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Women in the Great Migration

Economic Activity of Black and White Southern-Born Female Migrants in 1920, 1940, and 1970

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Katherine J. Curtis White
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Abstract

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Using data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), this analysis examines the economic activity of black and white southern-born female migrants participating in the Great Migration. Labor force participation and occupational SEI scores are investigated with specific focus on racial differences within and between migrant groups. Black migrants had a higher probability of participating in the labor force, yet their employment was concentrated among the lower SEI occupations throughout the period. Racial differences also were observed among the influence of personal, household, and location characteristics on economic activity such that the positive associations were less pronounced, while the negative impacts were differentially felt among black migrant women; education was less beneficial, and the deterring effects of marital status were less pronounced for black migrants. Racial differences narrowed at the end of the Great Migration for the southern migrants, reflecting a pattern most similar to nonmigrant northerners and more advantageous than that observed for nonmigrant southern women.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , Fall 2005 , pp. 413 - 455
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2005 

Footnotes

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This work was supported by the Shanahan Fellowship through the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington, and by Center Grant P30 HD05876 and Training Grant T32 HD07014 from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, through the Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin. The author acknowledges Stewart E. Tolnay for his guidance throughout the development of this article and Kyle D. Crowder, Avery M. Guest, Jerald R. Herting, Becky Pettit, and Koray Tanfer for their insightful comments, in addition to the helpful suggestions of the editor and three anonymous reviewers of Social Science History.

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