The constraints of progress : college feminization and the value of the college degree
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation investigates how the status and value of the college degree as a credential are constructed and evaluated in response to the changing social demographic compositions of colleges and universities. A large body of scholarship shows that occupations with a higher proportion of women have lower average rewards for both women and men—a finding many gender scholars argue is the result of the devaluation of work associated with women. In this dissertation, I ask whether a similar process occurs when women earn a higher proportion of college degrees. One notable implication of women's rising educational attainment is that many colleges and universities, like occupations, are increasingly understood in public and academic discourse to be undergoing a feminization of their own. How does the feminization of colleges and universities shape perceptions of college graduates from institutions where women earn most degrees? Is the value assigned to their credentials lower than that assigned to credentials from non-feminized institutions? I draw on original survey-experimental data collected from a representative sample of U.S. adults to test how the gender composition of men's and women's degree-granting institutions affects their chances of being selected for a job interview. This research offers evidence that the feminization of colleges and universities has very different labor market consequences for male and female graduates. I find that college feminization shapes perceptions of college value in the labor market in two distinct, but interrelated, ways. Unlike occupational feminization, college feminization does not lead to an across-the-board devaluation of the college credential. Rather, devaluation unfolds as a gendered process. Although college feminization has little impact on whether women are recommended for an interview, men who have attended feminized colleges are penalized in interview recommendations. Next, I show that college feminization and applicant gender shape the ways in which college and non-college-educated participants construct merit when evaluating job criteria as important factors in the screening process. This work suggests that the specific job criteria that are tied to employment outcomes for applicants is highly dependent both on the college status of evaluators and the context in which their characteristics as applicants are evaluated. Together, this work highlights the emerging role of feminization in the higher education landscape and suggests several paths forward for scholarship on feminization and its role in exacerbating existing inequalities among college graduates
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2020; ©2020 |
| Publication date | 2020; 2020 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Mireles, Amanda Alicia |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Correll, Shelley Joyce |
| Thesis advisor | Correll, Shelley Joyce |
| Thesis advisor | Jackson, Michelle R. (Michelle Renee), 1939- |
| Thesis advisor | Pedulla, David S, 1982- |
| Degree committee member | Jackson, Michelle R. (Michelle Renee), 1939- |
| Degree committee member | Pedulla, David S, 1982- |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Sociology. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Amanda Mireles |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Sociology |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2020 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2020 by Amanda Alicia Mireles
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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