Race, Gender, and Intersectionality at Work: An Exploration of Your Future Occupation

The following learning goals are accomplished with this assignment:

1. Discover the breadth of occupations in the U.S. labor force and learn where to acquire more information about specific occupations.
2. Understand how occupations are categorized by government agencies and learn what average earnings are within these occupations.
3. Create calculations and visual representations of quantitative data.
4. Identify how occupational representation and compensation vary according to race, gender, and their intersections.
5. Reflect on how disparities in occupational representation and compensation may impact individuals and society.
6. Effectively present quantitative information in writing.

This assignment was designed for a first year seminar in the sociology of work and occupations at Carleton College.

The assignment involves two parts. In the first part, students use the 2014 American Community Survey to calculate the racial and gender composition and earnings of people working in an occupation of personal interest. This part of the assignment takes approximately 30 minutes to complete. It can be done either within a class that has access to a computer lab or assigned as homework.

In the second part, students respond to a series of questions that require them to describe, analyze, and apply their findings. The paper students produce is restricted to 10 paragraphs along with two accompanying visual representations of the statistical results. This part of the assignment should not take more than eight hours to complete, including time for editing.

No special equipment is needed aside from a computer with both Word and Excel programs, or their equivalents.

In addition to the sociology of work and occupations, the assignment is appropriate for introductory sociology classes, a sociology of race class, a sociology of gender class, or a social problems class. The data analysis section of the activity also could be modified for an advanced social or career studies high school class.

Students begin this assignment by visiting the Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/soc/major_groups.htm) and exploring the Standard Occupation Classification system (SOC). In the SOC, jobs are organized into 23 major groups. Students are asked to locate the six-digit SOC code of an occupation of personal interest. They must also ensure that the occupation is represented in the attached Excel workbook.

After locating an occupation, students open an Excel workbook to complete a series of calculations. Students are specifically asked to compute the proportion of people in that occupation by race (White, Black, Asian, and Hispanic) and gender (male and female). For each demographic group, students are also required to compute racial and gender gaps in earnings, and examine intersections between race and gender. Responses are recorded on a worksheet attached to the assignment.

Students write a short reflection paper that summarizes their findings. The paper is ten-paragraphs long and it must include two visual representations of their quantitative findings. Assignment sheet (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 366kB Aug30 16)
Excel data set and tools (Excel 2007 (.xlsx) 3.5MB Aug30 16)

I provide students with tips for writing a successful paper and presenting their visual representations. These tips are:

• Create an interesting title and introduce the paper with two or three jazzy opening sentences. Also provide a rationale for the facts reported.
• Summarize numeric patterns displayed in the visual representations and describe important exceptions to the patterns. Specify the units of measurement when discussing statistical findings.
• Be specific and accurate in phrasing. For example, avoid saying "minorities" when you could be more specific about which group you are referencing.
• Spell out one-digit numbers and numbers that appear at the beginning of a sentence.
• Number and title visual representations, identify the data source, and follow practices for effective presentation design.
• Conclude your paper by summarizing the findings and helping the reader understand why the discrepancies are important for people to know.
• Use in-text ASA style citations, create a references cited page, and number the pages of the paper.
• Write a paper you'd want to share with friends and family.

In grading student papers, I consider whether students have: demonstrated an understanding of how occupations are categorized by the BLS; produced accurate calculations; gained knowledge of how occupational representation and compensation varies according to race, gender, and their intersections; understood that racial and gender disparities impact both individuals and society.

The following criteria are used to assess student writing and the visual representations students produce:

Organization and development: effective title; logical and clear arrangement of ideas; effective use of transitions; unity and coherence of paragraphs; good development of ideas through supporting details and evidence; all questions specified on the assignment sheet are answered; effectively presents quantitative information in writing.

Clarity and style: ease of readability; appropriate voice, tone, and style; clarity of sentence structure; gracefulness of sentence structure; appropriate variety of sentence structures.

Sentence structure and mechanics: grammatically correct sentences; absence of comma splices, run-ons, fragments; absence of usage and grammatical errors; accurate spelling; careful proofreading.

Page length: paper is written efficiently yet with a level of depth to indicate material is understood beyond a surface level.

Visual representations: legible titles; palatable color schemes; devoid of clutter and empty space.

American Sociological Association. 2007. American Sociological Association Style Guide, 3rd Ed. Washington, D.C.: American Sociological Association.

Best, Joel. 2012. Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Few, Stephen. 2009. Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis. Oakland, CA: Analytics Press.

Miller, Jane E. 2004. The Chicago Guide to Writing About Numbers: The Effective Presentation of Quantitative Information. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Reynolds, Garr. 2012. Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.