Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Local Gender‐Based Earnings Inequality and Women's Belief in the American Dream

Abstract

This article ties together research on gender, income inequality, and political ideology, by exploring the effect of gender-based earnings inequality on women's belief in a fundamental tenet of the "American Dream"-meritocracy. Focusing on genderbased earnings inequality in women's local residential context, and drawing upon relative deprivation theory, this article argues that variation across local areas in the relative economic status of women should influence the ideological outlook of resident women. In contrast to relative deprivation theory, but consistent with rising expectations theory, I argue that ideological disillusionment should peak in contexts in which women's earnings fall closely behind men, and that ideological optimism should rebound in contexts in which women's earnings have achieved parity with that of men. Utilizing pooled survey data, I find strong evidence that individual women's belief in the American Dream varies according to whether local women's relative earnings indicate confrontation with or breaking of the "glass ceiling." CT 06269, (203) 251-9528 (benj.newman@uconn.edu). Data and replication materials are available at the AJPS Dataverse (http://thedata.harvard.edu/dvn/dv/ajps), doi:10.7910/DVN/29505. I would like to thank Jennifer Lawless for her encouragement of this research, Yamil R. Velez for his assistance in using QGIS, and the AJPS reviewers for helpful feedback and suggestions on prior versions of the article. on voter turnout (Galbraith and Hale 2008; Solt 2008) to the vital question of whether economic inequality leads to inequality in political representation and policymaking (Bartels 2008; Flavin 2012; Gilens 2012; Hayes 2013; Hacker and Pierson 2011).What has yet to be addressed by scholars in the field is the persisting inequality in earnings that exists between men and women throughout the nation, and the possible effect of gender-based earnings inequality on the political attitudes and behavior of American women. Indeed, extant work offers myriad theories and hypotheses concerning the impact that income inequality should have on the attitudes of citizens (e.g., Kelly and Enns 2010), and a sizeable body of research explores the effects of race-based economic inequality on the attitudes of African Americans (e.g., Gay 2006;Hochschild 1996; Kinders and Winter 2001). At present, however, no comparable theory or analyses exists for what we should expect, if anything, for the political reaction of women to gender gaps in earnings.One possible reason for this omission is that woman in the United States have made considerable absolute and relative gains in employment and earnings since the late

Economic Inequality and Belief in Meritocracy in the United States

“…[ To assess whether these three very different measures are in fact comparable, we collected 4 For another example of uncritically mixing these three measures, see Newman (2016). Of the five Pew surveys listed in Table 1 incomes are measured in the RLS on a nine-point scale ranging from less than $10,000 to over $150,000, which we straightforwardly coded with values 1 to 9.…”

Economic inequality and belief in meritocracy in the United States

“… 4. For another example of uncritically mixing these three measures, see Newman (2016). Of the five Pew surveys listed in Table 1 and pooled in the article’s analysis, Measure 1 is used in the 2011 Political Typology Survey, Measure 2 is used in the 2009 and 2012 Values Surveys, and Measure 3 is used in the 2008 and 2012 Middle Class Surveys. …”

Indonesian Women in Public Service Leadership: A Rapid Review

“…Research internationally evidences the 'glass door' phenomena in which women's careers are inhibited as early as the recruitment phases where getting on career-track is inequitable in the first place (Picardi 2019). Other researchers critique the effect of social barriers and institutional blockages that impede women's movement to the upper management echelons, known as the 'glass ceiling' (Azmi et al 2012;Forster 1999;Jalalzai 2008;Yukongdi and Benson 2005;Coleman 2010;O'Neil and Hopkins 2015;Newman 2016;Curtin 2019;De Simone et al 2018). Men are reported to enjoy notable advantage in career advancement across the public service and its private sector counterparts (Ensour et al 2017;Zheng et al 2017;Chappell and Waylen 2013).…”