��-Dearborn Experts

Glass ceilings and plastic barriers: Will COVID’s impacts pave a path to pay parity?

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 14:20:39 +0000

Glass ceilings and plastic barriers: Will COVID’s impacts pave a path to pay parity? Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/05/2022 - 10:20

This article was originally published on April 12, 2021.

In the early days of the COVID pandemic, nurses and grocery store cashiers were hailed as heroes for providing needs like medical treatment and food, respectively, to help hold our society together. Not an easy feat at any time — but especially difficult when experiencing heightened exposure to a deadly virus.

Many of those “essential” roles were held by women — nearly nine out of 10 nurses and nursing assistants were female and so were more than two-thirds of the workers at grocery store checkouts when the New York Times analyzed census data crossed with the federal government’s essential worker guidelines.

And then there was the pressure employers felt when teachers and daycare workers — most of whom are women — were unable to offer an in-person safe place for children to go during the day due to contagion concerns, leaving America’s workforce frantically trying to line up childcare or take a work leave.

But being essential or critical to the economy does not mean being well compensated. When comparing median wages of full-time workers, women continue to make less than men — women of color earn as low as $0.75 per dollar and, on average, white women make $0.81 for every dollar.

Professor Suzanne Bergeron

While a couple of dimes in income difference might not seem like much — it balloons when viewed through a macro lens. On average, women could be paid nearly a half million dollars less than their male counterparts over the course of a 40-year career. And then there is the unpaid role of family caregiver, which research shows that the majority of the responsibility falls to females. ”The pandemic highlighted a fundamental contradiction of our economic system today: The caring labor to which we assign the lowest value is also most critical to ensuring the well-being of people and the planet,” said ��-Dearborn’s Helen M. Graves Collegiate Professor of Women's Studies and Social Science Suzanne Bergeron, who co-authored the book Liberating Economics: Feminist Perspectives on Families, Work, and Globalization, Second Edition (University of Michigan Press, 2021).

But Bergeron says there are steps being taken to address this long-term issue. “We seem to be at a historic turning point when it comes to addressing the mismatch between the value and pay for essential care work in this country.”

Here’s what Bergeron has noticed in her feminist economics research:

People recognize change is needed and are talking about it.

Suzanne Bergeron: “Families are having conversations about balancing the work among family members. At the level of the community, there has been a proliferation of mutual aid networks providing support for the unpaid care needs of their neighbors: delivery of cooked meals, shopping for medicine and food, child care, pet care, and more.

Workplaces are re-imagining the workday with care needs in mind, such as being more open to flexible work hours than in the past. They are also realizing a need to address the gender inequitable impacts of the pandemic in their institutions. In higher education, for instance, research productivity dropped for women relative to men due to different gendered distributions of care work. This is a fairness issue that universities need to address by providing support for caregivers, rethinking the evaluation of faculty research productivity, reducing and/or shifting workload demands to be more manageable in pandemic contexts, and considering the lessons of the pandemic in imagining more equitable institutional futures. This is precisely the work that ��-Dearborn’s Care and Equity Task Force is currently carrying out.

Finally, at the level of policy, there is a lot going on. Paid family leave is gaining traction in Congress as the number of states with paid leave policies has expanded. One exciting development, included in the recent stimulus bill, has been the expansion of the former child tax credit into a basic income payment of $300 per month per child for all households earning less than $150k. This will provide families with cash to support care needs and improve well-being. A recent basic income experiment in the U.S. has shown positive results. Having studied basic income policies in a variety of national and local contexts, I anticipate the same from this policy.”

There’s growing outrage at inequities.

SB: “While many were able to shelter safely at home, millions of care laborers in fields such as health, education, home care assistance, food production, grocery and pharmaceutical retail, etc. — the majority of them women — were out there providing goods and services critical to our survival. This essential work is often low-paid and precarious, made even more so by increased risk of exposure to the virus. These essential workers have been hailed as heroes, and there is also growing outrage at the inequity of their low wages and poor working conditions.

Similarly, there is far more attention being paid to the crucial importance of previously invisible unpaid family and community care in the pandemic. This work dramatically increased as socialized forms of care — schools, child care facilities, elder care programs — were shut down, and needs for care and support for families and communities skyrocketed in the context of health, economic and social dislocations. Research demonstrates that it is women who disproportionately take on these burdens, often to the detriment of their paid employment situations and their own health.”

Steps in the right direction are happening at the federal level — but more movement is needed.

SB: ”The current White House jobs plan recognizes paid care work as a crucial part of our national infrastructure. It includes provisions for job creation and raised wages for home and community-based care workers, the majority of whom are women of color whose work has been historically undervalued.

Another important initiative is the campaign to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. That idea is gaining traction and is embedded in wage laws passed at the state and local level. It has sparked serious consideration by Congress as well. As the majority of those who earn under $15 are women and people of color, this change can contribute significantly to both gender and racial pay parity. Finally, creating a pathway to citizenship for immigrants would improve both the pay and working conditions of the many immigrant women who do much of the caring labor in this country, making them much less vulnerable to exploitation. Of course there are many other factors to address, including support for paid care workers who have caregiving responsibilities at home and ongoing efforts to reduce discrimination in the workplace.

The pandemic has increased the hours spent in unpaid care and domestic work for nearly all — as well as our awareness of how crucial unpaid care is to our economic and social well-being. But more of this burden fell on women, who were already doing approximately three times more domestic work than men in different-sexed two-earner families. In the best of times, balancing paid work with the role of primary caregiver has been difficult. In the pandemic, it was beyond impossible. Awareness of these issues is, thankfully, leading to changes in households, communities, workplaces and government policy.”

Bergeron collaborated with noted researchers and Association for Feminist Economics founding members Drucilla Barker and Susan Feiner on “Liberating Economics: Feminist Perspectives on Families, Work, and Globalization, Second Edition.”

Interview by Sarah Tuxbury. If you’re a member of the media and would like to speak with Professor Suzanne Bergeron about this topic, please drop us a line at ��Dearborn-News@umich.edu.

Coronavirus

��-Dearborn Experts

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Social Sciences

Mon, 04/12/2021 - 05:00

The pandemic highlighted a fundamental contradiction of our economic system today: The caring labor that’s assigned the lowest value, and is often performed by women, is also essential. Feminist economist Professor Suzanne Bergeron says people in power have taken note.

News

Spiders in the house? Put that blowtorch away

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:03:35 +0000

Spiders in the house? Put that blowtorch away Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/23/2022 - 16:03

This article was originally published on October 27, 2021.

When people share photos of spiders in their home, responses vary from “I’d move out” to “just burn down the house.”

That reaction isn’t surprising with sci-fi horror movies featuring eight-legged stars, spooky spiders having a prominent role in Halloween decor, and knowing arachnids live in the deepest darkest places of pretty much any building.

Danielson-Francois has studied spiders for decades. She understands the fear — she once had it herself — but said it’s often misplaced.

“Yes, black widow and brown recluse spiders need some healthy respect, but you aren’t likely to see either of those around here,” said Biological Sciences Associate Professor Anne Danielson-Francois. “Often it’s the idea of the spiders that we are scared of...not the spiders themselves.”

She thanks her outdoorsy mother and education-focused father for dispelling her arachnid fear. After complaining about spiders to her parents, her dad encouraged her to learn more before judging them too harshly. That later led to a pet tarantula named Dracula, working with long-jawed spiders in graduate school, and continuing to study spiders almost daily.

Not everyone will gain that level of spider acceptance. But with Halloween right around the corner, Danielson-Francois shares a few spider benefits that might help us move beyond the fear and see that spiders really are pretty great house guests.

Associate Professor Anne Danielson Francois with an image of the long-jawed spider as her Zoom background

Spiders may help us unlock undiscovered scientific solutions.

When she is not doing spider fieldwork along the Rouge River in the summer, Danielson-Francois’ lab has approximately 300 live spiders to study. And if she finds an interesting spider crawling around campus, she’ll sometimes pick it up to share information about it with her class.

She’s used to having people question her about her interest in arachnids. She’s had calls from the New York Times, Reuters, USA Today and more. During her time as a graduate student at the University of Arizona, the lab she worked in was contacted to get information for the 2002 Spider-Man movie.

But her interest goes beyond spiders and how provocative they are. “Of course I think spiders are cool. Some are smaller than your thumb and make webs that are exquisite works of art — that’s amazing. But what I'm really interested in is studying evolution and behavior. I’m using spiders to do that,” she said. Spiders, which existed approximately 150 million years before dinosaurs, are thought to be one of the first animals to live on land.

