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Following Reskin's call for case studies that investigate how inequality is maintained, this article investigates the mechanisms that limit women's mobility into traditionally male job titles in a manufacturing plant and the barriers to women's resistance of these mechanisms. The article demonstrates the ways in which formal structures, such as departmental design and promotion procedures, combine with informal social interactions in maintaining sex segregation in the plant's job titles and departments. Blocked opportunity promotes competition for social rewards and animosity between mobile and immobile women, which divide women. Coupled with allegiances across gender lines, these divisions undermine the potential for solidarity among female workers, making resistance to gender-based barriers unlikely.

Children born to early child bearers are more likely than other children to display problem behaviors or poor academic performance but it is unclear whether early childbearing plays a causal role in these outcomes. Using multiple techniques to control for background factors we analyze 2908 young children and 1736 adolescents and young adults in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) and the NLSY79 Children and Young Adults (CNLSY79) data sets to examine whether early childbearing causes childrens outcomes. We find evidence that teen childbearing plays no causal role in childrens test scores and in some behavioral outcomes of adolescents. For other behavioral outcomes we find that different methodologies produce differing results. We thus suggest caution in drawing conclusions about early parenthoods overarching effect. (authors)

We use data from the 1989-2001 March Supplements to the Current Population Survey to determine whether welfare reform contributed to declines in health insurance coverage experienced by low-skilled women. Between 1988 and 2000, women with less than a high school education experienced an 8.0 percentage point decline in the probability of having health insurance. Against this backdrop of large declines, welfare waivers and TANF are associated with modest increases in coverage for low-skilled women of 2.3 and 3.6 percentage points respectively. Overall, our findings suggest that welfare reform did not contribute to declines in coverage but rather offset them somewhat.

In this article we use newly available data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to investigate the effects of early motherhood on academic and behavioral outcomes for children born to early child bearers. We find that early motherhood’s strong negative correlation with children’s test scores and positive correlation with children’s grade repetition is almost entirely explained by prebirth individual and family background factors of teen mothers themselves. However early childbearing is associated indirectly with reduced children’s test scores through its linkage to family size (and thus to child birth order). We find a different pattern in predicting fighting truancy early sexual activity and other problem behaviors among adolescent and young adult offspring. For these behaviors maternal age at first birth remains an important risk factor even after controlling for a wide range of background factors and maternal characteristics. These results highlight the diverse pathways through which teen parenting might influence subsequent child well-being and social performance. (authors)

Roger N. Lancaster, Sex Panic and the Punitive State (University of California Press, 2011), 328 pages, $24.95, paperback.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

In order to improve student's writing ability and mastery of subject matter, a peer tutoring program was developed. This article describes how the program was implemented in an introductory psychology class and presents data suggesting that both the students and instructor felt the program was worthwhile. Suggestions for improving the program are presented.

Twenty-six Laotian refugees infected with Clonorchis or Opisthorchis liver flukes, and 15 uninfected controls, were assessed clinically by history, physical examination, serum 5′nucleotidase level, and serum immunoglobulin E level. Ultrasound studies of the biliary tract were also done on a subset of six infected subjects. The results showed no differences between subjects and controls with respect to clinical symptoms, physical findings, 5′nucleotidase, or biliary ultrasound. Mean serum IgE levels were four times higher in fluke-infected individuals than uninfected controls (P < 0.002). Even when those infected with other parasites in addition to Clonorchis were excluded from the analysis, serum IgE levels remained three times higher in fluke infected individuals (P = 0.06). This study provides some evidence that the fluke provokes a mild immune response in the asymptomatic human host but may not require eradication.