pdf - Institute for Policy Research - Northwestern University

P. Reese
Science, is currently addressing the
impact of globalization on labor politics
and industrial relations in Western
European democracies. She is comparing
recent trends, in particular in Germany
to those in Japan and Denmark, in
several areas such as industrial relations,
labor market dynamics, vocational
education, and training. She is focusing
on how contemporary German trends
fit into a broader historical canvas.
This will allow her to explore how
complementarities across institutional
arenas are con-structed and how they
evolve and interact over time.
In a paper with Cathie Jo Martin of
Boston University, Thelen explores
“Varieties of Coordination and Trajectories
of Change: Social Policy and
Economic Adjustment in Coordinated
Market Economies.” The paper explores
why some countries manage to sustain
market coordination when adjusting to
economic transformation, while others
fail. The two researchers seek to explain
how the public sector can affect the
balance of power and political outcomes
in a post-industrial economy. They review
the case of Denmark and Germany, the
two countries that diverge the most in
terms of the balance of power between
state and society. They demonstrate how
the Danish state acts as a facilitator for
economic adjustment, policy change,
and continued coordination—a finding
contrary to a core neoliberal belief that
it acts as a brake to growth and market
flexibility.
Gender and Comparative Studies
Psychologist Alice Eagly, James Padilla
Chair in Arts and Sciences, is examining
the content of stereotypes about social
groups, the “gender gap” in social and
political attitudes, and the impact of
gender on leadership. She and Linda
Carli of Wellesley College have finished a
book on gender and leadership, Through
the Labyrinth: The Truth About
How Women Become Leaders, which
will be published by Harvard Business
School Press in fall 2007. In examining
why it still remains difficult for women
to advance to positions of power, the
authors liken women’s trajectories to the
top to traversing a labyrinth rather than
encountering a glass ceiling. Interweaving
their interdisciplinary research and data
with personal accounts and anecdotes,
they examine questions of how far women
have come as leaders, whether stereotypes
and prejudices still limit women’s
opportunities, whether people resist
women’s leadership more than men’s, and
whether organizations create obstacles to
women who would be leaders. Eagly is also
working on a meta-analysis of stereotypes
of leaders and managers that focuses on
the extent to which leadership roles are
perceived in feminine or masculine terms.
Eagly is working with graduate student
Anne Koenig on understanding how
stereotypes come to have the content
they do. They conducted several studies
using correlational and experimental
methods to test the relations of typical
roles and intergroup relations in social
group stereotypes. They found that both
social roles and intergroup relations play a
role in predicting stereotype content, and
these findings led them to unify the two
prevalent models for thinking about group
stereotype content.
Sociologist Ann Orloff continues to work
on her book manuscript, tentatively titled
“Farewell to Maternalism,” examining
shifts in the gendered logics of welfare
and employment policies in the United
States, Sweden, the Netherlands, France,
and Hungary.
Orloff’s interests in social theory,
comparative analysis, gender studies and
modernity have also coalesced into a
research theme around gender politics
Alice Eagly describes how
social roles and intergroup
relations affect stereotypes.
www.northwestern.edu/ipr 29