define themselves differently from men in more traditional occupations. Williams finds that most embrace conventional, masculine values. Her findings about how these men fare in their jobs are also counterintuitive. Rather than being surpassed by the larger number of women around them, these men experience the "glass escalator effect," rising in disproportionate numbers to administrative jobs at the top of their professions. Williams finds that a complex interplay between gendered expectations embedded in organizations, and the socially determined ideas workers bring to their jobs, contribute to mens' advantages in these occupations. Using a feminist psychoanalytic perspective, Williams calls for more men not only to cross over to women's occupations, but also to develop alternative masculinities that find common ground with traditionally female norms of cooperation and caring. Until the workplace is sexually integrated and masculine and feminine norms equally valued, it will unfortunately remain "still a man's world."

Men Who Do Women's Work

Still a Man's World

Nurses and marines epitomize accepted definitions of femininity and masculinity. Using ethnographic research and provocative in-depth interviews, Christine Williams argues that our popular stereotypes of individuals in nontraditional occupations—male nurses and female marines for example—are entirely unfounded. This new perspective helps to account for the stubborn resilience of occupational stratification in the face of affirmative action and other anti-discrimination policies.

Women and Men in Non-traditional Occupations

Gender Differences at Work

This book summarizes the state of our knowledge on the effects of men in women's professions - effects on the men, on their views of masculinity, on the occupations and on the women they work with. Do men get preferential treatment in these positions? Do they receive higher salaries? Or are they treated the same as their women colleagues? Through a series of statistical and demographic analyses, as well as case studies of men in professions such as teaching, secretarial work, care-giving and stripping, the contributors give a glimpse of the role of these men in bolstering or undermining the gendered assumptions of occupational sex segregation in the workplace.

Doing "Women's Work"

"I got my first job working in a toy store when I was 41 years old." So begins sociologist Christine Williams's description of her stint as a low-wage worker at two national toy store chains: one upscale shop and one big box outlet. In this provocative, perceptive, and lively book, studded with rich observations from the shop floor, Williams chronicles her experiences as a cashier, salesperson, and stocker and provides broad-ranging, often startling, insights into the social impact of shopping for toys. Taking a new look at what selling and buying for kids are all about, she illuminates the politics of how we shop, exposes the realities of low-wage retail work, and discovers how class, race, and gender manifest and reproduce themselves in our shopping-mall culture. Despite their differences, Williams finds that both toy stores perpetuate social inequality in a variety of ways. She observes that workers are often assigned to different tasks and functions on the basis of gender and race; that racial dynamics between black staff and white customers can play out in complex and intense ways; that unions can't protect workers from harassment from supervisors or demeaning customers even in the upscale toy store. And she discovers how lessons that adults teach to children about shopping can legitimize economic and social hierarchies. In the end, however, Inside Toyland is not an anticonsumer diatribe. Williams discusses specific changes in labor law and in the organization of the retail industry that can better promote social justice.

Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality

Inside Toyland

Sue Y. S. Kimm

This volume, containing 24 papers and 19 poster papers, reviews the etiology and epidemiology of childhood obesity. It explores genetic and contributory environmental factors. It also describes recent research and educational efforts in prevention of the condition, including programmes aimed at high-risk minority populations.

Prevention and Treatment of Childhood Obesity

Christine L.. Williams

Arlene Stein

The essays included here reflect differences in race, gender and class and demonstrate how different social groups experience different sets of social norms. Topics include gender and sex theory, identity, childhood and adolescent sexuality, the objectification of women, sexuality and religion, leisure and recreation, politics and social change and the possible future of sexual relationships.

Sexuality and Gender

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Christine L. Williams

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