Gender, race and socioeconomic status attainment, assessing the double negative

Abstract

Often, studies that attempt to theorize connections between 'race' and gender merely add 'race' with gender. This is known in the literature as The Double Negative Effect. The Double Negative Effect assumes there is simply an additive effect for 'race' and gender, such that the disadvantage experienced by women is doubled or at least proportionately increased if these women are also members of a visible minority group. Many social scientists have been questioning the connection between 'race' and gender, and their relationship to social inequality, however the exact nature of this intersection has not been explicitly tested. This research provides a unique hierarchical model that assesses the interrelationship between 'race' and gender within a status attainment. This thesis explores this Double Negative Effect and explicitly tests for an interaction effect between 'race' and gender on socioeconomic status. It is hypothesized that there is an interaction between gender and visible minority status that produces a negative effect on socioeconomic status that is above and beyond the main effects of visible minority status and gender. Using 1993 data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) Internal File, this research operationalizes socioeconomic status with two measures: (1) occupational status, using the Blishen Socioeconomic Classification of Occupations, and; (2) income level. Results partly support the interaction hypothesis and demonstrate a notable disadvantage on SES for visible minorities and women.