Williams, Christine L. 1959- (Christine Williams)

PERSONAL:

Born 1959. Education: University of Oklahoma, Norman, B.A., 1980; University of California, Berkeley, J.A., 1982, Ph.D., 1986.

ADDRESSES:

Office—University of Texas at Austin, Department of Sociology, 1 University Station, A1700, Austin, TX 78712; fax: 512-471-1748. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, editor, sociologist, and educator. University of Oklahoma, Norman, assistant professor of sociology, 1986-88; University of Texas at Austin, assistant professor, 1988-1994, associate professor, 1994-99, professor of sociology, 1999—. University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, visiting professor, 1992. Presenter and speaker at professional conferences, seminars, and meetings..

MEMBER:

Sociological Research Association (elected to membership, 2004), American Sociological Association, Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Kappa Delta.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Rapoport/King Award, 1997, 1999; "Eyes of Texas" Award, 2002; President's Associates Teaching Excellence Award, 2003; Distinguished Article Award, Americana Sociological Association, Sex and Gender Section, 2003, for "The Locker Room v. the Dorm Room: The Cultural Context of Sexual Harassment in Two Magazine Publishing Organizations," Social Problems; Distinguished Lecturer Award, Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, 2004; Distinguished Speaker Award, Christine and Stanley E. Adams, Jr. Centennial Professorship in Liberal Arts, 2006-11. Recipient of research grants and fellowships, including University Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 1984-86; research grant, University Research Institute, University of Texas, 1989-1990; Hogg Foundation Grant, University of Texas, 1990-92; fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, 1995-96; faculty research assignment, University Research Institute, University of Texas, 1995-96; ASA/NSF Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline Grant, 1998; Research Internship Award, University of Texas Office of Graduate Studies, 1998-99, 2006-07; Dean's Fellow, College of Liberal Arts, University of Texas, Austin, 2001; IC2 research grant, 2005.

WRITINGS:

Gender Differences at Work: Women and Men in Nontraditional Occupations, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1989.

(Editor) Doing "Women's Work": Men in Nontraditional Occupations, Sage Publications (Newbury Park, CA), 1993.

Still a Man's World: Men Who Do "Women's Work," University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1995.

(Editor, with Arlene Stein) Sexuality and Gender, Blackwell (Malden, MA), 2002.

(Editor, with Jeffrey C. Alexander and Gary T. Marx) Self, Social Structure, and Beliefs: Explorations in Sociology, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2004.

Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2006.

Contributor to books, including A Case for the Case Study, edited by Joe Feagin, Anthony Orum, and Gideo Sjoberg, University of North Carolina Press, 1991; Required Reading: Sociology's Most Influential Books, edited by Dan Clawson, University of Massachusetts Press, 1998; Daring to Find Our Names: The Search for Lesbigay Library Librarianship, edited by James V. Carmichael, Greenwood Press, 1998; Qualitative Sociology as Everyday Life, edited by Rosanna Hertz and Barry Glassner, Sage, 1999; Social Inequalities in Comparative Perspective, edited by Fiona Divine and Mary Waters, Blackwell Publishers, 2004; and Encyclopedia of Sociology, edited by George Ritzer, Blackwell, 2007.

Contributor to periodicals and journals, including Qualitative Sociology, Journal of Human Rights, Social Problems, Hypatia: Journal of Feminist Philosophy, Gender & Society, Sexuality & Culture, Nursing Administration Quarterly, Journal of Family Issues, Thomas Jefferson Law Review, Sociological Forum, Journal of Contemporary Ethnology, and the Journal of Homosexuality.

Gender & Society, advisory editor, 1992-95, editor, 2004-06; Current Perspectives in Social Theory, associate editor, 1988-94.

