The Global Sociology Blog

Via Information is Beautiful (click on the image for a ginormous view):

On NPR: As the article notes: “Part of the gap in pay is driven by choices, even within single job categories. Among physicians, for example, women are more likely than men to choose lower-paid specialties (though thisdoes not explain all of the pay gap among doctors). And among all workers, women are more likely than men [...]

Now these are interesting regional patterns in terms science education and gender: This visual is interactive so go click on the link above. It is interesting to see that the US is not the only Western country where boys score better than girls. Actually most Western European countries are the same category.  On the other [...]

Against atrocities: “A Saudi cleric who raped his five-year-old daughter and tortured her to death has been sentenced to pay “blood money” to the mother after having served a short jail term, activists have said. Fayhan al-Ghamdi, an Islamic cleric and regular guest on Islamic television networks, confessed to having used cables and a cane [...]

So, the other say, I made the claim that American Horror Story is a feminist series. Let me explain, based on the two seasons we have so far. As a disclaimer, I should add that AHS is one of my favorite shows on TV right now and I am a big fan of the concept [...]

Seriously. Think about it. I was half-convinced of it at the end of the first season (“Murder House”). I’m even more convinced now. I hope they keep it that way into the next seasons. I may have more later on this.

Via The Economist, this is why the only “pro-life” position is to be pro-choice, that blue line below: Also note that the abortion trend was upward before Roe (I wonder if the graph includes back-alley abortions, if not, then the pre-Roe level of abortion would be higher, invalidating somewhat the claim that Roe increased abortion [...]

Based on Urban Demographics’s post, it would appear so: The diversity, it is grossly lacking. Also, how many of them are still alive? It may be related to this (also from Urban Demographics): At the same time, it is expected that peer-reviewed publications to refer to the existing body of knowledge in each sub-field of [...]

I did not watch the new half season of the Walking Dead at the time it aired because (1) I can’t stand commercial breaks, and (2) I was saving it for the Holiday season and an 8-hour transatlantic flight. I have now watched the whole eight episodes back to back and I am pleased (and [...]

I did not know about this, but it is truly horrifying: “One 86-year-old woman, Rita McCann noted, “I came on the Luas and I didn’t know if the cinema was on this side or the other. Then I spotted two women and said, ‘I’m sure they are heading for it’. When you see the limps [...]

Because, seriously, last November: “Pressure mounted Thursday for the Irish government to draft a law spelling out when life-saving abortions can be performed – a demand that came after a pregnant woman who was denied an abortion died. Activists protested Thursday night in Belfast a day after thousands rallied in London, Dublin, Cork and Galway [...]

I have blogged before about the highly patriarchal practice of bride-kidnapping, especially in Kyrgyzstan, but here is a reminder from Al-Jazeera English. Part 1: Part 2: The government of Kyrgyzstan has decided to toughen the penalties for the practice and guess which excuse is trotted out to protest the change? Of course: tradition. “Kyrgyzstan’s parliament is [...]

1. Acid and remarriage: “Nurbanu divorced her husband of 18 years eight days before he returned and threw acid in her face in Shatkhira in south west Bangladesh. She had originally ended the marriage after she found him with another woman. “My husband went into hiding. After 10 months he was caught and jailed for [...]

About the whole gay marriage thing. Despite yesterday’s victories in three states, it is still not allowed in the larger part of the country:

Patriarchal cultures (and that’s pretty much all of them) have all sorts of creative ways of enforcing their norms on those who defy and resist them. They never run out of violent and publicly degrading way of punishing women and girls, especially, for their deviance, enlisting all social institutions to do their work of social [...]