Lecture at Lenox Library to Examine Race and Gender Inequality in Service Industries
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LENOX, Mass. — The Lenox Library will conclude its 2024-2025 Distinguished Lecture Series on Sunday, April 27, 2025, at 4:00 p.m. with a presentation by Francisca Oyogoa, Assistant Professor in Sociology and African American Studies at Bard College at Simon's Rock.
Her talk is titled "Race and Gender Inequality in Service Work on Trains, Airplanes, and Cruise Ships."
Dr. Oyogoa will discuss the creation, maintenance, and legitimization of race-gender hierarchies within the Pullman Railroad Company (1860s to 1960s), four major U.S. airlines (1930s to 1970s), and U.S.-owned cruise companies (1970s to 2000s). Her analysis will focus on firm-level data and examine the role of employers, including management actions and their stated race-gender ideologies concerning service workers.
Francisca Oyogoa, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in Sociology and African-American Studies at Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington. She holds degrees from Bowdoin College (BA) and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (PhD). Her research and teaching areas include labor, class, gender, globalization, race and ethnic studies, and migration. Dr. Oyogoa is the author of "Servants on the Move: Employers' Race-Gender Ideology and Service Work on Trains, Planes, and Cruise Ships" (Lexington, 2024). Her current research explores race, gender, and the North American expat experience in Latin America.
The Distinguished Lecture Series, now in its 18th season, is organized and hosted by Dr. Jeremy Yudkin, Professor of Music and Co-Director of the Center for Beethoven Research at Boston University. The lectures are free and open to the public. More information can be found at
