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BLACK WOMEN AND WHITE WOMEN IN THEIR PROFESSIONS: OCCUPATIONAL SEGREGATION BY RACE AND GENDER, 1960-1980.
By Natalie J. Sokoloff New York: Routledge, 1992. xv + 175 pp. Tables, appendixes, notes, bibliography, and index. Cloth, $49.95, ISBN 0-415-90608-3; paper, $16.95, ISBN 0-415-90609-1.
"It is both inaccurate and divisive to blame black women" (p. 96), argues Natalie J. Sokoloff in this study, which investigates controversial claims that the advancement of women in the professions--particularly black women--has worked to the detriment of men and that the greatest disadvantage has been to white men. Using a complex methodology, involving statistical tools that permit examination of general and detailed occupational categories, Sokoloff sets out to provide an understanding of the actual gains of black women and white women compared with each other and with black men and white men, and to debunk the growing myths that are frequently used to ridicule affirmative action and other efforts to achieve parity in American society. The findings of this study underscore the need for greater understanding of race and gender differences in the job market and of the factors influencing the distribution of power in the labor force.
Sokoloff uses the eight chapters in this volume to support the contention that "black women stand in a quite different relation to both white women and men (both white and black), in a labor market simultaneously structured on the basis of race and gender" (p. 10). Focusing on the twin issues of access and equity, she draws on employment data and recent scholarship to delineate the essential principles...