Gender and the Neighborhood Location of Mixed-Race Couples

Abstract

Gender asymmetry in mixed-race heterosexual partnerships and marriages is common. For instance, black men marry or partner with white women at a far higher rate than white men marry or partner with black women. This article asks if such gender asymmetries relate to the racial character of the neighborhoods in which households headed by mixed-race couples live. Gendered power imbalances within households generally play into decisions about where to live or where to move (i.e., men typically benefit more than women), and we find the same in mixed-race couple arrangements and residential attainment. Gender interacts with race to produce a measurable race-by-gender effect. Specifically, we report a positive relationship between the percentage white in a neighborhood and the presence of households headed by mixed-race couples with a white male partner. The opposite holds for households headed by white-blacks and white-Latinos if the female partner is white; they are drawn to predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods. The results have implications for investigations of residential location attainment, neighborhood segregation analysis, and mixed-race studies.

The diverse geographies of mixed-ethnicity couples

“…Research in the US suggests that mixed-race couples' residential geographies more closely reflect the male partner's race (Wright et al, 2013). We find no substantive evidence of gender imbalances in Australian mixed-ethnicity couples' propensity to live in areas with either high ethnic minority or high Anglo-European concentrations.…”

“…In later sections of the analysis, we disaggregate each mixed-ethnicity couple type by two additional variables: the ethnicity of the male partner (for opposite-sex couples) and the presence of dependent children. These attributes were selected based on evidence that gender (Wright et al, 2013) and family composition (Caballero et al, 2008;Twine, 1999) impact mixed-ethnicity couples' decisions about where to live. As our data consist of counts of couples in geographic areas, disaggregation according to other axes of difference was not feasible -it would have resulted in a proliferation of small numbers.…”

“…For instance, Holloway et al (2005) noted that higher-income, home-owning mixed-race couples tended to live in 'whiter' neighbourhoods than other mixed-race couples. Meanwhile Wright et al (2013) revealed gender asymmetries: mixed-race couples' settlement patterns tend to be more aligned with the male partner's racial group. However, regression analyses have shown that the ethnicity of one's partner exerts an independent effect on residential location after controlling for other demographic characteristics (Ellis et al, 2006;White and Sassler, 2000).…”

The Instability of Highly Racially Diverse Residential Neighborhoods in the United States

“…But such a social world does not exist, and in actuality, the spatial isolation of groups, particularly of Whites, reflects and maintains the racial hierarchy in the United States (Delaney 1998). Although overt discrimination is outlawed, White supremacist ideologies continue to shape life outcomes and remain central to social relations (e.g., Bonilla-Silva 2001; Desmond and Emirbayer 2010; Omi and Winant 2014), interpersonal interactions and intermarriage (e.g., Mouw and Entwistle 2006; Wright, Holloway, and Ellis 2013), and neighborhood composition and its implications for wealth and wellbeing (e.g., Howell and Emerson 2017; Oliver and Shapiro 2013; Sharkey 2013; Valentine 2008).…”

Race and ethnicity III

“…This is in part an artefact of changing Census definitions of race and ethnicity, but also speaks to increased immigration levels and to the fluidity that racial identification has assumed over the last decade or so (Brunsma, 2006). The rise of multi-racial identities has been a particular focus of geographic scholarship (contributions to King-O'Riain et al, 2014;Wright et al, 2013), as have the emerging intra-racial dynamics in US cities (Lukinbeal et al, 2012). In various ways, these contributions all explore contemporary segregation patterns.…”