Kimberlee Shauman

Research Interests

• Social Stratification
• Education
• Family, Kinship, and Gender

Current Research Projects

The Geographic Mobility of Families: Patterns, Causes, and Consequences
In this project I examine the intersection of family structure, labor market structure, and career processes in a study of the causes and consequences of family migration. The main goals of this project are: (1) to examine trends in the patterns of long-distance family migration and to assess the degree to which these trends are tied to the increasing prevalence of dual-career couples; (2) to measure the degree to which the migration of families is influenced by the individual and employment characteristics of the partners heading the family as well as the structural characteristics of their respective labor markets; (3) to explain the gender differences in the effects of family migration by accounting for gender differences in the structural characteristics of labor markets as well as in human capital characteristics. This research uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the 1970-2000 U.S. Censuses, and the March Current Population Surveys.

Sex Differences in College Majors and Early Occupational Attainment
The main objective of this project is to identify the influences that account for sex differences in the career choices of young people at the transition to the labor force after attainment of a bachelor’s degree. Specific analyses have examined: (1) occupational attainment among a nationally representative sample of college-educated new labor force entrants in an attempt to understand why women continue to be employed disproportionately in relatively low-paying occupations, (2) sex differences in the utilization of educational capital, i.e., in the likelihood of entering an occupation that is substantively related to one's degree major, and (3) the causes and consequences of the observed sex differences in educational utilization. This research uses data from the 1993 and 2003 National Surveys of College Graduates and O*NET.

The Impact of Racial Disparities in Mortality across the 20th Century (with Mary Jackman)
This study attempts to quantify the demographic impact of the black-white disparities in mortality that persisted throughout the 20th century and remain a characteristic of the contemporary U.S. In this paper, we address two key questions about the consequences of the racial disparities in mortality: (1) how many excess deaths of African American occurred over the course of the 20th century because of the enduring racial mortality gap, and (2) what has been the impact of those excess deaths on subsequent Black population growth throughout the century. To address these questions we draw on extensive literatures about racial disparities in mortality rates and causes of death, multiple data sources from the U.S. Census and the National Center for Health Statistics, and multiple methods to correct for racial bias in population counts and vital statistics.

State-level Anti-Discrimination Laws and Labor Force Sex Stratification (with Mary Noonan)
In this study, we examine whether state laws prohibiting marital status discrimination in employment have influenced progress toward gender equality on a range of employment outcomes. Although a large body of research has explored the sources of gender inequality in the labor market, most extant research focuses on the explanatory influence of changing individual- or occupational-level characteristics. We reason that because employment discrimination based on marital status has been almost exclusively aimed at women, laws prohibiting such actions may have worked as de facto protections against sex discrimination in employment and pay. Using data from the 1962-2007 Current Population Surveys coupled with information on state laws, we test the whether anti-discrimination legislation helped to ameliorate gender inequality in the labor force.

Publications

• Kimberlee Shauman. Forthcoming. "Are There Sex Differences in the Utilization of Educational Capital Among College-Educated Workers?" Social Science Research.
• Kimberlee Shauman and Mary Noonan. 2007. "Family Migration and Labor Force Outcomes: Sex Differences in Occupational Context." Social Forces 85:1735-1764.
• Kimberlee Shauman. 2006. "Occupational Sex Segregation and the Earnings of Occupations: What Causes the Link Among College-Educated Workers?" Social Science Research 35:577-619.
• Xie, Yu and Kim Shauman. 2003. Women in Science : Career Processes and Outcomes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Xie, Yu and Kimberlee Shauman.1998. "Sex Differences in Research Productivity Revisited: New Evidence About an Old Puzzle," American Sociological Review 63:847-870.