Yasemin Besen-Cassino | |
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| Born | Istanbul, Turkey |
| Spouse | Dan Cassino |
| Academic background | |
| Education | BA,Boğaziçi University MA, PhD, 2005,Stony Brook University |
| Thesis | Consumption of production: why do teenagers work in the United States? (2005) |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Montclair State University |
Yasemin Besen-Cassino (born 1978) is an American sociologist. She is a professor of sociology atMontclair State University and editor forContemporary Sociology. Besen-Cassino is married to political scientistDan Cassino and the two often collaborate on research projects.
Besen-Cassino was born on December 27, 1978,[1] in Istanbul, Turkey to two working parents.[2] She earned herBachelor of Arts degree in sociology fromBoğaziçi University before moving to North America for her graduate degrees atStony Brook University.[3]
Following her PhD, Besen-Cassino immediately joined the Sociology Department atMontclair State University where she specialized in teaching about gender and youth.[4] Alongside her husband, political scientistDan Cassino, they co-authoredConsuming Politics: Jon Stewart, Branding, and the Youth Vote in America in 2009 through theFairleigh Dickinson University Press. The book, which is based during the2008 United States presidential election, studied how modern youth viewed politics differently than their ancestors. Through hundreds of in-depth interviews and telephone surveys, they concluded that voting-aged youth in 2008 saw politics "in the same way that they see consumer goods and brands."[5] In the same year, Besen-Cassino also testified in support of theLilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.[2]
Besen-Cassino published her first ethnographic book throughTemple University Press in 2014 titledConsuming Work: Youth Labor in America. InConsuming Work, she releases her findings of the workforce within an upscale coffee shop who "seek to hire "cool people" with the "right vibe." Besen-Cassino argued that such low paying and exploitative jobs were only considered such by outside forces, such as adults, but welcomed by working youth. She also argues that work itself has become "a branded experience to be consumed by young people," as affluent youth wish to work to associate themselves with a brand rather than for a pay cheque.[6][7]
Besen-Cassino followed her first book up with another titledThe Cost of Being a Girl: Working Teens and the Origins of the Gender Wage Gap, which examined the experiences of young women compared to their male counterparts. In this book, she explores how theGender pay gap begins once children turned 14 or 15 and began diverting from freelance jobs to employee-type jobs.[8] She also found that when youth beginbabysitting, girls were more often asked to stay later or do extra chores because they were seen as "natural caretakers."[9] As such, when children enter the workforce, their expectations of work versus pay were different and women were expected to do more work for less pay.[8][10]
In 2019, Besen-Cassino was appointed editor forContemporary Sociology, having previously served as managing editor ofMen and Masculinities and sat on the editorial board ofContexts.[4] In the same year, Besen-Cassino and her husband published a study which found that Black women were more likely to report sexual harassment in the workplace than white women.[11] However, their research also showed that African American women were more likely to experience harassment compared to white women.[12]
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