Jill Yavorsky, Associate Professor of Sociology and Organizational Science, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Abstract: In recent decades, the financial elite have seen their economic resources grow significantly, while the income and wealth of other households have stagnated. The financial elite includes couples who are super-rich (top one percent), rich (the 90th–99th percentile) and upper-middle class (the 80th–89th percentile). Gendered work-family arrangements in top economic groups may contribute to rising class inequality, but relatively little is known about how these couples divide paid and unpaid work, or the extent to which their arrangements differ from those of other couples. In this study, using the Survey of Consumer Finances (1989–2019), we uncover novel work and family patterns and trends in the most economically powerful families in the U.S. We find stark contrasts between super-rich couples and other couples in the division of labor. Specifically, super-rich couples are much more likely than all other couples, including rich and upper-middle class couples, to have a traditional male breadwinner–female homemaker/caregiver arrangement. Importantly, the striking patterns of traditional arrangements in the top one percent have not changed in 30 years and, as we uncover, appear to be driven by a couple’s wealth rather than income. Our findings have several important implications for the links between class and gender inequality and provide theoretical and empirical clarity regarding how wealth accumulation relates to women’s labor. Our study also has implications for understanding how power is distributed amongst men and women in couples who have immense economic, organizational, and political influence.
Dr. Jill Yavorsky is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Organizational Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on U.S. labor market patterns by gender, race, and class; workplace inequality, bias, and discrimination; and divisions of labor among parents. Her work has been published in leading social science journals, including American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and Social Forces, and supported by national funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation. Additionally, her research has garnered widespread media attention from prominent outlets such as NPR Marketplace, The New York Times, TIME, Fortune, and Forbes, among others. She has served on multiple editorial boards for interdisciplinary and sociology journals and is currently a board member of Gender & Society and the Council on Contemporary Families.
LOCATION:Malkin Penthouse STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20250210T170000Z DTEND:20250210T181500Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR