Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Statistics indicate a wide gap in educational attainment between men and women in Japan, particularly in comparison with other industrialized countries.
Data supports that in Japan, women who settle on a "pink-collar" career often attain higher economic standing through marriage than those who accept a traditionally male-dominated professional job. There exists a perception that investment in human capital is not a rational choice for women given the persistent gender inequality in the labor market. But the picture of gender-imbalanced educational participation has been changing over the past few decades. The college enrollment rate for women doubled between 1992 and 2004 from 17% to 35%. What are the implications of the increase of college-educated women for labor relations? How do female workers with tertiary education differ from their colleagues with high-school diploma or less? Using a high-quality dataset collected by the Japanese government, the present study finds that women with college education differ markedly from women with lower educational attainment in their employment status and career aspirations. At the same time, the present study also finds that the effects of variables that have been associated with women's lower labor market participation rates are present for college-educated women as well.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: An examination of gains in women’s representation in France resulting from the application of the parity law.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This exploratory quantitative study uses stratification theory to examine the effect of micro-level and
macro-level factors on conflicts between work and family for women of color and white women. Using GSS data, the
authors explore women’s individual characteristics, human capital factors, and social structure to try to
understand the number and type of conflicts working women experience. Data analysis shows that women of color
were much more likely than white women to be in one-earner households; conversely, white women were much more
likely to be in two-earner households. Evidence of a race-segregated labor force also emerged. Regression
analysis suggests that predictive factors for number and type of conflicts women experience are different for
women of color than for white women.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The existing scholarship (Ebo, 1992; Fair, 1992; Fair, 1996; Fair, & Parks, 2001; Hawk, 1992; Hultman, 1992) points to the problems with Western media reporting on the continent of Africa and Africans. Perpetually underreported, Africa still emerges in the media as the “Dark continent,” inhabited by inferior and irrational people. This paper looks at the representations of the African women in an entertainment medium – a woman’s magazine, Marie Claire. It scrutinizes if the range of images and narratives of African woman is any broader and/or different in the entertainment medium targeted at an exclusively female audience by implicitly comparing them to those in the news media. Moreover, drawing on Said’s (1994) theory of Orientalism, the paper analyzes if Marie Claire disrupts or simply reinforces Black Orientalist discourses. The paper concludes that narratives and images in Marie Claire are far from blatant and unequivocal statements of Black Orientalism; instead, they are rather complex and at times ambivalent, i.e., accommodating ideological positions, but also leaving plenty of room for negotiation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Feminist literature often discusses the importance of descriptive representation of women to facilitate democracy. The vital role of women in elected office is further substantiated by research that finds the representation of women’s “interests” requires a greater inclusion of women leaders in public office. Currently, a record number of women serve in elected office at the state and national levels. In 2005, 25.5 percent of state elective executive office holders, 22.6 percent of state legislators were women, and 29.7 percent of top appointed policymakers in the states were women. Furthermore, the gap between Democratic and Republican women is increasingly closing as more Republican women run and win elective office. As the ideological composition of women in office changes, research focusing on the representation of ‘women’s issues’ must be attentive to the changing definitions of women’s issues and women serving in office generally. For example, there is evidence that in states with higher percentages of women, legislatures are more attentive to women’s health issues. However, these studies typically include abortion policy as a prominent “woman’s health issue.” This is problematic for obvious reasons including the growing ideological diversity of women who serve in public office and the moral dimensions of abortion. Therefore, new measures of state provisions of women’s health, including contraceptive services, pre- and post-natal care, and testing and care of breast and cervical cancer patients may be better indicators of the relationship between women in elected office and state attention to women’s issues.
Utilizing state level data on provision of services directed towards the health of women and representation of women in the 50 states, we explore how well the new guard of women representatives serve the interests of all women. We find that states with a critical mass of women in the state legislature are more attentive and have better over health measures than states with the fewest number of women in the state legislature.