B5290 - Inequalities and Discrimination Processes

Learning outcomes

The course aims to address the main sociological theories on the subject of discrimination on the labor market with respect to ascribed characteristics such as gender, race, age and class of origin, and to some acquired characteristics such as qualifications and work experience. At the end of the course, students will be able to: identify and critically analyze the main theories on occupational discrimination in terms of gender and migratory status; · identify the different forms of occupational segregation present in post-Fordist and developing countries. evaluate case studies (national labor markets and labor policies) in the light of the theories learned.

Course contents

The course aims to provide a theoretical and empirical perspective for the analysis of the main forms of discrimination on the labor market. First of all it will provide the basis for the analysis of the labor market. then it will deal with some issues strictly related to gender (maternity and maternity services, reproductive market, violence in the workplace, women in academia, care cycle for immigrant women). Lastly, the course flexibility and the condition of immigrant in the labor market will be discussed, with a focus on the gig economy.

The course is organized in lectures and seminars, as detailed in the following program. Lectures aim to introduce students to the core tenets of the discipline. Seminars aim to provide occasions for in-depth discussions of class materials. The division into lessons and seminars is specified in the program that follows.  Students are required to carefully read the assigned material before the session and - in the case of seminars - active participation through presentations of existing scholarship and exercises will also be expected.

Marked readings are mandatory for both attending and non-attending students.

The structure of the lessons will be as follows:

Lessons 1-8: Nature and structure of the labor market. The new participation in the work of women. Flexibility of work and unstable occupations. Immigrants in a segmented labor market. Readings:

• ***Reyneri, E. (2017) Introduzione alla sociologia del mercato del lavoro, Cap. 2. Bologna, il Mulino**.
• ***Zanfrini, L. Sociologia delle differenze e delle diseguaglianze (2011), Parti 1 e 2. Parte 3 solo cap. 1, Zanichelli.

Lessons 9-14: Transforming the Known World, , Intersectionality. the new gender paradox. Readings:

• ***Lorber, J. (2022) Oltre il gender, Bologna, Il Mulino
• *** M. V. Lee Badgett (2023) Economia Queer. Note dell'autrice su termini e linguaggi utilizzati e cap. 2. Occupazione. Il Saggiatore, Milano
• ***Angelucci, A. (2015). Origini e nuovi possibili scenari dell’Intersectionality Theory: Dal genere allo spazio urbano. AG AboutGender, 4(8), 262–283.***
• ***Connell, R. (2006) ) Questioni di genere, Capp. 1, 5, 6. Bologna, Il Mulino

*************************

Lessons 15-16: Gender and market.

• ***Filandri M. (2022) Lavorare non basta, Bari-Roma, Laterza. Capitolo 2 Un punto di riferimento instabile***
• **** Corbisiero F. Nocenzi M. e Consiglio scientifico della sSezione AIS Studi di Genere (a cura di) (2024) Manuale di educazione al genere e alla sessualità. Milano, Utet. capitolo 6 Violenza.***
• Filandri M. (2022) Lavorare non basta, Bari-Roma, Laterza. Capitolo 4 Che cosa può fare lo stato
  
• Carriero, R., & Naldini, M. (2022). Gender Disparity in Access to Academia in Italy. Are there barriers to women’s early career stages?.Polis,36(1), 5-32. ISO 690
• Juliana de Castro Galvao, Gender Inequality in Lifetime Earnings, Social Forces, Volume 101, Issue 4, April 2023, Pages 1772–1802, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soac060
• Anette Eva Fasang, Silke Aisenbrey, Uncovering Social Stratification: Intersectional Inequalities in Work and Family Life Courses by Gender and Race, Social Forces, Volume 101, Issue 2, December 2022, Pages 575–605, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soab151
• Bozzon R., Murgia A. and Villa P. (2017). Precariousness and gender asymmetries among early career researchers: a focus on stem fields in the Italian academia. Polis, 31(1): 127-158. DOI: 10.1424/86082
• Boccagni, P. (2009). Come fare le madri da lontano? : percorsi, aspettative e pratiche della maternità transnazionale dall'Italia, in Mondi migranti. Fascicolo 1
  
