Congratulations 2009 Award Winners!!

The Sex and Gender Section sponsors a number of awards for outstanding scholarship. We are pleased to announce the following distinguished contributions to the field.

THE SALLY HACKER GRADUATE STUDENT PAPER AWARD

Recipient: Catherine Connell. “Doing (Trans)gender in the Gendered Organization.”

This carefully argued, well-written and innovative paper offers an important contribution to sex & gender theory by considering how transgender experience remakes gender performance at work. Based on in-depth interviews with 19 transgendered or transqueer informants, Connell argues that her respondents “do transgender,” a more hybridized set of practices than the delineated sex categories West and Zimmerman theorized. Traditional scholarship on transgendered people argued that they pursued stereotypical gendered normative behavior in an effort to maintain the plausibility of their gender performance. Connell actually finds the opposite – that her transgendered respondents instead merged the style, demeanor, skills and emotional posture of their present and former gendered selves together. They do so in part as a political act, to complicate and destabilize gender normative categories, and partly to maintain the continuity of their identities across their transgendering – one police officer said he often used his hands when he talked, which is more typical of women, because that was what he used to do when he was a woman, and that was still “part of who he was.” The process of “doing [this hybridized, politicized] transgender” involved three important consequences: 1) it encouraged them to publicly identify as gender variant, as part of their campaign to unseat privilege and challenge oppression; 2) it brought home to them – as “outsiders within” – the impact and pervasiveness of the discrimination of women in the workforce; and 3) it subjected them to re-gendering by people with whom they interacted, who were made uncomfortable by their hybridity and the challenges it posed to conventional gender patterns. These people re-interpreted the gendered performance of the transgendered and transqueered by imposing existing binaries, the very binaries their hybridity sought to destabilize. Connell used her powerful data in service to important concepts, and did so with clarity and style. The committee sought to use the award to encourage students to pursue theoretically ambitious projects that were grounded in data and carefully argued. We commend Connell for her theoretical innovation and strong scholarship.

Catherine Connell is a graduate student in the Sociology Department at the University of Texas-Austin. Her email is cati.connell@gmail.com.

Honorable Mention: Daniel Schneider. “Gender Deviance and Household Work: The Role of Occupation.”

In this article, which is based on analysis of 2,102 heterosexual married households from the second wave of the National Survey of Families and Households, Schneider found that married men who do women-typed work in the labor force increased their hours of male-typed work in the household relative to otherwise similar men who work in gender-balanced occupations. The wives of men who worked in women-typed work in the labor force also increased the number of hours they spent on female-typed housework relative to otherwise similar women married to men who work in gender-balanced occupations. These findings indicate that particularly when men gender-deviate in occupation, both members of the couple “compensates” the man for the feminine-typing of his work. Instead of focusing on income levels, Schneider is unique in using quantitative deductive research to consider the kind of work married men and women do in the labor market -- which he argues is more socially visible than income and thus more closely connected to identity -- and its possible effect on the number of hours spent on what type of housework. The committee found Schneider’s paper compelling in its findings and analysis, empirically rigorous, comprehensive, and clear in its discussion.

Daniel Schneider is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology and Social Policy, and an affiliate of the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. His email is djschnei@princeton.edu.

Honorable Mention: Anthony Christian Ocampo. “Making Masculinity: Negotiations of Gender Presentation among Latino Men.”

This paper examines gay Latino men’s gender presentations to show how Latino men construct cultural boundaries of masculinity in social interactions. This research adds to a literature on masculinity, sexuality and race that tends to conflate gayness with whiteness and masculinity with straightness. Conducting an ethnographic study of a gay Latino community, Ocampo argues that these men value, enact and desire a masculinity that resembles the ideologies and practices of a mainstream Latino heterosexual masculinity, while they also police the homophobia central to such an identity. That is, while these men actively distance themselves from a gay identity they are quick to regulate comments and behaviors that other gay men might find offensive. Ocampo highlights that these men invoke these gender and sexual strategies to navigate the value systems of their ethnic and sexual communities. They move through ethnic and sexual spaces in which masculinity takes on different meanings, thus the sort of homophobia or distancing form a gay identity, in which they engage, might mitigate the effect of a gay identity upon their ties with their ethnic community. By attending to multiple axes of identity Anthony Ocampo’s counterintuitive findings add to the growing literature on intersectionality by showing that gay Latino men construct gendered selves in a way that is different from black lesbian communities, white gay men and straight men. The Committee was impressed by this thoughtful, insightful and original paper.

