September 7 - January 25, 2002

The study of inequality in the United States has been shaped by three developments: (a) the striking increase in income inequality over the last three decades, (b) the partial and halting incorporation of both African Americans and some of the more recent immigrant groups (e.g., West Indians), and (c) the spectacular decline in various forms of gender inequality over the last half-century. Although scholars have laid out the first two stories in much detail, the third of these stories has not attracted equal attention. The recent tendency of scholars of gender, especially those within sociology, has in fact been to emphasize the maintenance and perpetuation of inequality rather than the sources of change.

This CSI debate and lecture series refocuses scholarly attention on the logic underlying such changes as growing wage equality, increasing rates of female labor force participation, ongoing declines in sex segregation, and emerging parity in educational attainment. At the same time, comprehensive accounts of change must explain not only well-known declines in inequality but also the unevenness of such declines, the persistence of deep inequality in virtually all domains, and the possibility that changes are occurring more slowly than many conventional theoretical formulations would imply. Although the weakening of some forms of gender inequality is one of the striking developments of our time, it remains an open and crucial question whether the forces underlying this development will continue to play out, will ultimately stall, or may even reverse themselves. This event brings together leading scholars of gender to debate these issues and to contribute to a conference volume titled The Declining Significance of Gender?

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Lead-off Debate
3:00 pm - Barnes Hall Auditorium

"Destined for Equality: How, Why, and When Will Gender Inequality Disappear?"

Robert Max Jackson
New York University
Associate Professor of Sociology

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"The Future of Gender Inequality: Who Cares for the Kids and How Much Are They Paid?

Paula England
University of Pennsylvania
Professor of Sociology
Director of Women's Studies and the Alice Paul Center for Research on Women and Gender

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"The Gender Pay Gap: Going, Going - But Not Gone"
3:00 pm - 105 Ives Hall

Francine Blau
Cornell University
Frances Perkins Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations
Research Director of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Director of the Cornell Institute for Labor Market Policies

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"Explaining Gender Inequality Among Law School Professors"
3:00 pm - 105 Ives Hall

Barbara Reskin
Harvard University
Professor of Sociology
President of the American Sociological Association

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"The Rising (and then Declining) Significance of Gender"
3:00 pm - 105 Ives Hall

Claudia Goldin
Harvard University
Henry Lee Professor of Economics
Director of the Development of the American Economy Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research

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"The Past, Present, and Future of Hiring Discrimination"
3:00 pm - 105 Ives Hall

Trond Petersen
University of California-Berkeley
Professor, Haas School of Business, Organizational Behavior and Industrial Relations Group
Professor of Sociology

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"Gender Status and the Rough Road to Gender Equity"
3:00 pm - 105 Ives Hall

Cecilia Ridgeway
Stanford University
Professor of Sociology
Editor of Social Psychology Quarterly

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"The Gender Wage Gap Across the States"
3:00 pm - 122 Rockefeller Hall

Heidi Hartmann
President of the Institute for Women's Policy Research