Member of editorial board of journals, including American Sociological Review, 1994-96; QualitativeSociology, 1995-2004; Gender & Society, 1998-2002; Sociological Theory, 2002-04; and Contexts, 2005-07. Manuscript reviewer for periodicals and book publishers.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer, educator, and sociologist Christine L. Williams is a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. The recipient of several awards and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Williams was named the Christine and Stanley E. Adams, Jr. Centennial Professorship in Liberal Arts, a five-year appointment from 2006 to 2011, it was noted in her curriculum vitae on the University of Texas at Austin Department of Sociology Web site. Her academic work includes the study of subjects such as sexuality and sexual harassment in the workplace; gender discrimination at work; and aspects of race, gender, and class inequality in low-wage retail work in the United States. In addition to her studies of workplace issues, Williams also specializes in the sociology of gender and sexuality, qualitative methodology, and sociological theory, it was stated in her curriculum vitae. She teaches courses in a variety of sociological subjects, including the sociology of gender, field and observational methods, classical sociological theory, history of social psychology, and the sociology of work.

A prolific writer, Williams has contributed articles, papers, and reviews to many professional journals and periodicals, and has contributed chapters to several books. She is a frequent presenter at conferences, professional meetings, and symposia throughout the United States and in Canada and Australia. She serves as journal manuscript reviewer for several professional publications and as a book manuscript reviewer for prestigious academic publishers such as Cambridge University Press, Cornell University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, Norton, Routledge, and Sage Publications. She is active in the American Sociological Association, having served on several of the organization's committees.

Williams served as editor of Doing "Women's Work": Men in Nontraditional Occupations, a volume that explores the "controversial issues of men's reluctance to enter female-dominant occupations and men's difficulties working within female-dominant occupations," observed Laura Sanchez, writing in Social Forces. Williams notes that most research on persons filling sex-atypical work roles has focused on women entering occupations that have been traditionally occupied by men. Little is currently known, she notes, about the sociology of the opposite phenomenon, that of men undertaking work that is traditionally considered to be a female occupation. This book seeks to remedy some of that lack of knowledge, and is a "long overdue and a welcome addition" to the literature on the subject, Sanchez stated. The essays in the book provide details on topics such as sex segregation in employment, wages, mobility patterns; on the history of the gendering of work and occupations from social, economic, and political perspectives; and the pay disparities within female-dominated occupations. Among Williams and her contributors' more-telling observations is the fact that "the majority of men within female-dominant occupations did not seek this type of work, but were drawn to it through incentives or short-term plans to gain experience for more prestigious, remunerative male-dominant occupations," Sanchez noted. The book also includes a number of case studies detailing the real-world experiences of men who have worked in occupations dominated by females. Among the occupations studied are secretaries, teachers, caretakers, and strippers. The essays in this book, Sanchez observed, will help readers develop a "sober awareness of the magnitude of occupational sex segregation."

Williams again combined her interests in the sociology of work and sexual identity in Still a Man's World: Men Who Do "Women's Work." In the book, she "gives us a fascinating account of what happens when men" elect to leave male-dominated employment and enter occupational areas traditionally filled by women, such as school teachers, social workers, librarians, nurses, and other jobs, commented Susan E. Chase in a Social Forces review. Williams conducted interviews with seventy-six men from Texas, Arizona, California, and Massachusetts, who work in what are considered traditionally female occupations. They range in age from twenty to sixty-six, work in several different specialties, and represent a wide range of education and experience. Williams also reports on interviews with twenty-three females who offered observations and opinions on their male coworkers.

Williams offers an analysis of how cultural attitudes toward gender are deeply ingrained in the fundamental structure of the work world. She also notes the finding that women's opportunities for advancement remain limited by these cultural attitudes, and that men are given greater opportunity and encouragement to advance even when they occupy minority positions in a female-dominated workplace. In the book, Williams also explores a subject that is always present in the background for men in female occupations: the concept of masculinity, and what it says about their masculinity if they are involved in female-dominated occupations. "Because their presence in female specialties makes their masculinity suspect, many men engage in a variety of strategies to present themselves as masculine," Chase noted. In her examination, Williams "covers a lot of ground in a short space and she does so with clear, elegant prose," Chase remarked.

Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality contains Williams's report of her experiences as a worker at two national retail toy chain stores. She took relatively menial, low-paying jobs in these stores to explore the culture of the stores and the types and methods of influence used by these stores on children and the toy-buying public. In her work as a toy clerk, Williams's goal was to determine "if and how toy shopping is implicated in reproducing gender, race, and class inequalities," commented Deborah Donovan in a Booklist review. Williams made numerous observations about the nature of consumer merchandise, but also business attitudes toward race and the disadvantageous position occupied by employees on the lowest rungs of the workplace hierarchy. She saw firsthand the difficulties faced by minimum-wage workers whose job security is nonexistent, whose representation by unions is weak, and whose salary does not even provide enough to live on. She discovered that, at least in toy retail establishments, white customers are more often seen as potential purchasers whereas black customers are more likely to be viewed with suspicion as potential shoplifters. White customers, therefore, are afforded more attention and respect from sales associates than minority customers. She ends the book with suggestions for improving the conditions of low-wage workers, including calling for legislation that requires employers to pay a living wage, to provide health care, and to present true equal opportunity to all workers. A Tikkun reviewer called the book a "compelling read" for parents, educators, and others who are "critical of the commercialization of childhood."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Journal of Sociology, November, 1995, Lisa Catanzarite, review of Still a Man's World: Men Who Do "Women's Work," p. 766; May, 2007, Sharon Zukin, review of Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality, p. 1946.

Armed Forces & Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal, fall, 1990, Eileen Shea Wise, review of Gender Differences at Work: Women and Men in Nontraditional Occupations, p. 153.

Booklist, December 1, 2005, Deborah Donovan, review of Inside Toyland, p. 11.

Choice, July-August, 1994, J.R. Hudson, review of Doing "Women's Work": Men in Nontraditional Occupations, p. 1799; July-August, 1995, M. Klatte, review of Still a Man's World, p. 1806.

Contemporary Psychology, August, 1990, review of Gender Differences at Work, p. 788.

Contemporary Sociology, March, 1990, Glenna Spitze, review of Gender Differences at Work, p. 190; May, 1994, Miriam M. Johnson, review of Doing "Women's Work," p. 427; November, 1995, Denise D. Bielby, review of Still a Man's World, p. 809; May, 2006, Paul Lichterman, review of Self, Social Structure, and Beliefs: Explorations in Sociology, p. 309; March, 2007, Sheryl Skaggs, review of Inside Toyland, p. 153.

Gender & Society, June, 1991, Kimberly G. Miller, review of Gender Differences at Work, p. 233.

Journal of American Culture, June, 2006, Kathy Merlock Jackson, review of Inside Toyland, p. 244.

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, July, 1997, Rebecca Anne Allahyari, review of Still a Man's World, p. 236.

Labor History, summer, 1995, David B. Bills, review of Still a Man's World, p. 493.

Library Quarterly, April, 1996, Michael F. Winter, review of Still a Man's World, p. 206.

Signs, spring, 1991, Kim A. Blankenship, review of Gender Differences at Work, p. 606.

Social Forces, September, 1990, Patricia A. Roos, review of Gender Differences at Work, p. 301; March, 1995, Laura Sanchez, review of Doing "Women's Work," p. 1143; December, 1996, Susan E. Chase, review of Still a Man's World, p. 756.

Tikkun, March-April, 2006, review of Inside Toyland, p. 81.

Work and Occupations, November, 1995, Irene Padavic, review of Still a Man's World, p. 492.

ONLINE

University of California Press Web site,http://www.ucpress.edu/ (March 27, 2008), author profile.

University of Texas at Austin Department of Sociology Web site,http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/sociology/ (March 27, 2008), author's curriculum vitae.