The author examined the relationship between gender and race with regard to economic conditions and employment opportunities between 1969 and 1991. The study showed that women in general and white women in particular experienced increasing employment opportunities and rising wages in the 1970s and 1980s, that the “privileged” economic status of white males eroded in the 1970s and 1980s, that blacks experienced greater income equality than whites from the 1970s to the 1980s, and that the income gains black men experienced in the 1970s declined markedly in the 1980s. Implications of pursuing a high-wage, high-tech economy for racial and gender groups are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BartlettD., & SteeleJ. B. (1992). America: What went wrong? Kansas City, MO: Andrews & McNeel.
2.
BartleyR. L. (1992). The seven fat years.New York: Free Press.
3.
BergmannB. A. (1986). The economic emergence of women.New York: Basic Books.
4.
BermanL. (Ed.). (1990). Looking back at the Reagan presidency.Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
5.
CaputoR. K. (1991). Patterns of work and poverty: Exploratory profiles of working-poor families. Families in Society, 72, 451–460.
6.
CaputoR. K. (1993). Family poverty, unemployment rates, and AFDC payments: Trends among blacks and whites. Families in Society, 74, 515–526.
7.
CaputoR. K. (1994). Welfare and freedom American style II: The role of the federal government, 1941–1980.Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
8.
ChafeW. H. (1991). The paradox of change: American women in the 20th century.New York: Oxford University Press.
9.
ClintonB. (1993a, March 1). Radio address to the nation on the economic plan. February 20, 1993. Weekly compilation of presidential documents, 29(8): 253–254. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
10.
ClintonB. (1993b, September 20). Remarks and a question-and-answer session on the North American Free Trade Agreement in New Orleans, Louisiana, September 15, 1993. Weekly compilation of presidential documents, 29(37): 1766–1770. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
11.
ClintonB. (1993c, August 23). Remarks to the national governors’ association in Tulsa, Oklahoma, August 16, 1993. Weekly compilation of presidential documents, 29(33): 1629–1638. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
12.
ClintonB. (1994, January 31). State of the Union message. January 25, 1994. Weekly compilation of presidential documents, 30(4): 151–163. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
13.
ClintonB., & GoreA. (1992). Putting people first.New York: Times Books.
14.
CoontzS. (1992). The way we were: American families and the nostalgia trap.New York: Basic Books.
15.
DobelsteinA. (1986). Politics, economics, and public welfare (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
16.
EckA. (1993). Job-related education and training: Their impact on earnings. Monthly Labor Review, 116(10), 21–38.
17.
Economic Conference. (1992). President Clinton's new beginning.New York: Donald J. Fine.
18.
Economic report of the president. (1993). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
19.
FuchsV. R. (1988). Women's quest for economic equality.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
20.
GansH. J. (1991). People, plans and policies: Essays on poverty, racism, and other national urban problems.New York: Columbia University Press.
21.
GarfinkelI., & McLanahanS. S. (1986). Single mothers and their children: A new American dilemma.Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.
22.
GoodmanW., AntczakS., & FreemanL. (1993). Women and jobs in recessions: 1969–92. Monthly Lobar Review, 116(7), 26–35.
23.
GriswoldR. L. (1993). Fatherhood in America: A history.New York: Basic Books.
24.
HackerA. (1992). Two nations: Black, and white, separate, hostile, unequal.New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
25.
HarperL. (1992, November 10). Women account for bulk of decline in work force, but it's not clear why. Wall Street Journal, A2.
26.
HarrisonB., & BluestoneB. (1988). The great u-turn: Corporate restructuring and the polarizing of America.New York: Basic Books.
27.
HavemanR., & BuronL. (1993). Escaping poverty through work: The problem of low earnings capacity in the United States, 1973–88. Review of Income and Wealth, 39, 141–157.
28.
JudisJ. B. (1994, February 14). Why your wages keep falling. New Republic, 26–29.
29.
Kessler-HarrisA. (1982). Out to work: A history of wage-earning women in the United States.New York: Oxford University Press.
30.
LevyF. (1987). Dollars and dreams: The changing American income distribution.New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
31.
LevyF., & MichelR. C. (1991). The economic future of American families: Income and wealth trends.Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.
32.
LynnL. E. (1993, Fall). Ending welfare reform as we know it. American Prospect, 15, 83–92.
33.
MishelL., & BernsteinJ. (1993). The state of working Americans, 1992–93.Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
NewmanK. (1993). Declining fortunes: The withering of the American Dream.New York: Basic Books.
36.
OrloffA. S. (1993). Gender and the social rights of citizenship: The comparative analysis of gender relations and welfare states. American Sociological Review, 58, 303–328.
37.
PerotR. (1992). United we stand.New York: Hyperion.
38.
RedburnT. (1994, February 2). Women edge closer to men in earnings. New York Times, pp. B1, B5.
39.
RodgersH. R. (1990). Poor women, poor families: The economic plight of America's female-headed households.Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
40.
RossD. (1993). Enterprise economics on the front lines: Empowering firms and workers to win. In MarshallW. & ScramM. (Eds.), Mandate for change (pp. 51–80). New York: Berkley Books.
41.
SchwarzJ. E., & VolgyT. J. (1992). The forgotten Americans: Thirty million working poor in the land of opportunity.New York: W. W. Norton.
42.
SeligmanJ. (1993, July 26). Husbands no, babies yes. Newsweek, p. 53.
43.
SteinH. (1984). Presidential economics: The making of economic policy from Roosevelt to Reagan and beyond.New York: Simon and Schuster.
44.
Tomaskovic-DeveyD. (1993). Gender and racial inequality at work: The sources and consequences of job segregation.Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.
45.
U.S. Department of Commerce. (1992). Money income of households, families, and persons in the United States: 1991.Current population reports, Series P-60, No. 180. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
46.
U.S. Department of Labor. (1992). Women workers: Outlook to 2005. Facts on working women, No. 92-1. Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office.
47.
VogelL. (1993). Mothers on the job: Maternity policy in the U.S. workplace.New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
48.
WhiteheadB. D. (1993, April). Dan Quale was right. Atlantic Monthly, 271(4), 47–84.
49.
WilsonW. J. (1980). The declining significance of race: Blacks and changing American institutions.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
50.
WilsonW. J. (1987). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