In addition, studying spider evolution and behavior may lead to other discoveries. Danielson-Francois said scientific advances sometimes come from unlikely places.

For example, a brain tumor “paint” that lights up cancer cells came from knowledge gathered by researchers studying scorpions, a member of the arachnid family that fluoresces under UV light. And looking at spider research, robots that need to navigate difficult terrain are being built based on how spiders move.

Spiders' eating habits have known benefits for humans.

Spiders don’t want anything to do with you. Instead, their energy is spent on catching their next meal, which helps you get rid of pests. All free of change.

Some of the insects they exterminate are potentially harmful insects like bed bugs, kissing bugs or mosquitoes. Danielson-Francois said studies have shown spiders are good biological control agents — where there are more spiders, there is a lower incidence of malaria. There are even specific spiders that prefer to eat mosquitoes that are carrying the malaria parasite.

Spiders also play a huge part in our ecosystem and snack on insects, like grasshoppers, beetles and mealybugs, that feast on crops. Spiders get rid of the moths that eat through clothing and fabric. Some spiders — the funnel weaver that creates a gauzy-looking web — will even devour ants.

“Spiders are giving you natural pest control,” Danielson-Francois said. “Orb weavers, those are the spiders everyone is noticing right now because they are at maturity and males are out looking for females. They eat flying insects — taking care of flies, mosquitos, moths and more by the thousands.”

Studying spiders can help prepare students who want to work in the medical field.

Over the past decade, Danielson-Francois and her research students have observed and cared for different species of orbweaving spiders. She said that some of her students are apprehensive at first — but after working with the spiders, they see them differently. “It’s just like anything else. The more you learn and interact with them, the less afraid you are,” she said. “Sometimes our spiders do get accidentally squished or break a leg — they are very fragile — and our students feel badly about that. They get so attached to them.”

Many of her students continue on to master’s and Ph.D. programs, Danielson-Francois said. And some of her lab students are pre-med. During her 14 years on campus, several have gone on to be doctors, dentists and other healthcare professionals. She said spider research provides technical skills — like data analysis, dissection techniques, meticulous labeling and handling of specimens, critical thinking and proper biological identification — that easily transfer to the medical field.

There’s also the added benefit of knowing spider specifics. “People go to the doctor and the Emergency Room with a ‘spider bite.’ Most are harmless or actually caused by insects and not spiders. The experiences my students have will help them identify medically important spider species and what treatment is needed, if any.”

She said the research gives students an opportunity to do research in a lab and get published — something medical schools look for in the admissions process. Humayra (Myra) Nikhat Sullivan, the co-author on Danielson Francois recently published research on the long-jawed spider, is a ��-Dearborn alumna who's doing her residency at Michigan Medicine.

Their work examined why the long-jawed orbweaver’s jaws are twice as long as other orbweaving spiders. Observing the spiders, Danielson-Francois and Myra Sullivan discovered it mainly has to do with mating behavior — the long jaws interlock in an embrace during mating, a unique feature to these spiders. The research on function continues with additional students in the lab.

In many cultures, spiders are a symbol of good luck.

If medical discoveries, intellectual advancement and pest control haven’t won you over — just err on the side of caution.

Spiders live on every continent except Antarctica and many cultures feel it’s bad luck to kill a spider. The English see one of their common spiders, the Linyphiidae or money spider, as a sign of wealth. If you eliminate it from your home, your financial prospects go with it.

“Different cultures respect spiders differently than we do. Many cultures see a spider in their home as a positive thing. We fear spiders here and pass it onto the next generation. Kids learn this early on — it’s something my daughter picked up in school. I had to counteract that message right away.”

To help the fear go away, education is key.

Danielson-Francois shared two free resources that can help with identification: the mobile app Seek by iNaturalist and the website BugGuide.net. ”Once you know what you are looking at, its behaviors and benefits, spiders aren’t so scary,” she said. “Some are really fascinating. You might find yourself wanting to learn more. Look up the dancing peacock spider — you won’t be disappointed.”

Article by Sarah Tuxbury. If you’re a member of the media and would like to interview Danielson-Francois about this topic, give us a shout at ��Dearborn-News@umich.edu and we’ll put you in touch.

