Factors shaping the gender wage gap among college-educated computer science workers.

Encouraging women to pursue STEM employment is frequently touted as a means of reducing the gender wage gap. We examine whether the attributes of computer science workers-who account for nearly half of those working in STEM jobs-explain the persistent gender wage gap in computer science, using American Community Survey (ACS) data from 2009 to 2019. Our analysis focuses on working-age respondents between the ages of 22 and 60 who had a college degree and were employed full-time.

State-Level Abortion Policy Hostility and Unplanned Births in the Pre-Dobbs Era.

An increasingly hostile policy climate has reshaped abortion access in the United States. Recent literature has studied the effects of restrictive abortion policies on reproductive health outcomes. This study is the first to investigate the association between state-level abortion policy hostility and the pregnancy intentions of women with a pregnancy resulting in live birth.

Finding a Job: An Intersectional Analysis of Search Strategies and Outcomes Among U.S. STEM Graduates.

Many STEM degree holders, especially women and minorities, are not employed in STEM occupations in the United States, and transitions into the STEM labor force among recent graduates have been declining since the 1980's. We examine transitions from school to work at two large U.S.

Creating Our Gendered Selves-College Experiences, Work and Family Plans, Gender Ideologies, and Desired Work Amenities Among STEM Graduates.

Studies often cite climate issues in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) employment to explain the lack of diversity by gender and race. Yet, little research directly attends to gender and racial differences in the college experiences, expected family roles, and ideological beliefs about gender that create the racialized "gendered selves" graduates bring to STEM occupations. We examine the experiences and beliefs of graduating chemistry and chemical engineering majors at two U.

Making Merit Work at the Entrance to the Engineering Workforce: Examining Women's Experiences and Variations by Race/Ethnicity.

This study utilizes interviews from 22 young female engineers from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds as they first entered the White and male-dominated engineering labor force with the goal of examining: (1) how these women endorsed a gender-blind frame that characterizes their workplaces as fundamentally meritocratic, and alternatively, (2) how they named gender as relevant or salient to experiences and interactions at work. Drawing on the insights of intersectional scholars to answer the previous questions, the study calls attention to how the invocation of these frames differed for women of color compared to their majority White female peers. Results revealed that most respondents strongly endorsed the idea that engineering workplaces are meritocratic and that their gender is not relevant.

, Revisited: Parents and Interracial Union Formation Across the Life Course.

Romantic relationships that cross racial lines have grown since anti-miscegenation laws were deemed unconstitutional. In The Age of Independence, Rosenfeld argued that parental influence over children's mate selection processes had waned. Rosenfeld, however, was not able to test this supposition directly because of his reliance on cross-sectional census data.

Rural-Urban Disparities in Pregnancy Intentions, Births, and Abortions Among US Adolescent and Young Women, 1995-2017.

To examine rural-suburban-urban disparities in intendedness and resolution of first pregnancies among adolescent and young women (aged 15-19 and 20-24 years) across racial/ethnic backgrounds in the United States. We used the National Survey of Family Growth and pooled pregnancy files from 2002 through the 2015-2017 surveys. We report baseline rural-suburban-urban disparities in first pregnancy intention and outcomes.

Do Marriage and Cohabitation Provide Benefits to Health in Mid-Life? The Role of Childhood Selection Mechanisms and Partnership Characteristics Across Countries.

Extensive research has found that marriage provides health benefits to individuals, particularly in the U.S. The rise of cohabitation, however, raises questions about whether simply being in an intimate co-residential partnership conveys the same health benefits as marriage.

Transitions From Sexual Relationships Into Cohabitation and Beyond.

Much research on cohabitation has focused on transitions from cohabitation to marriage or dissolution, but less is known about how rapidly women progress into cohabitation, what factors are associated with the tempo to shared living, and whether the timing into cohabitation is associated with subsequent marital transitions. We use data from the 2006-2013 National Survey of Family Growth to answer these questions among women whose most recent sexual relationship began within 10 years of the interview. Life table results indicate that transitions into cohabitation are most common early in sexual relationships; nearly one-quarter of women had begun cohabiting within six months of becoming sexually involved.

The missing women in STEM? Assessing gender differentials in the factors associated with transition to first jobs.

Women remain underrepresented in the STEM workforce. We assess explanations for women's underrepresentation in STEM jobs, focusing on a cohort that came of age in the 1980s and 1990s, when women dramatically increased their representation in the scientific labor force. Data are from the NLSY79, and our analysis focuses on members of this cohort who received a college degree, with an emphasis on those who completed a degree in a STEM field.

REEXAMINING THE ASSOCIATION OF MATERNAL AGE AND MARITAL STATUS AT FIRST BIRTH WITH YOUTH EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT.

Using data from the linked Children and Young Adult sample (N = 2,865) of the NLSY79, we reexamined the association of maternal age and marital status at birth with youth high school completion, assessing multiple age categories and race/ethnic variations. Youth born to older teen mothers were no more likely to graduate from high school than those born to the youngest teen mothers. Although delaying childbirth to young adulthood (age 20-24) was associated with greater odds of children's high school completion compared to the earliest teen births, those born to young adult mothers were disadvantaged compared to those born to mothers age 25 or older.

