Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Local Gender-Based Earnings Inequality and Women's Belief in the American Dream

This article ties together research on gender, income inequality, and political ideology, by exploring the effect of gender-based earnings inequality on women's belief in a fundamental tenet of the "American Dream"—meritocracy. Focusing on gender-based earnings inequality in women...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of political science 2016-10, Vol.60 (4), p.1006-1025
Main Author: Newman, Benjamin J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Conflict
Deprivation
Economic models
Economic resources
Expectations
Females
Gender
Gender equality
Glass ceiling
Ideology
Income
Income distribution
Income Inequality
Inequality
Men
Meritocracy
Optimism
Political Ideology
Political representation
Public Opinion
Relative deprivation
Women
Womens empowerment
Womens rights
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Summary:This article ties together research on gender, income inequality, and political ideology, by exploring the effect of gender-based earnings inequality on women's belief in a fundamental tenet of the "American Dream"—meritocracy. Focusing on gender-based earnings inequality in women's local residential context, and drawing upon relative deprivation theory, this article argues that variation across local areas in the relative economic status of women should influence the ideological outlook of resident women. In contrast to relative deprivation theory, but consistent with rising expectations theory, I argue that ideological disillusionment should peak in contexts in which women's earnings fall closely behind men, and that ideological optimism should rebound in contexts in which women's earnings have achieved parity with that of men. Utilizing pooled survey data, I find strong evidence that individual women's belief in the American Dream varies according to whether local women's relative earnings indicate confrontation with or breaking of the "glass ceiling."
ISSN:0092-5853
1540-5907
DOI:10.1111/ajps.12195