Faculty Research

Nature or Environment

��-Dearborn Experts

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Natural Sciences

Wed, 10/27/2021 - 05:00

Spiders are all over your home and in your yard. Associate Professor Anne Danielson-Francois, a renowned spider expert, says that’s a good thing. Hear her out.

News

How do you find the right person for the job?

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Jun 2022 18:51:14 +0000

How do you find the right person for the job? Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 06/12/2022 - 14:51

As the nation navigates a worker shortage, College of Business Associate Professor Junghyun (Jessie) Lee's course Talent Acquisition and Management explores the "where are all the workers" question, looks at the resources available and shares ways to connect job-seekers and employers to what they want.

"The relationship between employer and employee is shifting and companies need to understand where people's priorities are so they can successfully compete,” said Lee, whose research expertise is in human resource management (HRM) and organizational behavior.

Associate Professor
Junghyun (Jessie) Lee

HRM 406: Talent Acquisition and Management is geared to help students improve their personal effectiveness in recruiting and selecting employees and is required in the Human Resources Management major.

To assist students in seeing how different organizations recruit and hire staff, student groups did research and evaluation projects with the Dearborn Fire Station, the City of Canton, BorgWarner and Real Estate One.

“Professor Lee is focused on giving us application-based learning experiences so we can be better prepared when we graduate,” said College of Business senior Rebekah Carnes. “This class has given me knowledge that I’ll use in my career and connected me to people with HR experience that I can go to for advice.”

In addition to learning how to evaluate staffing processes, the course shared a variety of ways employers can attract talent. Here are three top take-a-ways from the class.

Let technology help.

Midsize companies and mom-and-pop shops don’t have the resources that Fortune 500 companies do when it comes to human resources. This means there is little time or ability to address finding new talent strategically.

That’s where technology comes in. Lee’s class explores the pros and cons of available human resources management information systems and applicant tracking systems through student-led current events reviews and discussion. Some of the classroom chat revolved around artificial intelligence’s role in the hiring process, keyword resume sorting and more.

COB student Chealsey Jones

Lee shared that HR technology can be very beneficial. It creates consistency in application vetting, ensures compliance and eligibility verification, and speeds up the hiring process overall. However, there are some downsides. With the copious amount of resumes submitted per position, applicant tracking systems may be filtering out qualified candidates if instruction is not carefully provided.

When sharing the Sept. 4 Wall Street Journal article “Companies Need More Workers. Why Do They Reject Millions of Resumes?” with the class, College of Business senior Chealsey Jones, said technology should be paired with human oversight. For example, if the qualified talent yield seems low, put time into reviewing the filtered-out resumes to make sure they didn’t miss a good candidate for the role. “Businesses may want to consider having a process in place to review filtered resumes to make sure there’s a qualified candidate who didn’t get overlooked,” said Jones, a Human Resources Management major.

Another consideration for employers is the job posting itself, Lee said. With the systems reviewing resumes based on keywords — which are often pulled directly from the posting — it’s important to have a well-written description. An accurate, well-written positing that communicates the core values of talent philosophy and your employer brand is also beneficial in attracting better candidates to begin with.

“Rewrite ads and job descriptions to emphasize the benefits of working for you, in addition to job qualifications,” Lee said. “This approach often leads to finding a good fit.”

Be open to new recruiting tactics.

Who you know is just as important as what you know. So reach out to your networks to expand the talent pool.

With younger adults on social media, use it to a recruiting advantage to advertise job openings.

Share an image of a workplace perk on Instagram or Facebook. Search LinkedIn for people whose skillsets are comparable to what you have in mind for a role and reach out to them to apply. If you can give people a fun, friendly workplace, create a TikTok video to go along with a job posting — yes, people use TikTok for job connections — to show what the work environment looks like.

COB student Alyssa Zaleski

There are other creative sourcing routes to go too.

Companies are offering sign-on bonuses to new employees — consider doing a similar program for employee referrals if new hires stay with the company for a set amount of time. College of Business junior Alyssa Zaleski said BorgWarner has a similar program where a staff member gets the bonus after the referred person is employed for nine months.

“Employee referrals are usually reliable because you know someone you can talk to about the company’s mission and vision before applying to see if they're a good fit,” said Zaleski, a Human Resources Management major.

With the Baby Boomer generation age 65 or older by 2030, younger generations may not have the experience necessary to fill many of the jobs left behind. So having an employee connection may help you find someone that has desirable attributes like a positive attitude or strong work ethic and can gain job-related skills through training, college courses or certifications.

