Sex Segregation in the Workplace

This chapter reviews research on the segregation of women and men in the workplace. After examining ways to measure segregation, I summarize trends in sex segregation in the United States and cross-nationally. Occupational segregation has declined since 1970, but most workers remain in sex segregated jobs. I then evaluate the empirical support for explanations for segregation. Demand-side explanations include employers' preferences, the demand for workers, economic pressures, discrimination, and personnel practices. Supply-side explanations include the size of the labor supply, the neoclassical human-capital explanation, gender-role socialization, workers' values, and the opportunity structure. I conclude that a variety of social and economic forces operate both to perpetuate and to reduce segregation. However, workplace segregation is an important mechanism in sex stratification, and a stratification perspective stresses the importance of demand-side factors. I call for research on sex segregation that e...

[1]  R. Rosenfeld,et al.  Sex Segregation and Sectors: An Analysis of Gender Differences in Returns from Employer Changes , 1983 .

[2]  N. Fenton.  The Personal Interview , 1934 .

[3]  L. Waite,et al.  Women in nontraditional occupations: choice and turnover. , 1985 .

[4]  Robert L. Nelson,et al.  Markets in Hierarchies: Organizational and Market Influences on Gender Inequality in a State Pay System , 1989, American Journal of Sociology.

[5]  A. Beller.  Occupational Segregation by Sex: Determinants and Changes , 1982 .

[6]  S. Harlan,et al.  Craftworkers and Clerks: The Effect of Male Co-Worker Hostility on Women's Satisfaction with Non-Traditional Jobs , 1982 .

[7]  R. Rosenfeld,et al.  Occupational Sex Segregation and Women's Early Career Job Shifts , 1992 .

[8]  J. Lorence.  Service Sector Growth and Metropolitan Occupational Sex Segregation , 1992 .

[9]  Jonathan S. Leonard.  Women and Affirmative Action , 1989 .

[10]  Claudia Goldin,et al.  Understanding The Gender Gap , 1992 .

[11]  Sonya O. Rose,et al.  Gender antagonism and class conflict: Exclusionary strategies of male trade unionists in nineteenth‐century Britain∗ , 1988 .

[12]  Mark S. Granovetter.  Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers , 1974 .

[13]  B. Thorne,et al.  Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School , 1993 .

[14]  R. Filer.  SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS: THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITIES AND TASTES* , 1983 .

[15]  James N. Baron,et al.  CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVES: THE STRUCTURE OF JOB TITLES IN CALIFORNIA STATE AGENCIES* , 1990 .

[16]  R. Hodge,et al.  Occupational Assimilation as a Competitive Process , 1965, American Journal of Sociology.

[17]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  Home-Based White Collar Employment: Lessons from the 1980 Census , 1987 .

[18]  S. Kulis,et al.  Organizations, Labor Markets, and Gender Integration in Academic Sociology , 1992 .

[19]  Francine D. Blau,et al.  Race and Gender Pay Differentials , 1992 .

[20]  N. Sokoloff.  Black women and white women in the professions , 1992 .

[21]  R. Steinberg,et al.  Managerial Promotions in the Public Sector , 1990 .

[22]  D. Aigner,et al.  Statistical Theories of Discrimination in Labor Markets , 1977 .

[23]  Christine L. Williams.  Still a Man's World , 2023 .

[24]  George Farkas,et al.  Explaining Occupational Sex Segregation and Wages: Findings from a Model with Fixed Effects , 1988 .

[25]  V. Oppenheimer.  The Female Labor Force in the United States: Demographic and Economic Factors Governing Its Growth and Changing Composition , 1970 .

[26]  D. Treiman,et al.  Women, work, and wages : equal pay for jobs of equal value , 1982 .

[27]  M. Semyonov,et al.  INDUSTRIAL SHIFTS, FEMALE EMPLOYMENT, AND OCCUPA- TIONAL DIFFERENTIATION: A DYNAMIC MODEL FOR AMERI- , 1983 .

[28]  James N. Baron,et al.  Men and Women at Work: Sex Segregation and Statistical Discrimination , 1986, American Journal of Sociology.

[29]  Lee Rainwater,et al.  What Is a Good Job? A New Measure of Labor-Market Success , 1988, American Journal of Sociology.

[30]  Barbara F. Reskin,et al.  Women and Men at Work. , 1996 .

[31]  P. England.  Skill Demands and Earnings in Female and Male Occupations. , 1982 .

[32]  C. Epstein,et al.  Justice and Gender , 1989 .

[33]  T. Lyson.  Industrial Transformation and Occupational Sex Differentiation: Evidence from New Zealand and the United States , 1986 .

[34]  Irene Padavic.  WHITE-COLLAR WORK VALUES AND WOMEN'S INTEREST IN BLUE-COLLAR JOBS , 1992 .

[35]  R. Rosenfeld,et al.  A Cross-National Comparison of the Gender Gap in Income , 1990, American Journal of Sociology.

