Cleavage in Women's Organizations: A Reflection of the Social Structure of a City

Abstract

Bay Region, thus affording, with the Shevky-Williams findings for Los Angeles, a comparative framework. Two minor modifications were made in the typology to permit this intercity comparison. It was noted that while there was considerable variation in the distribution of the populations of the two regions in the various social area types, the census tracts composing a given social area represented homogeneous populations even when those tracts were located in different regions. This study substantiates the tentative claims of Shevky and Williams and indicates that their urban typology is a useful method for making intercity comparisons. Applications of the typology to other cities and to the same cities at different times are now feasible. Also, non-census data gathered in the course of field investigations can be cast in the same framework, allowing a study of the differential socialpsychological characteristics of the different social area populations as well.