Women's Social Mobility: Intergenerational Impact on Wealth Gap - Research Proposal

Introduction

Intergenerational persistence in economic results impacts the perpetuation and aggravation of the resource gap between the wealthy and poor. Research on social mobility in previous years has mainly concentrated on men. However, there is less or no research on the patterns of social mobility of women. The fact that the women were not part of the workforce and social classes were represented by the class positions of the husbands explain why women were excluded from mobility studies. Women are neglected in the labor force because they are perceived to have a much weaker attachment to it, and in the long run, they are employed in lower-class positions. The degree at which the mobility patterns of both genders vary biases the conclusions regarding the fluidity of a society. This research project will examine the relationship between gender inequality, class, and social mobility.

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Research Objectives

The long-term goal of the research is to understand the impact of gender differences and social class impact social mobility index. The latter is an aggregate index score computed grounded on a selection of indicators that gauge the social mobility of the nation. The objective of the present study is to offer a comprehensive literature review for the relationship between gender differences, social class, and social mobility, the study constitutes the subsequent sub-objectives:

• To understand the role of gender in class-based orientations;
• To understand the impact of gender differences on social mobility index;
• To understand the impact of social class on social mobility index.

The outcome of this study will be vital to industry practitioners to understand the best tools to use to avoid gender stereotypes in a world that is characterized by social stratification and mobility.

Research Questions

The following research questions need to be addressed:

• What is the role of gender in class-based orientations?
• What is the impact of gender differences on the social mobility index?
• What is the impact of social class on social mobility index?
• What is the effect of gender differences and social class on the social mobility index?

Hypothesis

H1Gender and class have a significant impact on social mobility index;

H1The impact of social class on social mobility index might be distinct for men than for women.

Literature Review

Limited progress has been made to understand how gender differences and social class affect the social mobility index. A growing body of literature on gender disparity in mobility has started to emerge in the latest years. Hayes and Miller (1993) argued that the convectional exemption of women from mobility research has met strong criticism from feminists and has caused worries among the social stratification researchers regarding the restrained understanding of the process of social mobility because of the omission of women. The women have improved their workforce participation in industrial nations. Even though the involvement of the female workforce has increased, the women have continued to be assigned low-level positions.

In contrast, men have been awarded high-status positions in the occupational hierarchy (Hayes & Miller, 1993). Notably, McGinn & Oh (2017) argue that in the workplace, cultural and occupational conditions differ by social class. Gender is instrumental in the employment of women when the latter are in the majority in a work setting. When working in professions where men are the majority, women will face gender-oriented bias (Turco, 2010), and the latest evidence recommends this bias might be higher for upper class comparative to the middle class, women (Rivera & Tilcsik, 2016). The amplification of gender bias might increase the recognition of upper-class women as female, whereas potentially distorting with class-oriented recognition. The female managers and professionals benefit because of the increase in the presence of women in leadership positions (Lee et al., 2017), though dependence on the minority of leaders who are female might increase recognition with gender and reduce identification with class.

McGinn & Oh (2017) argues that in earlier research has demonstrated relatively consistent proof when absolute rates of social mobility attained via occupational status are assessed; there is a weaker inclination for daughters than sons to inherit their occupation position or social class of their fathers. In addition, women were discovered to be much more probable than men to be downwardly mobile. When a comparison is drawn between the absolute rates of mobility through marriage among women and mobility of rates among men through job attainment, there is a narrowing of the gender disparity in the mobility pattern (McGinn & Oh, 2017).

Methodology

Descriptive survey research will be selected as the most appropriate research design for the study. Descriptive survey research grounded on the perceptions of women and men at home and workplace in Brooklyn, United States of America. The survey method will be suitable for this form of study because it will offer a quantitative description of attitudes, experiences, and views of the sample population and gathered after one month. The data needed to complete the project would be the social origin, class categorization, and social mobility index of the country. Statistical tests, including the t-test would be used to test the hypothesis.

References

Hayes, B. C., & Miller, R. L. (1993). The silenced voice: female social mobility patterns with particular reference to the British Isles. British Journal of Sociology, 653-672. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2307/591415

Lee, H. J., Chua, C. H., Miska, C., & Stahl, G. K. (2017). Looking out or looking up: gender differences in expatriate turnover intentions. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hyun-Jung_Lee/publication/311800611_Looking_out_or_looking_up_Gender_differences_in_expatriate_turnover_intentions/links/5a0035d8a6fdcca1f29f6b52/Looking-out-or-looking-up-Gender-differences-in-expatriate-turnover-intentions.pdf

Li, J. H., & Singelmann, J. (1998). Gender differences in class mobility: A comparative study of the United States, Sweden, and West Germany. Acta Sociologica, 41(4), 315-333. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/000169939804100402

McGinn, K. L., & Oh, E. (2017). Gender, social class, and women's employment. Current Opinion in Psychology, 18, 84-88. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.07.012

Rivera, L. A., & Tilcsik, A. (2016). Class advantage, commitment penalty: The gendered effect of social class signals in an elite labor market. American Sociological Review, 81(6), 1097-1131. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122416668154

Turco, C. J. (2010). Cultural foundations of tokenism: Evidence from the leveraged buyout industry. American Sociological Review, 75(6), 894-913. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122410388491