Associate Professor Junghyun (Jessie) Lee, second from right, with students in her HRM 406 class.

Cash isn’t king: People want work-life balance.

We all know that the last year has changed the way employees view and approach work. But why? One answer is that older adults, who were loyal to long-term company relationships, are retiring in large numbers due to eligibility, early leave incentives and COVID-related health concerns. And the skilled workers remaining have different priorities. In short: Work-life balance is more important than money.

COB student Rebekah Carnes

Carnes, a Human Resources Management major, said the data she gained through her team’s class research project reinforces this. Working on a staffing project for the City of Canton, employees shared that they were attracted to their roles because of the community connection and available time off.

She wasn’t surprised. In the conversations she has with her friends about career goals, work-life balance and mental wellness are top priorities.

“Of course money is important. But that’s no longer the big incentive that it used to be. We are looking for benefits and culture,” Carnes said. “People want to be managed by supervisors who care for their people. They want a good environment, which is challenging when people are overworked due to turnover and lack of current staff. That is one big thing that’s affecting workplaces.”

In the EY 2021 Work Reimagined Employee Survey, more than half (54%) of employees surveyed globally would consider leaving their job post-pandemic if they are not provided some form of flexibility in where and when they work. And in a recent survey of workers planning to look for a new job post-pandemic, 38% are doing so because of work-life balance challenges.

Benefits wanted more than money include: Family-friendly policies, remote or hybrid work, vacation time, professional development training and tuition assistance, and — if none of those can be provided because of the nature of the job or resources available — a friendly work environment.

To attract talent, Lee said to highlight the rewards programs they offer to job seekers. If you offer benefits like tuition assistance or paying for certification, emphasize it in a posting. And have flexibility, when possible, with your current employees so they share the positive experiences they have with others or on job review sites.

And the practices that bring people in, may also help keep good people with a company.

“The goal is to go beyond finding the right people. You also want to keep them,” Lee said “The benefits of good practices that help with recruiting and hiring will likely benefit employee retention too.”

Article by Sarah Tuxbury. If you’re a member of the media and would like to interview Associate Professor Junghyun (Jessie) Lee about this topic, please drop us a line at ��Dearborn-News@umich.edu.

Experiential Learning

Mon, 12/13/2021 - 06:00

The College of Business course HRM 406: Talent Acquisition and Management helps people become more effective in recruiting and selecting employees. Here are three top take-a-ways from the class.

Graphic by Violet Dashi

News

Everything vs. Gen Z

tinahu — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 19:37:55 +0000

Everything vs. Gen Z tinahu Tue, 03/15/2022 - 15:37

There are comparative images circulating around social media. They look something like this: A soldier is on one side and, on the other, there’s a young person holding a cell phone. “My grandfather at 20: A war veteran, married with a kid on the way. Me at 20: Feeling like a big boy because I just made my first doctor’s appointment.”

Another uses the Me vs. My Parents meme. It says, “My parents at age 25: ‘We should start saving for retirement.’ Me at age 25: ‘If I go to sleep now, I won’t have to buy food’.” One with a bit more levity shows the parents thinking about getting married at 25 compared to the Me at age 25 saying, “I love Bulbasaur.”

Sociology Professor Pamela Aronson’s research focuses on the transition to adulthood. She said that Generation Z (individuals born after 1996) are aware of the differences between themselves and previous generations and they often go to the Internet to vent these frustrations and concerns through humor and sarcasm.

Aronson said there’s much more going on behind the scenes of seemingly clear cut generational responsibility differences — namely difficulty paying for postsecondary education, the lack of entry-level employment opportunities that could support a family, difficulty obtaining home ownership, and a shift in social norms to develop oneself personally and professionally prior to committed partnerships. She said these challenges have existed for some time — but the pandemic has made things much worse. That’s in addition to Gen Z already experiencing news of mass shootings, deportations, the opioid crisis and rising suicide rates.

Aronson, who’s spoken to media outlets like BBC, Salon and Vox about the pandemic’s effect on the transition to adulthood, shares what her research has shown when it comes to Generation Z’s coming of age and gives advice on how more established adults help this generation create pathways to success.

The pandemic experience is a defining characteristic of the Gen Z identity. Here’s how young people have been affected — and continue to be.

