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  Beth Mintz
Professor of Sociology
University of Vermont


Department of Sociology

31 S. Prospect St.
Burlington, VT 05405
(802) 656-2163
  bmintz@uvm.edu

Curriculum Vitae



Research Interests and Major Publications

My early research emphasized questions about corporate structure and, in addition to a number of articles on the subject,  I am  the co-author of The Power Structure of American Business (with M. Schwartz; University of Chicago Press, 1985), and co-editor of Corporate Control, Capital Formation and Organizational Networks (with T. Takuyoshi and M. Schwartz, Chou University Press, 1996).   I have also published on the United States health care system, with particular attention to business participation in health care policy development and reform and I am interested in the role of corporate capital in the development of the modern health care system.  I am the co-editor of .
Lesbians in Academia: Degrees of Freedom (with E. Rothblum, Routledge, 1997) and recently have studied occupational race and gender segregation. Currently, I am working on a book entitled, Screwed: Why Kids Owe So Much in Student Loans .
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Recently Published Papers



The Ethnic, Race, and Gender Gaps in Workplace Authority: Changes Over Time in the United States

Abstract
We analyze factors explaining differences in hierarchical authority between men and women within and across categories of race and ethnicty in two time periods, finding that the processes leading to authority within the workplace operate differently by gender than by race or ethnicity. The demand-side factor, percentage of women in an occuaption, helps explain authority differences between men and women in most groups. Supply-side factors, and, in white-black comparisons, occupatioanl location, contribute to differences by race aand ethnicity within genders. In the later period, edcuation is particularly important for Hispanic men reflecting, we believe, the recent surge in immigrations rates.   


College as an Investment: The Role of Graduation Rates in Changing Occupational Inequality by Ethnicity, Gender and Race

Abstract
In this paper, we examine whether investments in higher education have contributed to changes in occupational inequality by focusing on the impact of college completion rates on movement into desirable occupations between 1983 and 2002. Since forces generating inequality vary by gender, race, and ethnicity, we examine trends for white, black, and Hispanic men and women. We find a modest decrease in both gender and racial inequality in access to desirable occupations and an increase in inequaltiy between Hispanics and members of the other groups. Educational attainment accounts for the progress made by white woman and for the declines of Hispanic men. It does not explain changes for African-Americans, either between men and women or when compared to whites. Our findings suggest that for African-American men, in particular, investment in higher education is less effective as a mechanism for increasing access to attractive occupation than human capital theory might predict.

The Intersection of Race/Ethnicity and Gender in Occupational Segregation: Changes Over Time in the Contemporary United States


Abstract
In this paper, we examine changes in the types of occupations that members of various racial/ethnic-gender groups have entered. We are interested in two trends that we believe may have contributed to differences in occupational concentration: budget reductions and policy changes in EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) enforcement procedures, and the continuing increases in women’s educational attainment. Using whites, African Americans, and Hispanics in our analysis, we evaluate race and ethnic differences by gender and gender differences by race and ethnicity; thus, we pay particular attention to the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender in these processes. Our results suggest that white men have maintained their advantage in the occupational hierarchy in the period under investigation, and that white women have made more progress than any other group. For women educational investment reaps rewards, although these benefits continue to be unequal. At the same time, the rewards accruing to white men, above and beyond the additive effects of their race and gender, have not changed over time; white women’s progress has not intruded on this. Instead, white women’s progress is a result of changes in two additive effects: the cost of being female has declined over time and the white advantage has increased. To the extent that changes in EEOC policies have had a negative impact on occupational desegregation, the impact is racialized but not gendered.  



Course Syllabi


Sociology 1: Introduction to Sociology

Sociolgy 122/Women and Gender Studies 101: Women and Gender in Society

Sociology 254: Sociology of Health and Medicine

Sociology 295: Sociology of Education