• Filandri, M., & Pasqua, S. (2019). “Being good isn”t good enough’: gender discrimination in Italian academia. Studies in Higher Education, 1–19. http://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1693990
• Marra, M. (2020). Intersectionality and emergence in time use analysis: possible pathways for gender research and work–family reconciliation policy in Italy. Community, Work & Family, 23(1), 80-106
• Acquadro Maran, D., Varetto, A., & Civilotti, C. (2022). Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Consequences and Perceived Self-Efficacy in Women and Men Witnesses and Non-Witnesses. Behavioral Sciences, 12(9), 326
• Areguin, M. A. (2021) Putting People Down and Pushing Them Out: Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior 8:1, 285-309
• Basile, K. C., D'Inverno, A. S., & Wang, J. (2020). National Prevalence of Sexual Violence by a Workplace-Related Perpetrator. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 58(2), 216-223.
• Hersch, J. (2015) Sexual harassment in the workplace. IZA World of Labor 188 doi: 10.15185/izawol.188
• Kawaguchi, A., (2019) Maternity harassment in Japan: Why do regular employees have higher risk than non-regular employees do? Japan and the World Economy 49, Pages 84-94.
• Oesch, D., Lipps, O., & McDonald, P. (2017). The wage penalty for motherhood: Evidence on discrimination from panel data and a survey experiment for Switzerland. Demographic Research, 37, 1793-1824
  
• Morgenroth, T., Heilman, M. E. (2017). Should I stay or should I go? Implications of maternity leave choice for perceptions of working mothers. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 72, Pages 53-56.
  
• Bolzani, D., Crivellaro, F., & Grimaldi, R. (2021). Highly skilled, yet invisible. The potential of migrant women with a STEMM background in Italy between intersectional barriers and resources. Gender, Work & Organization, 28(6), 2132-2157.
• Stertz, A. M., Grether, T., Wiese, B. S. (2017) Gender-role attitudes and parental work decisions after childbirth: A longitudinal dyadic perspective with dual-earner couples. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 101. pp. 104-118
• Falletta L, Abbruzzese S, Fischbein R, Shura R, Eng A, Alemagno S. (2019) Work Reentry After Childbirth: Predictors of Self-Rated Health in Month One Among a Sample of University Faculty and Staff. Saf Health Work. 2020 Mar;11(1):19-25. doi:10.1016/j.shaw.2019.12.006.

Lessons 17, 18: Old and new discriminations:

• *** Disch, L. J., & Hawkesworth, M. E. (Eds.). (2016). The Oxford handbook of feminist theory. Chapter:21 Oxford: Oxford University Press ***
• **** Corbisiero F. Nocenzi M. e Consiglio scientifico della sSezione AIS Studi di Genere (a cura di) (2024) Manuale di educazione al genere e alla sessualità. Milano, Utet. capitolo 4. Salute.****
• Rainisio, N., Pola, L., Bove, C., Inghilleri, P., & Mussi, A. (2022). Career aspirations, expectations, and perceived contextual barriers in native and foreign-born citizens: An italian case study. Ricerche di psicologia: 3, 2022, 1-25.
• Gasperoni, G., & Mantovani, D. (2020). Blood, buddies, banks: Potential funding sources for starting a new business as perceived by Maghrebi, Filipino and Chinese immigrants in Italy. In Economic and Social Perspectives on European Migration(pp. 135-172). Routledge.
• Argentin, G., & Pavolini, E. (2020). How schools directly contribute to the reproduction of social inequalities. Evidence of tertiary effects, taken from Italian research. Social Policies, 7(1), 149-176.
• Jaymes Pyne, Michela Musto, A Gendered and Racialized Educational Hierarchy: Disparities in Elementary School Teachers’ Perceptions of Student Behavior, Social Forces, Volume 101, Issue 4, April 2023, Pages 1948–1975, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soac095
• Perrotta D., (2011) Vite in cantiere, Capitolo 4 parr. 1-5, Bologna, Il Mulino
• Fellini, I., Fullin, G., (2015). Giovani adulti di fronte alla crisi occupazionale in Italia e Spagna. Immigrati e autoctoni a confronto. Mondi Migranti
• DE LUIGI, N., Santangelo, F., (2017) Transition from University to Work in Italy (1998-2011): Over-education and Gender Differences across Fields of StudyITALIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION, 2017, 9, pp. 176 - 206
  
