Faculty Fellows' Lunch Featuring Lauren Davenport

Lauren Davenport: "The Dominant Role of Gender in the Construction of Multiracial Identification."

While we understand that there is a profound relationship between gender and the significance of racial identities, less is known about the impact of gender on the particular racial labels Americans select. I disentangle the impact of gender on race by examining a group for whom racial identification is thoroughly constructed: individuals of mixed racial parentage. Employing both quantitative and qualitative evidence, I find that, net of other social and economic factors, gender strongly predicts the racial labels biracial individuals select. Explanations for these gender differences in racial identification include the disparate effects of skin tone and appearance for men and women, and the gendered nature of racial discrimination in the United States. 

Lauren Davenport is an Assistant Professor of Political Science.