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Title: Seperate and Not Equal? Gender Segregation in the Labor Market and the Gender Wage Gap

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2010

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Abstract: Occupational gender segregation is astrong feature of the US labor market.While some occupations have become increasinglyintegrated over time, others remainhighly dominated by either men orwomen. Our analysis of trends in overallgender segregation shows that, after a considerablemove towards more integratedoccupations in the 1970s and 1980s,progress has completely stalled since themid 1990s. Occupational segregation is aconcern to policy makers for two reasons:it is inefficient economically, preventingable people from moving into occupationswhere they could perform well and thatwould satisfy them more than the onesopen to them. And occupational segregationis a major cause for the persistentwage gap. Our analysis confirms that averageearnings tend to be lower the higher the percentage of female workers in an occupation, and that this relationshipis strongest for the most highly skilled occupations, such as medicine or law. Yet this is also a strong feature of jobsrequiring little formal education and experience, increasing the likelihood of very low earnings for women working infemale-dominated, low-skilled occupations such as childcare.

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Authors: Hegewisch, Ariane; Hartmann, Heidi; Hayes, Jeffrey; Liepmann, Hannah

Publisher: Institute for Women's Policy Research

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure

Countries: United States