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finesilkflower's review against another edition
4.0
Sometimes I just like to read a sociology paper ok?
Through interviews, meta-analysis, and a little bit of experimentation, Yasemin Besen-Cassino explores the gender wage gap at its origins, which she finds to be among 14-15 year old workers. At this age, many of the common explanations for the wage gap don't apply (women taking time out to raise kids, for example, or differences in education). So how does the wage gape start?
Besen-Cassino explores how girls' jobs, including baby-sitting and customer service, tend to have a high level of emotion work. The "feminine" traits and skills that are rewarded and valued when they're hired are also punished and held against them when they go to ask for a raise. For baby-sitters, care for the kids and going the extra mile as "wife of the wife" are valued, but asking for money is seen as the opposite (you can either care or want money, not both). At stores, if they're hired because they're a fan of the brand and know all about the product: "You don't need the money, you're just working here for the discount." If they're valued at work for getting along with everyone and being good at teamwork: "You don't need the money, you're just here to hang out with friends." Besen-Cassino also shows how race amplifies the problems, and how black girls are held to even more stringent standards; higher levels of niceness and deference are expected, yet when the employees perform them, they are distrusted and seen as insincere.
I appreciated how in depth this book gets in the subject, the inventive ways the ideas are explored, and the meticulous way it demolishes some of the tired old tropes about the wage gap. It gave me a lot to think about work and the way it shapes us from a young age. Because it is, essentially, a long sociology paper, it can be a little stuffy; be prepared for language that is more like a text than a layman's book. Still, because the topic is something we all have experience with, and there's a lot of interviews/case studies, this is quite readable.
Through interviews, meta-analysis, and a little bit of experimentation, Yasemin Besen-Cassino explores the gender wage gap at its origins, which she finds to be among 14-15 year old workers. At this age, many of the common explanations for the wage gap don't apply (women taking time out to raise kids, for example, or differences in education). So how does the wage gape start?
Besen-Cassino explores how girls' jobs, including baby-sitting and customer service, tend to have a high level of emotion work. The "feminine" traits and skills that are rewarded and valued when they're hired are also punished and held against them when they go to ask for a raise. For baby-sitters, care for the kids and going the extra mile as "wife of the wife" are valued, but asking for money is seen as the opposite (you can either care or want money, not both). At stores, if they're hired because they're a fan of the brand and know all about the product: "You don't need the money, you're just working here for the discount." If they're valued at work for getting along with everyone and being good at teamwork: "You don't need the money, you're just here to hang out with friends." Besen-Cassino also shows how race amplifies the problems, and how black girls are held to even more stringent standards; higher levels of niceness and deference are expected, yet when the employees perform them, they are distrusted and seen as insincere.
I appreciated how in depth this book gets in the subject, the inventive ways the ideas are explored, and the meticulous way it demolishes some of the tired old tropes about the wage gap. It gave me a lot to think about work and the way it shapes us from a young age. Because it is, essentially, a long sociology paper, it can be a little stuffy; be prepared for language that is more like a text than a layman's book. Still, because the topic is something we all have experience with, and there's a lot of interviews/case studies, this is quite readable.
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