Anthony Christian Ocampo is a PhD student in the Sociology Department at the University of California, Los Angeles. His email is aocampo@ucla.edu.

SEX AND GENDER OUTSTANDING ARTICLE AWARD

Recipient: Philip Cohen and Matt Huffman. 2007. “Working for the Woman? Female Managers and the Gender Wage Gap.” American Sociological Review, 72(5): 681-704.

One of the most notable changes in the U.S. labor force has been the increase in women’s representation in managerial positions. This change, and the question of access to high-status positions in organizations, has spurred empirical research on the “glass ceiling.” More women reaching managerial positions may, in itself, reduce inequality through the increased wages and benefits accruing to those women. However, the effects of increasing women’s representation in management may ripple well beyond those managerial women, thereby exerting a more pronounced effect on gender inequality. Philip Cohen and Matt Huffman’s paper uses a unique multi-level nested data set from the 2000 Census to answer a compelling question: does the recent increase of women’s representation in managerial positions “lift all boats” by reducing inequality among nonmanagerial workers? Importantly, they ask whether the relative status of female managers matters. Their results suggest that greater representation of women in management does narrow the gender wage gap. However, that the presence of high-status female managers has a much larger impact on gender wage inequality. They conclude that the promotion of women into management positions may benefit all women, but only if female managers reach relatively high-status positions. This article was the top choice because it is methodologically astute, substantively important, and rich in terms of its theoretical and policy implications. Cohen & Huffman use multi-level models to measure the relative importance of the gender composition of workplace hierarchies and its impact on the gender gap in pay. This analysis goes beyond the old “percent female” approach to examine the relative status of managers and their organizational power. The finding that a positive impact of female managerial representative has significantly stronger effects when women are in relatively more powerful managerial positions is important, and it highlights that simply reclassifying women as mid-level managers (title inflation), which accounts for most of the inroads women have made into management, is insufficient for gender equality, even among non-managerial workers.

Philip Cohen (pnc@unc.edu) is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Sociology Department at the University of North Carolina. Matt Huffman (mhuffman@uci.edu) is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California-Irvine.

Honorable Mention: Eileen Otis. 2008. “Beyond the Industrial Paradigm: Market-Embedded Labor and the Gender Organization of Global Service Work in China.” American Sociological Review, 73(1): 15-36.

Eileen Otis’ article is on an ethnographic analysis of labor practices at two international luxury hotels in two Chinese urban centers (Beijing and Kunming), both run according to the same business plan created by a U.S. corporation. She finds that in the Beijing hotel, which caters largely to Western businessmen, female service workers use feminized practices, which originated in the United States, to anticipate and cater to customer needs. In the Kunming hotel, female service workers display their expertise at their jobs to maintain control over their customers, who are largely Chinese businessman entertaining clients. One reason for this type of interaction is that workers do not want to be mistaken for sex workers, who are common in the area. The hotels are both working off of the same business plan, but the workers’ on-site interpretations of the plan vary widely due to localized customs. Otis offers a new framework for cross-regional comparison of service labor practices based on spatial, market and cultural dynamics that fundamentally diverge from those of industrial labor. This article is both conceptually and empirically exciting. Otis makes the important point that our understanding of service work is limited, both because previous research on globalization focused on manufacturing and because previous research on the micro-interactions between customers and employees in service jobs was not sufficiently comparative to identify variation in how service work is organized. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data from two Chinese hotels, which share organizational histories but are located in different regions and serve different customers, she argues that labor regimes are both gendered and "market-embedded." The qualitative data analysis is excellent and engaging, and her systematic theoretical framework makes this article useful for sociologists in a wide range of subfields, including gender, work, economic sociology, and transnational processes.”