Established adults with developed careers may not understand why learning or working from home during the pandemic led to depression and anxiety among teenagers and early 20-somethings.

“Older adults have had time to establish themselves, so remote work or school was only a part of their lives. But it encompassed much more for Gen Z,” said Aronson, who has Gen Z-aged children. “Young people use school or entry-level workspaces to learn how to interact with others. At a time in life when identity, friendships and romance are very important developmentally, they were forced to abruptly end their social lives. They are at an age where they are developing interests, their identity and networks — and were isolated. That’s a big deal.”

The insecurity and uncertainty of the pandemic has had an impact on young adults’ lives too. A study of U.S. post-high school students during the early stage of the pandemic found substantial food insecurity, housing insecurity and anxiety. On the job front, large numbers of Gen Z lost their employment. Aronson, who has looked at this delayed transition to adulthood phenomenon at the global level, said the International Labour Organization estimates that more than one in six young people lost their jobs during the pandemic, and those with jobs had their hours reduced by nearly 25%. “Despite the supposed labor shortage, many recent college graduates are struggling to find a career path in their fields of study. The labor shortage is disproportionately in service jobs, not professional ones,” she said.

Even education was interrupted when it became a health risk. Aronson said remote instruction put many underserved students in the U.S. at a disadvantage because they didn’t have the resources, like computers or Internet access, yet needed to continue with educational programs. Due to getting further behind their peers, Aronson said it’s likely that these youth will lower their educational aspirations, have increasing difficulty completing school and vocational certification programs, and/or drop out.

“We don’t know yet how the pandemic and its associated economic uncertainties will impact young people, although we know that it is likely to be lasting.”

Memes, sarcasm and dark humor are other Gen Z defining characteristics.

To better understand Gen Z on their terms, Aronson researched memes on social media sites. Her recent publication “Zoom Memes for Self-Quaranteens: Generational Humor, Identity, and Conflict During the Pandemic” analyzed memes posted on popular online social groups established during the pandemic.

Aronson, along with ��-Dearborn student researcher Islam Jaffal, found that three themes emerged: pandemic humor, generational identity humor and generational conflict humor. Posts emphasized commonly understood references to issues like online learning, productivity and mental health.

“Memes about the pandemic include sub-themes of a coming apocalypse, adults who deny the seriousness of COVID-19, and a more general expression of negative feelings — particularly anger and fear — through humor,” she said.

She said some posts emphasized hostility and mistrust with the older generations because young people felt abandoned by older adults and those in power who have been unable to provide adequate leadership through the pandemic.

“Essentially, young adults are depicting the failure of institutions to protect and nurture them during this time of incredible crisis and distress.”

At a critical period in their lives, history is coming down on them — they need resources and opportunities.

Collective trauma humor may be a defining feature, but Aronson wants parents, teachers and future employers to understand that what they are experiencing is not a laughing matter. Young people who are coming of age at such an unprecedented, uncertain and turbulent time are likely to be shaped by it and need support, she said.

“People who came of age during the Great Depression often continued to hoard food or be concerned about having enough even when they became financially secure. And Millennials, many of whom came of age during the Great Recession, are still impacted by that in terms of every life sphere. Studies of the Great Recession reveal persisting difficulties in terms of wages, career opportunities, wealth accumulation and home ownership. Experiences you have when coming of age often stick with you throughout life.”

With the changes that have taken place over the past two years, mental health issues among young people have drastically risen. Aronson said a lack of understanding, compassion and resources don’t help. “I think we need to turn this problem on its head — Gen Z is not at fault here. Society is not providing enough support to young adults during this critical period of life.”

If possible, parents and family can help navigate resources like education and employment. “Be patient, give them your time to listen, and help them access forms of support when available.”

To build a bridge for education, Aronson said more resources are needed for postsecondary education. In some countries, higher education is tuition-free. In many others, like the United States, Great Britain and Japan, college tuition can be a formidable expenditure for most families. That’s why it’s important for higher education institutions to create financial aid programs like Go Blue Guarantee and STEM Scholars.

As for social norms, Aronson said it's important to recognize there may be classroom or workplace faux pas because Gen Z have often viewed educational and office spaces from the outside. She suggests setting upmentor programs and making classroom or workplace expectations clear. Companies may also consider developing long-term training on both hard skills like technical knowledge and soft skills like teamwork.

