Muna Adem, Department of Sociology UMD

About the Presentation

Contemporary perspectives on gender highlight the multilevel processes that maintain the gender system. This study investigates immigration as a source of diversity and adaptation in the gender system. Using data on immigrant and native adolescents in the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU), we examine the intergenerational transmission of attitudes about the domestic division of labor.  We find no significant difference between immigrant and native families in the association between mother’s gender attitudes and child’s gender attitudes. However, the persistence of beliefs grounded in family cultural origins results in significantly higher levels of gender traditionalism among adolescent children of immigrants as compared to their native peers. Our study underscores the centrality of families as the relational context that best accounts for both the reproduction of cultural beliefs about gender and the slow pace of shifts in hegemonic gender beliefs in response to social change.

About the Speaker

Muna Adem is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland. Her research lies at the intersection of race, ethnicity, and immigration. More broadly, Adem is interested in examining how immigration-driven diversity influences race relations, group divisions, and ethnoracial inequalities in the US. She also examines the ways that social processes related to race, ethnicity, and immigration diverge depending on national context and policies. To gain a better understanding of these macro-level forces, this line of research moves beyond the US context and employs a comparative framework in Europe. 

Seminar Format

Location IN PERSON: 2208 LeFrak Hall. We are requesting advanced registration so that we can track capacity.  Please use this link to RSVP.

Location ONLINE VIA ZOOM: Zoom Registration Link. Upon registration, you will receive an automatically generated email with the direct link for the seminar

• If accommodations are needed, please send request to meeting organizer (mprc-support@umd.edu) at least 72 hours prior to the event, if possible, to allow time to discuss and implement alternatives.

COVID-19 Information

MPRC public events for Spring 2024 will be a mix of in person and online via Zoom.  For in person events, all event attendees must follow current protocols