About the Journal
Established in 1895 as the first U.S. scholarly journal in its field, AJS remains a leading voice for analysis and research in the social sciences. The journal presents pathbreaking work from all areas of sociology, with an emphasis on theory building and innovative methods. AJS strives to speak to the general sociological reader and is open to sociologically informed contributions from anthropologists, statisticians, economists, educators, historians, and political scientists. AJS prizes research that offers new ways of understanding the social; for example, a project currently under way seeks to compile a special issue organized around genetic influences on social interaction.
AJS offers a substantial book review section that identifies the most salient work of both emerging and enduring scholars of social science. Commissioned review essays appear two or three times a year, offering the journal’s readers a comparative, in-depth examination of prominent titles.
Although AJS publishes a very small percentage of the papers submitted to it, a double-blind review process is available to all qualified submissions, making the journal a center for exchange and debate "behind" the printed page and contributing to the robustness of social science research in general.
Frequency: bimonthly. Volume 113 begins July 2007.
ISSN: 0002-9602. 300 pages/issue.
In the News
Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?
SHELLEY J. CORRELL
STEPHEN BENARD
IN PAIK
Survey research finds that mothers suffer a substantial wage penalty, although the causal mechanism producing it remains elusive. The authors employed a laboratory experiment to evaluate the hypothesis that status-based discrimination plays an important role and an audit study of actual employers to assess its real-world implications. In both studies, participants evaluated application materials for a pair of same-gender equally qualified job candidates who differed on parental status. The laboratory experiment found that mothers were penalized on a host of measures, including perceived competence and recommended starting salary. Men were not penalized for, and sometimes benefited from, being a parent. The audit study showed that actual employers discriminate against mothers, but not against fathers.
Featured in the New York Times, “Mom’s Mad. And She’s Organized.” February 22, 2007.