Sociology 2145B Final: Final Exam Review

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SOC2145 Sociology of Work – Final Exam April 2017 Chapter 5 Notes Labour Markets: an arena in which employers seek to purchase labour from potential employees who are seeking jobs suitable to their education, experience, and preferences.  An exchange of workers/skills/loyalty for employers/pay/status Human Capital Theory: Investment in education and training (human capital) = better jobs (higher returns)  Job rewards are determined by its economic contribution and how risky they are  Individuals choose among work options, and settle for the best job  Overlooks the demand-side of the labour market  Emphasizes the supply-side of labour market at the expense of the demand-side (behaviour and characteristics of employers and organizations) Evaluating Human Capital Theory:  The HCT focuses on the characteristics of individuals  Does the education pay off?  Is there equal opportunity for education?  Does it hold back some people, while advantaging others? Equality of Educational Opportunity:  Core value underlining educational systems: o Equality of opportunity  Youth from high-income families and those whose parents are highly educated are more likely to attend university  Why intergenerational transfer of advantage develops:  Middle/upper class parents have higher expectations and serve as role models for their children  Place of residence also plays a role (rural vs. urban) o Think of living in Toronto vs. Halifax Economic Advantage and Cultural Capital:  Higher family socioeconomic status (SES) = better post-secondary education for children  Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital Status Attainment Research:  Education + Family SES = Occupational Outcomes  Gender and Status Attainment: females have more difficulty translating credentials into high-paying jobs Labour Market Segmentation Theory:  Questions the single, open labour market assumption  Highlights restricted movement between labour market sectors o Barriers that limit access to the primary labour market for many qualified people and how primary labour market participants maintain their advantaged position  labour market “closure” Dual Economies and Segmented Labour Markets: SOC2145 Sociology of Work – Final Exam April 2017 Core Sector Periphery Sector  Large, powerful companies; also gov’t  Smaller, more competitive firms; also self-  Higher productivity & profit employment  Lower productivity/profit  Capital-intensive  Unionized  Labour-intensive  Less often unionized Primary Labour Market Secondary Labour Market  Higher wages  Lower wages  Better benefits  Few benefits  More job security  More frequent unemployment  Better working conditions  Poor working conditions  More career opportunities  More dead-end jobs  Job ghettos Internal Labour Markets: most large core sector corporations and public institutions have a well-developed internal training and promotion system Labour Market Shelters: unions and professional associations improve job and income security for members through labour market shelters  Professions (doctors/lawyers) o Specialized knowledge/high level of work autonomy, power over clients, code of ethics, etc.  Market Closure: ability of professionals to shape the labour market to their advantage 2: Labour Market Barriers Immigrants & Visible Minorities:  Recent immigrants are more highly educated and trained in STEM specializations o University educated immigrants are more likely to be underemployed  Significant immigrant cohorts o Visible minority status + immigration status  Barriers: o Non-recognition/devaluation of non-Canadian education credentials  Screening/Signaling Theory: higher schooling does not ensure superior economic performance, instead it serves as a credentialing process, which signals the innate potentials/abilities of job seekers to employers  Age Discrimination: older workers rejected in favour of younger workers or vice versa due to younger worker’s lack of experience 3: Changing Patterns of Social Inequality  Post-industrial Class Structure o Large businesses reflect Marx’s Theory: managers; supervisors; workers; semi-autonomous workers  Labour Market Polarization: fewer people employed in well-paying, permanent, full-time jobs in the primary labour market Chapter 6 Notes: SOC2145 Sociology of Work – Final Exam April 2017 1) Gender & Work in Historical Context: o Marjorie Cohen: the household and the economy o Unpaid domestic labour/social reproduction o e.g., cooking, feeding, clothing, caring o Raising future workers, supporting current workers o Double day/second shift Family Wage Ideology: high enough wages for men to support their wife and children 2) Gender and Current Labour Market Trends: o Rising female participation since WW2 o Rising education and occupational aspiration, non-realistic traditional stereotypes, job opportunities (e.g., expansion of service sector) o Economic need for dual-income families Gender Segregation in the Labour Market: o Concentration of women and men in different occupations o Female job ghettos o Little economic security; low pay; few chances for advancement; boring, unpleasant, and often physically taxing work o Gender labelling of jobs Gender Stratification in the Labour Market: o Horizontal segregation o Across different occupations o Vertical segregation o Within specific occupations o Men = positions with more authority, better job rewards 3) Theories of Work and Gender Inequality Theoretical Perspectives on Work and Gender Inequality o Human capital theory o Labour market segmentation o Gender-role socialization: o “The socialization of girls and boys into traditional gender roles creates cultural norms and expectations that they will carry into the workplace as adults” o Employers stereotypes about women 4) Achieving Workplace Equity o Employment Equity o Abella Commission on Equality in Employment  Four equity groups: women, visible minorities, Aboriginal peoples, and persons with disabilities  Focus on remedying “systemic discrimination” o Pay Equity o Focus on “equal pay for work of equal value” SOC2145 Sociology of Work – Final Exam April 2017  Moves beyond equal pay for “equal” or “similar work which compares male and females in the same jobs”  Seeks to create gender-neutral compensation Chapter 7 Notes: 1) Conceptualizing Household and Family Work  Arlene Kaplan Daniels “Invisible Work”  Caring Work Changing Family Forms  Fluid boundaries between household and market, private and public realms  Traditional gender ideologies (Separate spheres) o Married women and mothers performed unpaid household work & Male breadwinner  Rise of dual-earner families/breadwinner families no longer the norm Trends in Household and Caring Work  “Time-budget” studies o Working women still responsible for “second shift” o Paid work outside the home = “double burden” working women Trends in Childcare, Mothering, Fathering  Doucet (2006) Do Men Mother? o Challenges for men taking on work with cultural associations with women  Gen