The Magnifying Effect of Privilege: Earnings Inequalities at the Intersection of Gender, Race, and Nativity

Feminist concerns about the epistemological problems of quantitative methods have resulted in an underdevelopment of quantitative approaches that could contribute to existing intersectional theory. Further, feminist scholars commonly consider the effects of gender as it intersects with race or class, but relatively little of this research has included nativity (being either an immigrant or native-born to a society). This article addresses these shortcomings by examining patterns of earnings inequality at the intersection of gender, race, and nativity, comparing cohorts of African-born Black and white immigrants to their US-born counterparts over multiple time-points. Further, the depressive effects of gender are large enough so that while there are differences in women’s earnings across race and nativity, nearly all groups of men still earn more than nearly all groups of women. The article’s results demonstrate that privilege has a magnifying effect, with the advantages conferred from one privileged status increasing the effects of other privilege statuses, which become larger over time. These findings contribute to how feminists understand privileges and oppressions emerging from the intersections of gender with other social statuses, and how such intersections shape economic inequality.