Unequal Childhoods - Annette Lareau [235]
CHAPTER 13: CLASS DIFFERENCES
Portions of this chapter were originally drafted as part of a paper with Amanda Cox, “Social Class and the Transition to Adulthood,” in Changing Families in an Unequal Society, and of a paper with Elliot Weininger, “Concerted Cultivation Continues,” in Social Class: How Does It Work? I am grateful to both Amanda Cox and Elliot Weininger for their assistance with these sections.
1. For a highly readable account of job loss, see Donald L. Barlett and James Steele, America: What Went Wrong? In The Sociological Imagination, C. Wright Mills wrote about the intersection of social structure, history, and biography. The many powerful historical shifts that have influenced the lives of the families in the study are beyond the scope of this essay. However, the contemporary focus on globalization sometimes obscures the important impact other changes have had on everyday family life in the United States. For example, in 1959 35% of the elderly were poor, but many factors, particularly the introduction of Social Security and Medicare, have reduced this figure to only 9% in 2009. Children have not fared as well. Census data show that in 2009 20.7% of all children under 18 were poor (but 12% of white children and 37% of black children). Economic Policy Institute, The State of Working America, “Poverty Higher for Children,” www.stateofworkingamerica.org/charts/view/27 (accessed March 30, 2011); and “Poverty Rates Higher Among Younger Children,” www.stateofworkingamerica.org/charts/view/180 (accessed March 30, 2011). For the debate about absolute versus relative measures of poverty, as well as a valid standard for measuring poverty, see John Iceland, Poverty in America. Poverty remains linked to many detrimental outcomes, particularly for children. See Greg Duncan and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Consequences of Growing Up Poor.
2. Prior to 1973, many families were able to live relatively comfortably on one income. In the decades after, however, wages for high school graduates and dropouts deteriorated considerably. After 1970, women, particularly married women with children, entered the labor force in large numbers. This period also saw a delay in the age of marriage, a drop in the likelihood of marriage, an increase in the number of babies born to parents who were not married, and an increase in poverty rates for children. See, among others, Andrew J. Cherlin, The Marriage-Go-Round; Frank Furstenberg Jr., “The Recent Transformation of the American Family.” Through much of this period, inequality increased. See George Irvin, The Super Rich; Economic Policy Institute, The State of Working America.
3. For discussion of this point, see Arne Kalleberg, Barbara Reskin, and Ken Hudson, “Bad Jobs in America.”
4. The U.S. Census Bureau gives the following figures for 2009 for the median earnings by level of educational attainment and gender, for full-time workers of all races, ages 25 to 34 years old:
In order to embed the experiences of the young people in this study in a broad national context, unless otherwise noted, I have selected statistics that correspond to their life course. Generally, the young people in the original study were born in 1984. Thus, data for high school graduation are from 2002, college graduation figures are from 2006, and so forth. When figures are not available for the requisite years, I provide the most recent data available.
5. U. S. Census Bureau, “Educational Attainment.” A GED is a General Educational Development certificate, awarded on taking a series of tests that indicate the equivalent of a high school education. For the impact of the GED on earnings, see John H. Tyler, “The Economic Benefits of a GED.” By almost all income-gap measures, including annual wages, weeks of unemployment, likelihood of receiving governmental aid, size of pensions, and weeks of vacation, individuals with college degrees fare better than those with lower levels of education. See Economic Policy Institute, The State of Working