'The Uneven Progress of Equal Opportunity'

Nancy Folbre:

The Uneven Progress of Equal Opportunity: ... Five years into the 21st century, the data reveal a surprisingly high level of job segregation in which African-American men, white women and especially African-American women only rarely worked in the same occupation in the same workplace as white men. In order to create a completely integrated private-sector workplace, more than half of all private sector workers would need to change jobs.

In most workplaces, the face of authority looks predictable. As the authors put it, “White men are often in positions in management over everyone; white women tend to supervise other women, black men to supervise black men and black women tend to supervise black women.” ...

In this world, remarkable successes like the election of an African-American president coexist with continuing failures, especially in domains where disadvantages based on race, gender and class coincide and collide. ...