This book will annoy many of the scholars in its field. Preliminary versions of our argument that we presented in conference papers and journal articles provoked immediate hostility. The consistent support of our friends has enabled us to continue our work despite these reactions. We owe them a great deal and hope that the final product meets their expectations.
Several people worked with us on various parts of the research. Fred Pampel and Steve McNamee joined us in the early stages of the research that are reported in Chapter 4 and coauthored the first publications from the project. Steve has continued to provide assistance as we worked our way through several conceptual problems. Marcia Kirkpatrick helped direct the survey reported in Chapter 5. Benjamin To first developed the cross-national data reported in Chapter 6. Michelle Moore provided library research and Julie Wallace assisted with the references. Their contributions have made our work not only better but more enjoyable.
Many people read part or all of the manuscript. Dan Clawson, Marci DePeters, Jerry Hage, Richard Kraus, Roger Reitman, Michael Shalev, Carmen Sirianni, David Stark, and Wlodek Wesolowski offered many helpful suggestions. They deserve our thanks but none of the responsibility for the final version. Our editors, Michael Ames and Mary Capouya, gave us just the right mix of enthusiasm and careful criticism to keep the project moving. Derek Thompson and the crew at the Maryland Computer Cartography Lab provided resources and patient guidance that made the graphics possible. Ken Kammeyer added helpful evaluations in revising and selecting the final figures. Gerry Todd labored with most of the word processing and patiently endured all our revisions.
Earlier versions of parts of this manuscript appeared in The American Journal of Sociology, The American Sociological Review, Social Indicators Research, Social Science Quarterly, and Work and Occupations. We are grateful to these journals for their many reviews and suggestions.
Financial support was provided by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Labor. The computer centers of the University of Illinois, the University of Maryland, and Memphis State University provided the computer time for the hundreds of statistical analyses that this research required. The data were made available in part by the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research and were originally collected for the National Data Program for the Social Sciences at the National Opinion Research Center, the Center for Political Studies of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, ABC News and the Washington Post, and David Butler and Donald Stokes’s “Study of Political Change in Britain.” The data reported in Chapter 5 were collected by the Survey Research Laboratory of the University of Illinois. The granting agencies, the universities, the consortium, and the collectors of the original data bear no responsibility for the analyses and interpretations presented here.
To all these people who made our research possible and encouraged us to continue, I extend my deepest thanks.
Bethesda, Maryland
REEVE VANNEMAN
Over the twelve years that I have worked on this project, many colleagues, friends, students, and family members have provided support, encouragement, and reassurance. Early on at the University of Illinois, Steve McNamee and Marcia Kirkpatrick shared many long days and late nights in the Green Room Lounge working on different aspects of the project. The words of Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, and others, which clad our office walls and filled the air, were a continuous source of reassurance. And when things got tough, we would steal away, rest, listen to music, and have fun.
In recent years, support has come from a variety of sources, most important, from Elizabeth Higginbotham and Bonnie Thornton Dill. For many years, Elizabeth and Bonnie have played the full range of supportive roles on this project—good colleagues, best friends, and even sponsors. They read portions of the manuscript at each of its stages and gave critical feedback that especially enhanced our treatment of Blacks and women. They contributed resources from the Center for Research on Women at Memphis State University to support completion of the book. More important, as best friends, they encouraged me to continue at many difficult junctures over the years. By their example as brilliant, productive, proud, and committed Black women, as well as by their teachings, they showed me how to survive and even to thrive while challenging the basic assumptions of the discipline. For these and many other contributions too extensive to name, I am deeply grateful.
Other colleagues have also encouraged us and critiqued individual chapters. They include: Harold Benenson, Maxine Baca Zinn, Tina U. Howard, Robert Newby, Sandi Morgen, Michael F. Timberlake, and Kirk Williams.
Since 1976, many people at Memphis State University have contributed to the project. I am grateful to the many graduate students who have worked on data analysis and/or given feedback on the ideas. They include: Mary Ann Carpenter, William Chan, Sally High, Marianne L. A. Leung, Yvonne Newsome, Peggy Plass, Carol Risher, and Stella Warren. In addition, I appreciate the assistance of Boyce Elmore and others at the Memphis State University Computer Center, and of Jo Ann Ammons, Marie Santucci, and other staff at the Center for Research on Women.
Special thanks go to our editor, Michael Ames for his enthusiasm and encouragement and to Mary Capouya, the production editor, for her patience and assistance in coordinating a publication with two authors who are miles apart.
My perspective on this research was derived in part from my working-class roots. My family has always taken pride in me and my accomplishments and has been encouraging throughout the process.
My deepest gratitude goes to John Robert Cannon, Jr., to whom I dedicate this book. He has shared fully in the excitement as well as the disappointments of this project. Over the years, he brought home the bacon, cooked it, and made sure we had some fun. His steadfast support for me and my work made this book possible.
Memphis, Tennessee
LYNN WEBER CANNON