Research in sex-roles has found masculinity and androgyny to be correlated with self-esteem while femininity has a low or negative correlation with self-esteem. Much of the research in this area is based in studies of androgyny. Androgyny is the ability to respond in a feminine or masculine manner, depending on the situation rather than being limited to only feminine or masculine behavior because of sex-role stereotypes. In the research on self-esteem some studies have reported androgynous individuals measure high in self-esteem. Other studies have found that masculine characteristics contribute more to the self-esteem than androgynous characteristics. These results, taken together, suggest people with androgynous and masculine characteristics have high self-esteem while those with feminine characteristics have lowered or negative self-esteem.

This research seeks to answer the following questions: Do feminist organizations have more internal conflicts than other organizations? And, if so, why?

Part I examines the global rise of both public and private debt and its recent manifestations in the US housing bubble and the financial panic of 2007-8. A review of the most popular theories of the debt crisis is provided, including an explication of securitized banking and economic theory. The underlying condition of increasing ecological and energetic scarcity is accorded central significance in the broad trajectory of world growth and debt, Part II explicates systems theories of social order and the social significance of markets. The theories of Niklas Luhmann, Talcott Parsons, Mario Bunge, Anthony Giddens, and Jürgen Habermas are evaluated with respect to their theories of social order and crisis. A central finding is that, although declining rates of exergy production inhibit the global economic recovery as measured by conventional economic tools, this fact is not likely to be widely recognized. A central theme of Part II is how social systems handle uncertainty, risk, and to what extent complex social systems can be regulated normatively by the public sphere. As global society becomes increasingly interconnected and dependent upon the depletion of material and energy resources, the communication channels that facilitate the self-understanding of modern society at the same time proliferate, becoming increasingly disconnected and self-referential. Luhmann’s systems theory is used to explain why collective recognition and action is at once rendered more necessary and increasingly unlikely given the complexity of global society that Earth’s terrestrial stock of nonrenewable energy resources has engendered.

This thesis is about the provisioning of development assistance, as a major component of foreign aid. Conventional approaches to the subject have tended to focus on the determinate interactions of discrete agents as the principle units of analysis. This necessarily obscures the functional role development assistance fulfills in relation to the global politico economic order, however. This study, by contrast, properly situates individual programs of development assistance as belonging to a much larger historical pattern, or system of coordinated politico-economic behavior. The objective, therefore, is to apprehend the systematic and functional interrelations existing (i) among the various agents engaged in the transfer of assistance, on the one hand, and (ii) between these institutions and organizations as an aggregate and the global order itself, on the other. ‘Regime analysis’ is utilized as the preferred method of analysis. The basis of the argument is that the regime for the provision of development assistance functions as a regulative-control mechanism, ancillary to the prevailing economic arrangements and relations within the global political economy. Altogether, I argue that regime apparatuses have been configured so as to (i) forestall cataclysmic instabilities in the global politico economic order, and (ii) to induce compliance among developing nations to the order’s organizing principles and-or logic. This is revealed in phases in the liberalization and-or illiberalization of access to external financing over different global-historical epochs and during periods and in contexts of either instability or stability. I find that during periods and in contexts of instability, development assistance has been initiated or expanded in geo-strategic ways so as to regenerate markets and, thereby, obviate, or thwart the anticipated metastasization of adversarial politico-economic organizational frameworks. During periods and in contexts of relative stability, conversely, I find that the provision of development assistance becomes contracted, or made less expansive, as well as increasingly driven by conditionalities. Consequently, the functioning of the regime structurally conditions the developmental orientations and prospects of peripheral nations and regions and, thereby, also contributes to the overall evolution of the global politico-economic order.

What does it mean to be middle class? The majority of Americans define themselves as members of the middle class, regardless of their wealth. The number of Americans that affiliate with the middle class alludes to the idea that it cannot be defined simply by level of income, number of assets, type of job, etc. The middle class is a lifestyle as much as it is a group of similarly minded people, just as it is a social construct as much as it is an economic construct. Yet as the masses fall away from the elite, and changes continue to reshape the occupational structure of the job market—due to globalization in a technological age; many have begun to question whether or not the middle class—and, by extension, the American way of life—will be able to survive. This thesis analyzes which Americans fall into the category of middle class and why. It observes the possible reasons the middle class is changing from the style portrayed through much of the 19th and 20th centuries. And lastly, this thesis poses possible solutions through public policy initiatives.

