Gender and highbrow cultural participation in the United States

Abstract

The literature on cultural choice largely focuses on the influence of socioeconomic background upon aesthetic tastes and cultural consumption. However, empirical analyses consistently report that gender is an essential determinant of highbrow cultural participation. In particular, women are considerably and significantly more likely than men to participate in high-status cultural activities.Using recent data on the United States (Survey of Public Participation in the Arts 2008), this research integrates several explanations of the gender gap in highbrow cultural participation. A negative binomial model explores the effect of 1) early socialization in the arts and family background 2) education 3) differential involvement by gender in the labor force; and 4) the influence of marriage, on women's and men's cultural participation. A disaggregated analysis by age groups indicates that early socialization in the arts completely accounts for women's higher cultural consumption in younger age groups and that education increases men's participation in the arts more than women's for oldest respondents. These findings do not support the idea that the gendered division of labor on highbrow culture has disappeared for younger respondents, but delineate instead how gendered patterns of participation in the arts are mediated by broad transformations in the educational regime in the United States.

Forms of Parental Musical Cultural Capital and Musical Socialisation of Early and Preschool Age Children

“…Mnoge studije potvrđuju da u generacijskoj transmisiji nedvojbeno postoji kontinuitet između kulturnog kapitala roditelja i kulturnog kapitala njihove djece (Mohr i DiMaggio, 1995;Christin, 2010;Kraaykamp i Van Eijck, 2010;Nagel, 2010;Ter Bogt i dr., 2011;Willekens i Lievens, 2014). Generacijska transmisija kulturnog kapitala započinje u procesu primarne socijalizacije, koja se najčešće odvija u obitelji.…”

“…Kasnija istraživanja pokazuju da majka ima veću ulogu u objema dimenzijama (Van Eijck, 1997;DiMaggio, 2004, prema Willekens i Lievens, 2014Christin, 2010). Willekens i Lievens (2014) provjeravaju još dvije hipoteze kad je riječ o važnosti roditeljskih uloga u kulturnoj socijalizaciji.…”

“…Primjerice, posjedovanje čak četiriju materijalnih glazbenih resursa raste s porastom opće obrazovne razine majke, a samo jednoga s obrazovnom razinom oca. Uočena brojnija statistički značajna povezanost varijable majčinog od očevog obrazovanja s posjedovanjem pojedinih materijala za glazbenu socijalizaciju djeteta uklapa se u nalaze o važnijoj ulozi majke u transmisiji kulturnog kapitala (Van Eijck, 1997;Christin, 2010). Navedene rezultate valja staviti u prethodno spomenuti kontekst rodne raspodjele ispunjavanja roditeljskih odgojnih uloga.…”

Art and Socialisation

“…Without exception, studies of educational effects on arts participation find strong associations with the level of education (DiMaggio and Useem, 1978;Kracman, 1996;Christin, 2012), but it is important to control for parents' arts socialization and educational filtering.…”

Boundary Tastes at Work

“…Bourdieu has also been criticized for not giving enough attention to gender processes (Christin 2012;Reay 2004;Ridgeway 1997). Bourdieu (1984Bourdieu ( , 2001 acknowledged that women have a stronger aesthetic taste pattern than men in the areas of food and clothing, and he explained this by referring to the position of women in the traditional male breadwinner household.…”