THE SEX AND GENDER DISTINGUISHED BOOK AWARD

Recipient: Elizabeth Bernstein. 2007. Temporarily Yours: Intimacy, Authenticity, and the Commerce of Sex. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Elizabeth Bernstein's fascinating book provides a nuanced, global analysis of sex work in San Francisco, Stockholm, and Amsterdam. Using data from participant observations (including riding with police and acting as a decoy for street sex workers), archival research, and interviews with clients and sex workers, the study finds that internet-based sexual commerce has grown as “crackdowns” on street prostitution have increased. Bernstein provides ample evidence that sex commerce in post-Fordist economies has changed in response to anti-immigration policies, technology, the “privatization” of sex, and transformations in intimacy. Theoretically, the book makes a significant contribution to feminist debates about agency, sexuality, and oppression, and it highlights how political economies shape sexuality and gender. The nomination letter for the book states, “This research is not merely another study of prostitutes or prostitution, but a carefully theorized work that helps readers understand new formations in relationships in response to neoliberal economic restructuring, globalization, and the burgeoning sex industry. As Bernstein notes, if the sexual ethic during early modern capitalism could be termed procreative, and during modern-industrial capitalism companionate/promiscuous through the gendered double standard, currently she terms this sexual ethic one of bounded authenticity. In an era where courtships can last one night, and marriages five years, Bernstein elegantly argues that, in many ways, we are all ‘temporarily yours.’” The book award committee agreed that this theoretically and empirically rich book is a significant contribution to the sociology of gender, and will be read by gender scholars for many years.

Elizabeth Bernstein is Assistant Professor of Women's Studies and Sociology at Barnard College. Her email is ebernste@barnard.edu.

Honorable Mention: Peter Hennen. 2008. Faeries, Bears and Leathermen: Men in Community Queering the Masculine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

How do alternative gay male subcultures challenge gender inequality? Peter Hennen’s ambitious study analyzes this question by conducting extensive interviews and participant observations of three groups: Radical Faeries, Leathermen, and Bears. He explored how these men manage the long-held association of gay male homosexuality with effeminacy. Hennen finds that each of the groups manage stereotypes about effeminacy differently: some resist and discourage effeminacy, while others celebrate it. The Radical Faeries parody and play up femininity. The Leathermen emphasize how they are “more masculine than straight men.” Finally, the Bears appear masculine, physically, and see themselves as masculine but also encourage caring behaviors, such as giving one another “bear hugs.” The nominating letter states that Hennen “has this very original idea that all gay men must grapple with the question, ‘Are gay men like women?’ He argues that the association of homosexuality and effeminacy is historically recent, but is nevertheless hegemonic today, and is a key factor in perpetuating homophobia. His three case studies represent very different collective answers to the question, with consequences for either challenging or reinscribing gender inequality.” Extending and critiquing the work of Connell, Butler, and Bourdieu, this engaging book adds significantly to our understanding of gender.

Peter Hennen is Assistant Professor of Sociology at The Ohio State University at Newark. His email address is

hennen.6@osu.edu.

Information about the 2010 Awards

Sex & Gender Section Distinguished Book Award
This award honors those who make a significant contribution to the field of sex and gender through a book on the cutting edge of sociological inquiry. The 2010 Sex and Gender Distinguished book Award Committee is currently accepting nominations for outstanding and innovative books published in 2007, 2008, or 2009. Self-nominations are acceptable, and authors need not be sociologists. Edited collections are ineligible, and nominations from publishers will not be accepted.

To nominate a book for this award: 1) Please send a two-page letter (preferably through email) explaining how the book makes a significant contribution to the sociology of sex and gender to the Committee’s Chair, Gloria González-López, Department of Sociology, 1 University Station A1700, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 (gloria@austin.utexas.edu); and 2) notify the book publisher to send copies of the books by February 1, 2010 to the chair and all the committee members (See list on page 9). Nomination deadline is January 15, 2010.

Award Committee

Gloria González-López, Chair
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology
University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station A1700
Austin, TX 78712
gloria@austin.utexas.edu

Heather Dillaway
Associate Professor & Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Sociology
Wayne State University
2263 Faculty Administration Building
Detroit, MI 48202
dillaway@wayne.edu