Are we witnessing a backlash to the progress of gender equality around the world? New research reveals a growing gender gap in attitudes across a range of topics, particularly striking among younger generations. From polarized views on social issues to contrasting expectations regarding marriage and family, this divergence in outlook between genders points to deeper societal fissures. This panel brings together experts to discuss the contours and complexities of this “new gender gap” and explore its ramifications for politics, demography, and societal cohesion.
This panel will feature Joshua R. Goldstein, Professor of Demography and Director of the Berkeley Population Center at UC Berkeley; Xiaoling Shu, Professor of Sociology at UC Davis; and Rachel Bernhard, Associate Professor of Quantitative Political Science Research Methods at Nuffield College and the University of Oxford. Kiera Hudson, Assistant Professor in the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, will moderate.
Matrix On Point is a discussion series promoting focused, cross-disciplinary conversations on today’s most pressing issues. Offering opportunities for scholarly exchange and interaction, each Matrix On Point features the perspectives of leading scholars and specialists from different disciplines, followed by an open conversation. These thought-provoking events are free and open to the public.
Co-sponsored by the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative (BESI), the UC Berkeley Department of Demography, the Berkeley Population Center, the Haas School of Business, and the Center for Research on Social Change.
Panelists
Sa-kiera “Kiera” Hudson is an Assistant Professor in the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Their research examines the ubiquitous nature of unequal social hierarchies in society and their role as a primary source of intergroup conflict. By understanding the contextual and psychological processes that underpin how hierarchies are formed, maintained, and influenced by one another, Professor Hudson believes we can develop tools to change hierarchical systems to be more egalitarian.
Joshua R. Goldstein is Chancellor’s Professor of Demography in the Department of Demography at UC Berkeley. He is currently director of the Berkeley Population Center and the Berkeley Formal Demography Workshops and Graduate Advisor in the Department. He is co-editor of the “Formal Relationships” series at Demographic Research and founder of the Human Fertility Database, the Mosaic Census Project for historical censuses, and, most recently, the CenSoc project, making available administrative micro- data to study mortality disparities.
Xiaoling Shu is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Davis. She holds an M.S. in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on the impacts of two of the most profound processes of our times, marketization and globalization, on gender inequalities, well-being, and gender, family, marriage, and sexual behaviors and attitudes. She uses data science models on national and international data to carry out country-specific (China, the United States, and the United Kingdom) and cross-national analyses. She is the author of Knowledge Discovery in the Social Science: A Data Mining Approach (University of California Press) and Chinese Marriages in Transition: From Patriarchy to New Familism (Rutgers University Press). She has published in Social Forces, Social Science Research, Sociology of Education, Journal of Marriage and Family, Social Science Quarterly, Journal of Happiness Studies, Chinese Journal of Sociology, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, etc. She has served as Chair of the Section on Asia and Asian America of the American Sociological Association, President of the International Chinese Sociological Association, and Director of East Asia Studies at UC Davis.
Rachel Bernhard is an Associate Professor of Quantitative Political Science Research Methods at Nuffield College and the University of Oxford. Before joining Nuffield, she served as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Davis. Professor Bernhard is currently working on a book project on appearance-based discrimination in politics. Her research interests include gender and intersectional identity in politics (with a focus on American elections), political psychology and behavior (with a focus on voter information-gathering and decision-making), and survey and experimental design.
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