Abstracts for June 2007 ASR

Selling Genes, Selling Gender: Egg Agencies, Sperm Banks, and the Medical Market in Genetic Material – Rene Almeling, University of California, Los Angeles
Gender Stereotypes Influence Workings of Sperm Banks and Egg Agencies

Little is known about the processes involved in sperm and egg donation, despite the many Americans who donate or receive reproductive material. In the first comparison of its kind, Rene Almeling provides an in-depth analysis of how egg agencies and sperm banks differ in terms of recruiting, screening, marketing, and compensating women and men donors. She finds that gender-specific norms play a significant role in this medical marketplace. While sperm banks highlight the prospect of financial compensation in advertisements, egg agencies advertise emotional rewards and altruistic giving. Both sperm banks and egg agencies look for “sellable” donors, but while both take into account education, race, height, and other physical characteristics, egg agencies emphasize altruistic motivations as a selling point. Egg and sperm donors are treated differently from their very first appointments with the agencies, with women being viewed as reciprocal gift-givers and men viewed as employees. For example, couples are often encouraged to give gifts to their egg donors, while sperm banks would never expect the same for their male donors. Beyond her contribution to the sociology of gender, economics, and medicine, Almeling’s research offers rare insight for those involved or interested in egg and sperm donation. 

Cultural Context, Sexual Behavior, and Romantic Relationships in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods – David Harding, University of Michigan
Heterogeneous Neighborhoods May Lead to a Disconnect Between Adolescents’ Beliefs and Actions Concerning Romantic Relationships and Premarital Sex

Is there a “ghetto culture” that influences the behaviors of teenagers in disadvantaged neighborhoods? While much previous research on disadvantaged neighborhoods emphasizes the isolation of poor, urban residents from mainstream culture and institutions, David Harding, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan, challenges this view. In his analysis of adolescent sexual behavior and romantic relationships, he finds that disadvantaged neighborhoods are actually more heterogeneous than advantaged neighborhoods. Rather than being enveloped in one “ghetto culture,” adolescents in these neighborhoods have a wide array of competing cultural models to choose from. The diversity in these neighborhoods, though, can lead adolescents to hold a number of conflicting scripts. For example, most teenagers in disadvantaged neighborhoods say that they are not ready for parenthood, but they are also more likely than teenagers in advantaged neighborhoods to accept the idea of teenage parenthood. This juggling of different scripts can lead to a disconnect between beliefs and actions: adolescents in disadvantaged neighborhoods are more likely to engage in premarital sex despite stating that they are not ready for parenthood.

Economic Globalization and Women’s Employment: The Case of Manufacturing in Mexico – Andres Villarreal and Wei-hsin Yu, University of Texas at Austin
Globalization May Benefit Women in Developing Countries

Critics have long warned about the negative consequences of globalization for local economies and for human rights in developing nations. However, a recent study from the University of Texas examining the impacts of globalization in Mexico suggests that the increased presence of foreign corporations might actually benefit women in developing countries by creating new, and to some extent, better job opportunities for them.  According to sociologists Andres Villarreal and Wei-hsin Yu, foreign-owned corporations and corporations producing goods for export employ significantly higher proportions of women than do nationally-owned corporations producing goods for sale within Mexico. What’s more, the foreign-owned and export-oriented companies not only pay higher overall wages, but they also discriminate against women less in terms of pay than do nationally-owned companies.

 
African American, Hispanic, and White Beliefs about Black/White Inequality, 1977-2004 – Matthew O. Hunt, Northeastern University
Black/White Beliefs About Racial Inequality Converge; Lack of Motivation and Other Individual Characteristics Seen as Cause of Inequality; Belief in Structural Discriminations Drops

Have Americans’ beliefs about the causes of black/white inequality changed over the past 25 years? And if they have, what effect has this had on public policy? African Americans continue to experience disadvantages in jobs, education, income, and health, but sociologist Matthew O. Hunt has found that Americans’ beliefs about the causes of these disadvantages have shifted in recent years. He finds that whites are increasingly less likely to cite the innate inferiority of blacks as a cause of the socioeconomic divide. Instead, whites increasingly believe that African American disadvantage is a result of educational disparities and a lack of motivation. Blacks’ and Hispanics’ beliefs are beginning to converge with those of whites, as their belief in structural discrimination declines. Blacks and Hispanics increasingly report that motivation drives the socioeconomic divide; however, African Americans are still more likely than other groups to endorse a discrimination-based explanation. All groups are moving more toward explanations based on individual characteristics, rather than group traits or systemic discrimination. This trend toward more conservative, individualistic explanations for discrimination could have consequences for policies, such as affirmative action, that are intended to counter structural discrimination.

Conservative Protestant Congregations and Racial Residential Segregation: Evaluating the Closed Community Thesis in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Counties – Troy C. Blanchard, Mississippi State University.
Presence of Conservative Protestant Churches Linked to Residential Segregation Between Blacks and Whites

Despite minor declines in black-white residential segregation since 1980, blacks are consistently identified as the most residentially segregated minority group in the United States. While discrimination in real estate and mortgage banking practices has been shown to shape patterns of residential segregation, a recent study by sociologist Troy C. Blanchard from Mississippi State University suggests that a prevalence of Conservative Protestant congregations may further exacerbate these patterns within communities.  Because Conservative Protestant congregations are less involved in community outreach than Mainstream Protestant and Catholic congregations, and because their theological values tend to dismiss racial inequality, these congregations reinforce a racial divide within their communities. These findings confirm that communities with greater proportions of Conservative Protestant churches tend to have more racially segregated neighborhoods than those with more Mainstream Protestant and Catholic churches.  These patterns were found in all geographic regions of the country, including urban and nonurban areas.

The Structure of Charismatic Mobilization: A Case study of Rebellion During the Chinese Cultural Revolution – Joel Andreas, Johns Hopkins University
Sociologist Puts New Spin on China’s Cultural Revolution

Refuting previous studies of China’s Cultural Revolution as being overly focused on either the irrational zealousness of Mao Zedong’s followers, or on the revolutionaries’ economic motivations for rebelling, sociologist Joel Andreas from Johns Hopkins University contends that the Revolution succeeded due to a combination of Mao’s charismatic leadership and the informal organization of the movement. According to Andreas, Mao’s leadership instilled in the rebels a shared sense of purpose, while their informal organization gave them greater flexibility to break rules and disrupt the operations of China’s political system. Andreas asserts that the lessons from China’s Cultural Revolution may also be relevant for understanding more recent political mobilization in the Middle East, Latin America, and Russia.

Climbing the Dispute Pagoda: Grievances and Appeals to the Official Justice System in Rural China – Ethan Michelson, Indiana University-Bloomington
Who has Access to the Legal System in Rural China?

In the wake of heightened scholarly and media attention to the growing volume of conflict between Chinese villagers and local state agencies, sociologist Ethan Michelson details variations in the amount and character of popular grievances and remedies in rural China. Using data from the first survey of its kind on conflict in rural China, he finds that villagers in poor regions resort to the official justice system in the Chinese countryside more frequently than do those residing in more affluent regions. The reason is that grievances more often result from popular discontent associated with economic distress than from commercial activity associated with relative economic properity. Beyond regional differences, he finds that family connections to politicians (bureaucratic know-who) matter in these conflicts and their resolution. He writes, “Social networks not only facilitated conflict avoidance, but also facilitated privileged access to law when conflict was unavoidable.”  

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Last Updated on May 21, 2007
© 2007 American Sociological Association