WOMEN’S LABOR, MONEY, AND MODERN MARRIAGE IN AMERICA: A MIXED-METHODS SOCIO-HISTORICAL STUDY OF GENDER, RACE, CLASS, AND THE SHIFTING ECONOMICS OF MARRYING

[摘要] This dissertation investigates how the new arrangement of family women going to work affected the modern economic basis of marrying in the U.S. I provide a gender-race-class analysis of the relation between earning power and marrying across the pivotal shift in the historical context of marrying for Baby Boomers (born 1945 to 1964) and Generation X (born 1965 to 1980). Conducted in the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia region, the original research includes open-ended individual and focus group interviews of native born (non-Hispanic) white, (non-Hispanic) black and Mexican American men and women. While women’s mass entry into the labor market resulted in a change in the typical American household structure in the Baby Boomer generation (to the dual-earner model), I find that the change in the perceived gains and gendered structure of the economic basis of marriage occurred only after a generational lag, among Generation Xers. For this generation, women’s earning power is a central foundation of modern marriage and family. Among Generation Xers, this finding is observed across race and class. Further, based on an examination of ethno-racial disparities in earnings by gender, I am able to develop through this study an important typology of social and economic forces (incentives and imperatives) of family women working, which I find relates to the formation of gender ideology.

[发布机构] Johns Hopkins University

[效力级别] marriage

[关键词] family;marriage;gender;race;ethnicity;class;generation;socialization;Baby Boomer;Generation X;earning power;education;employment;wages;household economics;specialization;dual-earner household;gender ideology;Sociology