September – 2024 – Work in Progress

The gendered consequences of informal coaching in Silicon Valley

Sigrid Luhr
September 29, 2024

Image: Olia Danilevich via Pexels (CC0 1.0)

For the past decade, major technology companies have grappled with the underrepresentation of women in their industry, especially in technical roles like software engineering. Much of the conversation surrounding gender inequality in the tech industry focuses on the educational pipeline: specifically, the relatively low proportions of women graduating with computer science degrees.

In a new article in the American Journal of Sociology, I argue that women are not only underrepresented in these technical roles because they lack educational credentials but because they are not given the same opportunities as men to learn relevant skills on the job.

New book, Research Findings

Class power, partisan linkages, and labor policy reform

Pablo Pérez-Ahumada
September 9, 2024

Neoliberalism has profoundly transformed industrial relations systems—most notably, the implementation of pro-business labor policies aiming at decentralizing collective bargaining and restricting unions’ bargaining power.

In the last decades, neoliberalism has been publicly contested by labor unions and social movements across the globe. However, neoliberal labor policies have proven resilient against reform. In most countries progressive governments have been unable to implement policies to restore the institutional power resources unions used to have during the “golden age” of welfare capitalism.

Why is it so difficult to reform neoliberal, pro-business labor laws? How, in the context of highly globalized societies, can workers overcome the constraints progressive governments face in promoting pro-labor policies? How, in these contexts, can organized labor influence the policymaking process?

September 2024

The gendered consequences of informal coaching in Silicon Valley

Class power, partisan linkages, and labor policy reform