This thesis is about the provisioning of development assistance, as a major component of foreign aid. Conventional approaches to the subject have tended to focus on the determinate interactions of discrete agents as the principle units of analysis. This necessarily obscures the functional role development assistance fulfills in relation to the global politico economic order, however. This study, by contrast, properly situates individual programs of development assistance as belonging to a much larger historical pattern, or system of coordinated politico-economic behavior. The objective, therefore, is to apprehend the systematic and functional interrelations existing (i) among the various agents engaged in the transfer of assistance, on the one hand, and (ii) between these institutions and organizations as an aggregate and the global order itself, on the other. ‘Regime analysis’ is utilized as the preferred method of analysis. The basis of the argument is that the regime for the provision of development assistance functions as a regulative-control mechanism, ancillary to the prevailing economic arrangements and relations within the global political economy. Altogether, I argue that regime apparatuses have been configured so as to (i) forestall cataclysmic instabilities in the global politico economic order, and (ii) to induce compliance among developing nations to the order’s organizing principles and-or logic. This is revealed in phases in the liberalization and-or illiberalization of access to external financing over different global-historical epochs and during periods and in contexts of either instability or stability. I find that during periods and in contexts of instability, development assistance has been initiated or expanded in geo-strategic ways so as to regenerate markets and, thereby, obviate, or thwart the anticipated metastasization of adversarial politico-economic organizational frameworks. During periods and in contexts of relative stability, conversely, I find that the provision of development assistance becomes contracted, or made less expansive, as well as increasingly driven by conditionalities. Consequently, the functioning of the regime structurally conditions the developmental orientations and prospects of peripheral nations and regions and, thereby, also contributes to the overall evolution of the global politico-economic order.

One emotion experienced by working parents is guilt, yet this emotion is not often studied within the work-family domain. This presentation will serve to define work-family guilt drawing from empirical and qualitative research on the construct. This presentation will also delineate findings related to work-family guilt for mothers and fathers. Lastly, this presentation will highlight the scarce research into the relationship between work-family guilt and parenting outcomes. It has been suggested by scholars that work-family guilt may influence parenting behaviors which could cause negative consequences for children. This presentation will review two studies examining work-family guilt and parenting practices.

To explain the gender wage growth gap, sociologists tend to focus on gender segregation among/within jobs whereas economists put emphasis on individual job mobility. This study adopted a concept combining both segregation and mobility. The concept helps to take the gender segregation before and after job mobility into account to strictly measure the mechanisms of wage growth. For analysis, this study used 6-year personnel data of a firm, which allows researchers to track employees’ job mobility, wages, and job information at the most accurate level. The concept of combining segregation and mobility was operated through the gender composition of jobs and employee job change, which generated ten patterns. Among them, the following six were focused: staying in male or female jobs, movement between male or female jobs, and movement toward male or female jobs. While controlling wages at prior jobs, the multilevel model analysis shows that the wage growth rates in the six mobility patterns were stratified as follows: mobility between male jobs, stay in male jobs, mobility toward male jobs, mobility toward female jobs, mobility between female jobs, and stay in female jobs. This hierarchy system in the organization reveals two features: first, men’s job-related mobility or stay compensated more steeply than women’s job-related mobility or stay. Second, within each gender category of jobs, the mobility provided higher wage growth than stay. In sum, the gender category of jobs proceeded job mobility in terms of wage growth. Interestingly, when paying attention to the higher wage growth of ‘mobility toward female jobs’ than ‘mobility between female jobs’, this implies that the former occurred in movement from lower-level male jobs to higher-level female jobs, particularly higher than female jobs involved in the latter mobility. In view of gender regarding job mobility patterns, women and men typically did not experience differentiated salary growth. The categories of job mobility used in this paper provide a new and integrated insight for scholars who study gender segregation and job mobility, especially in view of an organization.

This study focuses on video game developers and their working environments in a growth industry. While some research documents the culture of video games and the people who play them, much less is understood about the labor environment for those who make games. I conducted 20 personal interviews with game developers in order to learn more about what inspired them to select this field, how they gained entry to it, and what their work is like today. Using insights from the interviews, I analyze how workers contend with its male-dominated culture and how creative skilled laborers deal with the challenges of corporate control and precarious work in the new economy.

One emotion experienced by working parents is guilt, yet this emotion is not often studied within the work-family domain. This presentation will serve to define work-family guilt drawing from empirical and qualitative research on the construct. This presentation will also delineate findings related to work-family guilt for mothers and fathers. Lastly, this presentation will highlight the scarce research into the relationship between work-family guilt and parenting outcomes. It has been suggested by scholars that work-family guilt may influence parenting behaviors which could cause negative consequences for children. This presentation will review two studies examining work-family guilt and parenting practices.