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Reviewed by:
  • Gender and American Jews: Patterns in Work, Education and Family in Contemporary Life
  • Debra Kaufman
Gender and American Jews: Patterns in Work, Education and Family in Contemporary Life, by Harriet Hartman and Moshe Hartman. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England/Brandeis University Press, 2009. 298 pp. $29.95

Gender and American Jews: Patterns in Work, Education and Family in Contemporary Life is an important book about the gendered life of American Jews. Indeed, it is more than that; it is a glimpse into the gendered dimensions of a population that should provide the litmus test of how far we have come and/ or still need to go in contemporary U.S.A. when we speak about gender parity. And I will begin with their conclusion: gender still matters and we still have a way to go, even among a population whose educational and occupational demographics suggest parity.

The primary data for this clearly written and very accessible book come from the National Jewish Population Survey undertaken in 2000 and 2001. When indicated, the authors compare the current data from this book to those gleaned from their earlier book, Gender Equality and American Jews (1996), whose findings were based on the 1990 National Jewish Population Study. [End Page 149] Thus they are presenting materials from the two most comprehensive national surveys of American Jews ever conducted and allowing us a glimpse into the changes over the decade between the two surveys.

What is remarkable about the book is the balanced, wary, and thorough approach to the data of its authors. Hartman and Hartman make us aware of the limits of the data and the data gathering process while maximizing the analytic possibilities inherent in the very same data. The first part of the book focuses on the distinctiveness of American Jews as compared with the broader U.S. population in terms of men's and women's educational attainment, family behavior, labor force patterns, and occupational attainment. The second part of the book examines various expressions of "Jewishness" (Jewish identity), gender, and secular behavior.

Hartman and Hartman's findings indicate that gender continues to differentiate American Jews from the population at large in terms of family behavior, labor force participation, occupational achievements, and rewards, as well as in expressions and strength of Jewish identity within the community. These findings are important for our understanding of the role gender plays in our everyday lives as Americans—Jewish or not. For instance, a higher proportion of Jewish men and women are represented in professional occupations and a lower proportion in the blue-collar and service sectors than the population at large; and American Jewish men and women show a greater similarity in their occupations than non-Jews. Although American Jewish women have achieved a greater degree of parity with their male counterparts than women in the population at large, there still exists a significant gap between their incomes and that of Jewish men. This is important, since, as the authors put it, "American Jews embody the best chances for gender equality among all subgroups in the U.S." (p. 253).

This gender inequality in income between Jewish women and men may highlight problems common to many professional women. Despite the significant gains women have made by entering the major prestige professions over the last few decades, income differences between professional women and men persist (even when women work the same number of hours as men). We need not look to human capital theory to explain those differences; the structural barriers tell a very compelling story. Often excluded from the very arena where the important lessons for success are taught, professional women, the data suggest, are not mentored in the same way as men. Consequently, many social scientists argue that women are not as likely to be provided with the same resources as men, are not promoted at the same rate as men, and are more likely to be found in the lower prestige specialties within their professions. Thus, in general, despite women's overall gains in occupational prestige [End Page 150] and increasing similarity to male patterns of labor force participation, gender inequalities still exist. Perhaps, then, Jewish women's...

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