Gendered careers in changing social and institutional contexts: criminology in the post-WWII era

Abstract

This dissertation is simultaneously a study in the sociology of science, especially criminology, the life course, and gender relations in academia. I examine careers of male and female criminologists spanning nearly six decades in the post-WWII United States from a life course perspective, focusing on both careers stages and career trajectories as well as investigating differences by cohort membership, gender, and graduate department affiliation. Survey and interview data along with detailed information about crime-related scholarship published in leading sociology and criminology journals illustrate the unfolding of careers over time and offer insights into how and why careers progressed as they did. Cohort membership helps us understand how large scale changes affected individual opportunities and experiences, though career mobility and trajectories were largely stable over time. While gender initially appeared to play a limited role in the careers of male and female scholars, explicit attention to work and family life in the analysis of career trajectories demonstrated how the lives of scholars are clearly gendered at their intersection. Graduate department differences reflected both the concentration of specialized training programs in non-Research 1 institutions and the career opportunities available. My work illustrates the strengths of the life course approach, considering specific historical, social, and institutional contexts, demonstrating the interlock of work and family life, and showing the importance of early career experiences for institutional mobility and career trajectories. At the same time, my findings also contribute to our knowledge about the history and sociology of criminology, the empirical examination of careers, and work in the stratification of science.