• Vora K. (2019) ‘After the Housewife. Surrogacy labour and human reproduction’. Radical Philosophy 2.04. available at https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/after-the-housewife
• Bandelli, D., Corradi C. (2019) Abolishing or regulating surrogacy : the meanings of freedom according to Italian feminism, in Salute e società: XVIII, 1.
• Danna, D. (2019) The subrogation of motherhood : a judicial institution that puts kinship on the market, in Salute e società : XVIII, 1.
• Jacobson, H. (2021). Commercial surrogacy in the age of intensive mothering. Current Sociology, 69(2), 193-211.
• Murgia, Michela (2023) Dare la vita, Altre gravidanze. Rizzoli.
• Bhattacharjee, D. (2024). A shift from home to the market: The marketization of reproductive labor in India. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 56(1), 199-215.
• Language: https://accademiadellacrusca.it/it/consulenza/mettiamo-tutto-e-tutti-al-femminile/30517 ;https://accademiadellacrusca.it/it/contenuti/l-accademia-risponde-a-un-quesito-sulla-parit-di-genere-negli-atti-giudiziari-posto-dal-comitato-par/31174 ; Gheno V. (2022) Femminili singolari Firenze, effequ. L'avventura dello schwa pp. 175-195
• Sandel J. M. (2021) La tirannia del merito, Milano, Feltrinelli. Capitolo 5. L'etica del successo.
• Sandel J. M. (2021) La tirannia del merito, Milano, Feltrinelli. Capitolo 6. La macchina selezionatrice
• Sandel J. M. (2021) La tirannia del merito, Milano, Feltrinelli. Capitolo 7. Dare riconoscimento al lavoro; Conclusioni. Il merito e il bene comune.
• Sandel J. M. (2012) Quello che i soldi non possono comprare, Milano, Feltrinelli. Introduzione. Mercati e morale; capitolo 1. Saltare la coda

Lessons 19, 20: New challenges.

• **** Corbisiero F. Nocenzi M. e Consiglio scientifico della sSezione AIS Studi di Genere (a cura di) (2024) Manuale di educazione al genere e alla sessualità. Milano, Utes. capitolo 8 LGBT+.****
• Gina Potarca, Jennifer Hook, Does Online Dating Challenge Gendered Divisions of Household Labor?, Social Forces, Volume 102, Issue 2, December 2023, Pages 633–657, https://doi-org.ezproxy.unibo.it/10.1093/sf/soad080
• Romens, A. I. (2021). Lavoro da remoto, conciliazione tra tempi di vita e lockdown: per una prospettiva di genere. Sociologia del lavoro, 224-243.
• Naomi A Gardberg, William Newburry, Bryant A Hudson, Magdalena Viktora-Jones, Adoption of LGBT-Inclusive Policies: Social Construction, Coercion, or Competition?, Social Forces, Volume 101, Issue 3, March 2023, Pages 1116–1142, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soac033
• Garfinkel, H. (2012) Agnese, Roma, Armando Editore.
• Rosati, F., Coletta, V., Pistella, J., Scandurra, C., Laghi, F., & Baiocco, R. (2021). Experiences of Life and Intersectionality of Transgender Refugees Living in Italy: A Qualitative Approach. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(23), 12385.
• Monaco, Salvatore, and Alfonso Pezzella. "Coming out in the workplace: A comparative study between Italy and England." Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health(2022): 1-20
• Bayrakdar, S., & King, A. (2021). Job satisfaction and sexual orientation in Britain. Work, Employment and Society. doi:10.1177/0950017020980997
• Hatzenbuehler, M. L., Lattanner, M. R., McKetta, S., & Pachankis, J. E. (2024). Structural stigma and LGBTQ+ health: a narrative review of quantitative studies.The Lancet Public Health,9(2), e109-e127. ISO 690
• Katsuba, S. (2024). The decade of violence: A comprehensive analysis of hate crimes against LGBTQ in Russia in the era of the “Gay Propaganda Law”(2010–2020). Victims & Offenders, 19(3), 395-418. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2022.2127021
• Beasy, K., Grant, R., & Emery, S. (2021). Multiple dimensions of safe space for LGBTQ students: school staff perceptions. Sex Education, 23(1), 35–48. doi:10.1080/14681811.2021.2018677
• Näre, L. (2010). Sri Lankan men working as cleaners and carers: Negotiating masculinity in Naples. Men and Masculinities, 13(1), 65-86

Readings can change until September

 

Readings/Bibliography

List of mandatory or optional readings not available online.