And Aronson hopes that employers understand there will be resume gaps because many young people had reduced opportunities to complete internships or get professional entry-level jobs.

“Gen Z is at an intersection between history and biography — they are at a critical period in their lives and history is coming down on them in a dramatic way,” Aronson said. “Gen Z hasn’t had the opportunities of other generations at the same point in time. I hope we remember to give our young people a chance.”

Article by Sarah Tuxbury.

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Social Sciences

Off

Tue, 03/15/2022 - 19:37

Sociology Professor Pamela Aronson, who’s spoken to media outlets like BBC, Salon and Vox about the pandemic’s effect on the transition to adulthood, shares research and advice on how more established adults can help Generation Z create pathways to success.

Graphic by Violet Dashi

News

Should the price of gas fuel presidential performance ratings?

tinahu — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 17:02:01 +0000

Should the price of gas fuel presidential performance ratings? tinahu Wed, 03/09/2022 - 12:02

Gas prices are rising. No inflation relief is in sight. The pandemic is now in its third year. And there’s an international war. All while the U.S. political system continues to be politically polarized.

It’s a tough time to be a world leader. And the current U.S. presidential approval ratings like Gallup and Marist Poll — which act as a barometer into the political health of the president — echo this. Among post-World War II presidents elected to their first term,nearly all first-year presidents averaged 57% or better. But President Joe Biden’s recent Gallup low of 41% puts him near the bottom.

But is a failing grade deserved?

Associate Professor Julio Borquez

Political Science Associate Professor Julio Borquez, whose polling research spans 40 years, says it depends on who’s asked. His expert take? Biden got caught at the crossroads of unfortunate circumstances and unrealistic expectations.

“Biden’s approval ratings are following a pattern similar to what we’ve seen in recent presidencies. He began with a decent (Gallup) approval rating of 57%, and it has dropped in the year or so since down to its current 41%. The decline began last summer, and it can probably be pegged to inflation, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the emergence of Omicron and a stalled legislative agenda.” Of course there’s also the “record high” gas prices — but, to be fair to Biden, gas prices were 32% higher in 2008 under President George W. Bush if inflation is taken into account.

Talking with Borquez recently, he examined how political polarization impacts the presidential approval rating, what a low approval percentage could mean at the midterm elections, and if there is anything Biden can do to appeal to the American public.

There’s been a bump in recent numbers (48% on March 4) according to the Marist Poll. What are your thoughts on this?

Julio Borquez: “JFK got a spike in his approval rating around the time of the Cuban missile crisis. (Jimmy) Carter got one when hostages were first taken in Iran. George W. Bush’s ratings rallied to 90% after 9/11. Approval ratings can increase, sometimes dramatically, immediately after foreign policy crises.

It may be from the State of the Union, but it’s more likely that Joe Biden is getting a bump from the public giving him the benefit of the doubt on how he’s handling the conflict in Ukraine. It’s a small bump — I wouldn’t call it a rally. We’ll see what the future brings because approval ratings often suffer as wars continue and casualties mount.”

Do these approval numbers matter?

“Lots of people take it seriously as a barometer. That includes members of Congress, journalists and lobbyists. The real danger in Biden's current approval rating is for his party's candidates in the midterm election. Congressional incumbents today can’t separate themselves from national political currents as they once could. And anemic approval ratings like Biden’s are certainly an unwelcome current for Democratic congressional incumbents.

In general, an approval rating over 50% is considered good and approval ratings below 50% are considered to be concerning. In 2018, Donald Trump's approval rating in the Gallup poll before the midterm election was in the low 40s. Republicans lost 40 House seats and the majority. In 2010, Barack Obama's approval rating had dipped to 45%. Democrats lost 63 seats and the majority. In 1994, Bill Clinton's approval rating was 46%. Democrats lost 53 seats and the majority. You get the picture. George W. Bush’s approval ratings were over 60% throughout the fall of 2002, and the Republicans gained two Senate seats and eight House seats.

Biden’s approval rating of 41% might not have his staff hitting the panic button, but they’ve probably double-checked on where the button is.”

Is it fair to be so critical of Joe Biden?