First-birth Timing, Marital History, and Women's Health at Midlife.

Despite evidence that first-birth timing influences women's health, the role of marital status in shaping this association has received scant attention. Using multivariate propensity score matching, we analyze data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to estimate the effect of having a first birth in adolescence (prior to age 20), young adulthood (ages 20-24), or later ages (ages 25-35) on women's midlife self-assessed health. Findings suggest that adolescent childbearing is associated with worse midlife health compared to later births for black women but not for white women.

Better for Baby? The Retreat From Mid-Pregnancy Marriage and Implications for Parenting and Child Well-being.

Recent decades have seen a significant decline in mid-pregnancy ("shotgun") marriage, particularly among disadvantaged groups, which has contributed to increasing nonmarital birth rates. Despite public and political concern about this shift, the implications for parenting and child well-being are not known. Drawing on a sample of U.

Cohabitation, post-conception unions, and the rise in nonmarital fertility.

The majority of U.S. nonmarital births today are to cohabiting couples.

Mothers' union histories and the mental and physical health of adolescents born to unmarried mothers.

As nonmarital childbearing becomes a dominant pathway to family formation, understanding its long-term consequences for children's well-being is increasingly important. Analysis of linked mother-child data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth indicates a negative association of having been born to a never-married mother with adolescent self-assessed health but not with depressive symptoms. We also consider the role of mothers' subsequent union histories in shaping the adolescent health outcomes of youth born to unmarried mothers.

What's So Special about STEM? A Comparison of Women's Retention in STEM and Professional Occupations.

We follow female college graduates in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and compare the trajectories of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related occupations to other professional occupations. Results show that women in STEM occupations are significantly more likely to leave their occupational field than professional women, especially early in their career, while few women in either group leave jobs to exit the labor force. Family factors cannot account for the differential loss of STEM workers compared to other professional workers.

The Specter of Divorce: Views From Working- and Middle-Class Cohabitors.

Young Americans increasingly express apprehension about their ability to successfully manage intimate relationships. Partially in response, cohabitation has become normative over the past few decades. Little research, however, examines social class distinctions in how emerging adults perceive challenges to sustaining intimate unions.

Nonmarital Childbearing, Union History, and Women's Health at Midlife.

Despite high rates of nonmarital childbearing in the U.S., little is known about the health of women who have nonmarital births.

Social Exchange and The Progression of Sexual Relationships in Emerging Adulthood.

Research has extensively examined matching on race and other characteristics in cohabitation and marriage, but it has generally disregarded sexual and romantic relationships. Using data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we examine the tempo of key transitions in the recent relationships of young adults aged 18 to 24. We focus on how the racial mix of partners in relationships is associated with the timing to sex, cohabitation, and marriage.

Class Differences in Cohabitation Processes.

Despite the burgeoning cohabitation literature, research has failed to examine social class variation in processes of forming and advancing such unions. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 122 working- and middle-class cohabitors, we examine the duration between dating and moving in together, reasons for cohabiting, and subsequent plans. Transitions to cohabitation are more rapid among the working class.

Waiting to Be Asked: Gender, Power, and Relationship Progression Among Cohabiting Couples.

The majority of young married Americans lived with their spouses before the wedding, and many cohabited with partners they did not wed. Yet little is known about how cohabitating relationships progress or the role gender norms play in this process. This article explores how cohabiting partners negotiate relationship progression, focusing on several stages where couples enact gender.

Financial Arrangements and Relationship Quality in Low-Income Couples.

This study explored the association between household financial arrangements and relationship quality using a representative sample of low-income couples with children. We detailed the banking arrangements couples utilize, assessed which factors relate to holding a joint account versus joint and separate, only separate, or no account, and analyzed the association between fiscal practices and men's and women's relationship quality. The majority of couples held joint accounts, though over one-quarter also have separate accounts; nearly one-tenth have no account.

The tempo of relationship progression among low-income couples.

This paper examines the factors associated with the tempo of low-income couples' relationship progression into sexual involvement and coresidence. Data come from a recently-collected survey, the that obtained information from low- to moderate-income married and cohabiting couples. Over one-fifth of male and female respondents reported becoming sexually involved with their current partner within the first week of dating.

Partnering Across the Life Course: Sex, Relationships, and Mate Selection.

Marital delay, relationship dissolution and churning, and high divorce rates have extended the amount of time individuals in search of romantic relationships spend outside of marital unions. The scope of research on intimate partnering now includes studies of "hooking up," Internet dating, visiting relationships, cohabitation, marriage following childbirth, and serial partnering, as well as more traditional research on transitions into marriage. Collectively, we know much more about relationship formation and development, but research often remains balkanized among scholars employing different theoretical approaches, methodologies, or disciplinary perspectives.