• ***Reyneri, E. (2017) Introduzione alla sociologia del mercato del lavoro, Cap. 2. Bologna, il Mulino**.
• ***Zanfrini, L. Sociologia delle differenze e delle diseguaglianze (2011), Parti 1 e 2. Parte 3 solo cap. 1, Zanichelli.
• **Lorber, J. (2022) Oltre il gender, Bologna, Il Mulino
• *** M. V. Lee Badgett (2023) Economia Queer. Note dell'autrice su termini e linguaggi utilizzati e cap. 2. Occupazione. Il Saggiatore, Milano
• ***Connell, R. (2006) ) Questioni di genere, Capp. 1, 5, 6. Bologna, Il Mulino
• ***Filandri M. (2022) Lavorare non basta, Bari-Roma, Laterza. Capitolo 2 Un punto di riferimento instabile***
• *** Corbisiero F. Nocenzi M. e Consiglio scientifico della sSezione AIS Studi di Genere (a cura di) (2024) Manuale di educazione al genere e alla sessualità. Milano, Utet. capitolo 6 Violenza.***
• Filandri M. (2022) Lavorare non basta, Bari-Roma, Laterza. Capitolo 4 Che cosa può fare lo stato
• **** Corbisiero F. Nocenzi M. e Consiglio scientifico della sSezione AIS Studi di Genere (a cura di) (2024) Manuale di educazione al genere e alla sessualità. Milano, Utet. capitolo 4. Salute.****
• Murgia, Michela (2023) Dare la vita, Altre gravidanze. Rizzoli.
• Gheno V. (2022) Femminili singolari Firenze, effequ. L'avventura dello schwa pp. 175-195
• Sandel J. M. (2021) La tirannia del merito, Milano, Feltrinelli. Capitolo 5. L'etica del successo.
• Sandel J. M. (2021) La tirannia del merito, Milano, Feltrinelli. Capitolo 6. La macchina selezionatrice
• Sandel J. M. (2021) La tirannia del merito, Milano, Feltrinelli. Capitolo 7. Dare riconoscimento al lavoro; Conclusioni. Il merito e il bene comune.
• Sandel J. M. (2012) Quello che i soldi non possono comprare, Milano, Feltrinelli. Introduzione. Mercati e morale; capitolo 1. Saltare la coda
• **** Corbisiero F. Nocenzi M. e Consiglio scientifico della sSezione AIS Studi di Genere (a cura di) (2024) Manuale di educazione al genere e alla sessualità. Milano, Utes. capitolo 8 LGBT+.****
• Garfinkel, H. (2012) Agnese, Roma, Armando Editore.

Teaching methods

The first  lessons will be lectures.

From lesson 9 individual or group student presentations on the indicated topics are expected.

From lesson 9 students need to study the basic literature (indicated from lesson 1 to 14) and the texts marked with an asterisk for subsequent lessons, before lesson not after. The program of presentations will be agreed during the first week of lessons. Discussants will be assigned to every presentation.

Assessment methods

Attending Students:

Attending students will be evaluated as follows:

• In lesson 9 students will take a multiple-choice in class-tests consisting of 16 questions. Correct answers will be worth 2 points, incorrect or not given 0 points, for a total of 30 cum laude. Students are therefore invited to come to class with a tablet, mobile phone or laptop. (The mark obtained in the test will contribute to 25% of the final mark)
• Presentation and participation in class (will contribute 35% of the final grade)
• The review of an article (1000 words) agreed with the teacher at the end of the course to be delivered no later than one week after the end of the course. (The grade obtained for the review will contribute 40% of the grade).
• To be considered attending, the in class-test must be taken, and an article presentation must be discussed in class.
• The grade obtained by the attending students must be recorded no later than September 2024.
• Students are required to register for in-class test.

NON Attending Students:

They will be assessed with a 3-hour exam consisting of 3 open-ended questions that will require a critical analysis and a reworking of the mandatory readings marked with an asterisk.

The valid mark is the last one obtained in a session. The mark can be refused only once: the passing mark obtained after the first refusal will be automatically recorded, according to the University regulations.

The determination of the final mark takes place on the basis of the following criteria:

• 18-19: very poor knowledge of the course's contents
• 20-24: poor knowledge of the course's contents and limited capacity to organize critical thoughts
• 25-29: good knowledge of the course's contents and good capacity to organize critical thoughts
• 30-30 cum laude: excellent knowledge of the course's contents and excellent capacity to organize critical thoughts

Teaching tools

PowerPoint presentation.

We will make extensive use of Virtuael where it will also be possible to find most of the readings (mandatory and not).

Office hours

See the website of Federica Santangelo