“In Biden’s case, he encouraged high expectations. He was optimistic about reigning in the pandemic, he advanced an ambitious policy agenda on infrastructure, climate, jobs, election reform and voting rights. Many Americans perhaps do expect too much from presidents — but Biden asked us to expect a lot.”

He’s getting blamed for rising gas prices. Is that warranted?

“I’ve recently returned from California and have seen our future when it comes to gas prices — $5.59 a gallon in Oakland. That’s not going to go over well for Biden. But the price of gas is not something a president can control or quickly fix outside of reducing or suspending the federal tax on it — that will only have a limited effect (taxes on gasoline and diesel are 18.4 and 24.4 cents per gallon respectively). I get why people are upset — it’s something we are seeing on Main Street and it’s impacting our lives. But we need to understand that Biden cannot control all of the external factors behind the record high oil prices, he can only react to them.

Joe Biden has done good things. The infrastructure bill that he signed into law back in November comes to mind. But tangible results of that bill will be slow to roll out — specific spending decisions are yet to be made and the projects themselves will play out over months, if not years. It’s no accident that when Biden made a recent trip to Ohio, one of his tasks was to remind voters about the infrastructure bill.”

Is there more at play here than Biden setting high expectations?

“Going back to the 2020 elections, it was evident that a lot of Biden voters weren’t wildly enthusiastic about him and they voted for Biden because he wasn’t Donald Trump. The erosion of support for Biden we’re seeing now among Democrats and Independents might be among those citizens who were motivated more by dislike of Trump than by admiration of Biden.

In recent years, as American politics has become more polarized, many analysts now see presidential approval as primarily a measure of partisanship. Obama’s approval ratings didn’t change much with fluctuations in the economy. That’s because Democrats supported, and Republicans opposed him regardless. We saw the same thing with Trump’s approval ratings, except with the partisan patterns reversed.

Biden’s current Gallup overall approval rating is 41%. But if you look down party lines, it shows the division that exists — approval ratings among Republicans have never topped 12%, and they’ve been in single digits since last August. Biden’s current approval rating among Democrats is 78% and it’s 7% among Republicans. Partisan polarization creates both a floor and a ceiling for Biden’s approval ratings. Persistent Republican opposition sets the ceiling, ongoing Democratic support provides the floor. This appears to be an important new feature in presidential approval ratings. Partisan polarization sets limits to how much approval ratings can rise or fall.

A president’s ‘power to persuade’ depends, in part, on his ability to get members of Congress to think that it’s in their best interest to support the president’s agenda. A president with a robust approval rating — say, over 50% — can more easily make that case. Biden’s 41% rating isn’t much of an asset. Realistically, there’s not much he can do to drastically change it because of the partisan patterns that exist.”

If our leaders are relatively ineffective because of political polarization, what can we do?

“Use your vote to demand that both parties take a responsible role in government. Currently, in Congress, Republicans are sitting on the sideline and their strategy is rock-solid opposition to most Biden-backed proposals that are brought forward. They don’t want to advance anything — so they do nothing. And Democrats are trying to grapple with disagreements among themselves because they need to maintain near unanimous Democrat support to get anything moving.

I do understand that the Build Back Better bill was massive and the size of it gave some Democrats and most Republicans an easy rationale to say no. Perhaps Congress could have done a piece-by-piece strategy and voted on it that way. The issue is that no one wants to give any appearance of a win to the other party. That’s become more important than working together to best represent the American public.

We need to put pressure on both parties to step up to the plate. At this time, only one party is really trying to do that. We need to use our votes to back politicians who will take policymaking seriously and who will work for the people and not just their party.”

Article by Sarah Tuxbury.

Civics Awareness

Faculty Research

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College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Social Sciences

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Wed, 03/09/2022 - 17:02

Political Science Associate Professor Julio Borquez says many factors go into a president’s approval rating and breaks down the factors behind Biden's current polling numbers. He also shares what we, as voters, can do to foster a future where polarization doesn't get in the way of progress.

Graphic by Violet Dashi

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Should the price of gas fuel presidential performance ratings?

There’s been a bump in recent numbers (48% on March 4) according to the Marist Poll. What are your thoughts on this?

Do these approval numbers matter?

Is it fair to be so critical of Joe Biden?

He’s getting blamed for rising gas prices. Is that warranted?

Is there more at play here than Biden setting high expectations?

If our leaders are relatively ineffective because of political polarization, what can we do?

��-Dearborn Experts