Search Results
Author: Mason, Katherine
Resulting in 2 citations.
| 1. |
Mason, Katherine |
|
Modeling Discrimination: Gender, Weight, and Income Inequality Presented: Atlanta GA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2010 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: American Sociological Association Keyword(s): Discrimination, Body weight; Gender Differences; Income; Weight Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Contemporary public discussions about the obesity epidemic and its consequences tend to focus on the potential impacts weight can have on one's health and quality of life. To the extent that associations between socioeconomic status and weight enter the conversation, it is usually to acknowledge that lower-SES people (especially the urban poor) may have limited access to fresh produce and gym memberships. In this paper, however, I examine the social and economic consequences of fatness. Using statistical data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), this paper draws on economic theories of statistical and prejudicial discrimination to examine the nature and the extent of the disadvantages overweight people face. Building on previous findings of overweight income disadvantage in this dataset [in particular, Gortmaker et al (1993)], my study finds significant gender differences in the presence and amount of discrimination affecting women's and men's income. Further, due to differing types of discrimination (statistical for overweight men and prejudicial for overweight women), this study suggests that the disadvantages overweight women face are not only more severe than those experienced by overweight men, but also that these disadvantages will worsen over time relative to overweight men's. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Mason, Katherine. "Modeling Discrimination: Gender, Weight, and Income Inequality." Presented: Atlanta GA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2010. |
| 2. |
Mason, Katherine |
|
The Unequal Weight of Discrimination: Gender, Body Size, and Income Inequality Social Problems 59,3 (August 2012): 411-435. Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/sp.2012.59.3.411 Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: University of California Press Keyword(s): Discrimination, Body weight; Gender Differences; Income; Obesity; Weight This article examines the causes of income inequalities between obese and nonobese workers, focusing on how gender interacts with body size to determine the size and duration of those inequalities. Drawing on data from the 1997–2008 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97), I introduce a positive test for discrimination, which provides a methodological advantage over previous research in this area. I then pose two questions: first, is anti-obesity discrimination to blame for income inequalities between obese and nonobese workers? Second, do women and men's experiences of those inequalities differ? The results indicate that very obese men do face one form of discrimination—statistical discrimination—but that they can overcome initial disadvantages with time. In contrast, obese women's income disadvantages persist over time, suggesting the presence of prejudicial discrimination. In combination with previous studies illustrating how fat women are disadvantaged in educational attainment and marriage outcomes—two important means of accessing economic resources—this research shows one mechanism by which weight, particularly in combination with gender, is a major vector of U.S. inequality. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Mason, Katherine. "The Unequal Weight of Discrimination: Gender, Body Size, and Income Inequality." Social Problems 59,3 (August 2012): 411-435.
|