This study analyzes the occupational prestige of women workers born in Cuba or Mexico who were at least 25 years of age at the time of their immigration to the U.S. The dependent variable is NORC prestige scores; independent variables are age, U.S. experience, South residence, weeks worked, and schooling. Predicted prestige scores, controlled for social class, narrow the prestige score gap between Cuban and Mexican women, but increase the gap between immigrant men and women. The data suggest that the social mobility process for female immigrants differs from the process for males, perhaps because cultural barriers to “pink collar” jobs of nominally higher status restrict women's mobility.
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