[36]  R. F. Szafran.  What Kinds of Firms Hire and Promote Women and Blacks? A Review of the Literature* , 1982 .

[37]  B. Reskin,et al.  Job Queues, Gender Queues: Explaining Women's Inroads into Male Occupations , 1990 .

[38]  B. Reskin,et al.  Women's work, men's work : sex segregation on the job , 1986 .

[39]  J. Jacobs.  Women's Entry into Management: Trends in Earnings, Authority, and Values among Salaried Managers , 1992 .

[40]  Jerry A. Jacobs,et al.  Long-Term Trends in Occupational Segregation by Sex , 1989, American Journal of Sociology.

[41]  J. Jacobs,et al.  Trends in Occupational and Industrial Sex Segregation in 56 Countries, 1960-1980 , 1992 .

[42]  B. Reskin,et al.  Supervisors as Gatekeepers: Male Supervisors' Response to Women's Integration in Plant Jobs , 1988 .

[43]  S. Hoffman,et al.  On-the-Job Training and Earnings Differences by Race and Sex , 1979 .

[44]  James M. McPartland,et al.  How Minorities Continue to Be Excluded from Equal Employment Opportunities: Research on Labor Market and Institutional Barriers , 1987 .

[45]  Maria Charles,et al.  Cross-National Variation in Occupational Sex Segregation , 1992 .

[46]  B. Reskin.  Sex segregation in the workplace : trends, explanations, remedies , 1985 .

[47]  D. Alwin,et al.  Causes and consequences of sex-role attitudes and attitude change. , 1983, American sociological review.

[48]  L. Perman,et al.  INDUSTRIAL SEGREGATION AND THE GENDER DISTRIBUTION OF FRINGE BENEFITS , 1989 .

[49]  Paula England,et al.  The Failure of Human Capital Theory to Explain Occupational Sex Segregation. , 1982 .

[50]  J. Gruber,et al.  Blue-Collar Blues , 1982 .

[51]  R. Levinson.  Sex Discrimination and Employment Practices: An Experiment with Unconventional Job Inquiries , 1975 .

[52]  Frank M. Howell,et al.  Sex and Mobility in the Dual Economy , 1986 .

[53]  Thomas A. DiPrete,et al.  The Bureaucratic Labor Market , 1989 .

[54]  R. F. Szafran.  Female and Minority Employment Patterns in Banks , 1984 .

[55]  C. Halaby.  Sexual inequality in the workplace: An employer-specific analysis of pay differences , 1979 .

[56]  E. Phelps.  The Statistical Theory of Racism and Sexism , 1972 .

[57]  W. Robert Reed,et al.  Do women prefer women's work? , 1994 .

[58]  E. Gross.  Plus CA Change…? The Sexual Structure of Occupations Over Time , 1968 .

[59]  Gender At Work , 1986 .

[60]  J. Pfeffer,et al.  Understanding the Hiring of Women and Minorities in Educational Institutions. , 1991 .

[61]  M. Tienda,et al.  The impact of changing employment opportunity on gender and ethnic earnings inequality , 1988 .

[62]  Susan M. Carlson,et al.  Trends in Race/Sex Occupational Inequality: Conceptual and Measurement Issues , 1992 .

[63]  J. Glass.  The Impact of Occupational Segregation on Working Conditions , 1990 .

[64]  Karen L. Anderson.  Last Hired, First Fired: Black Women Workers during World War II , 1982 .

[65]  Francine D. Blau.  Discrimination Against Women: Theory and Evidence , 1984 .

[66]  J. Schroedel.  Alone in a Crowd , 2018 .

[67]  P. England.  Wage Appreciation and Depreciation: A Test of Neoclassical Economic Explanations of Occupational Sex Segregation , 1984 .

[68]  David R. James,et al.  Measures of segregation , 2019, Balancing School Choice and Equity.

[69]  Thomas A. Diprete Whitman T. Soule.  Gender and promotion in segmented job ladder systems , 1988 .

[70]  B. Reskin,et al.  Men's Behavior and Women's Interest in Blue-Collar Jobs , 1990 .

[71]  Francine D. Blau.  Equal pay in the office , 1979 .

[72]  B. Reskin.  BRINGING THE MEN BACK IN: , 1988 .

[73]  K. Loscocco.  Reactions to Blue-Collar Work , 1990 .

[74]  Heidi Hartmann,et al.  Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Job Segregation by Sex , 1976, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.

[75]  Valerie Kincade Oppenheimer,et al.  The Sex‐Labeling of Jobs , 1968 .

[76]  Denise D. Bielby,et al.  She Works Hard for the Money: Household Responsibilities and the Allocation of Work Effort , 1988, American Journal of Sociology.

[77]  Marlene T. Kim,et al.  Gender Bias in Compensation Structures: A Case Study of Its Historical Basis and Persistence , 1989 .

[78]  Dorothy Sue Cobble.  Rethinking Troubled Relations between Women and Unions: Craft Unionism and Female Activism , 1990 .

[79]  T. DiPrete.  The Professionalization of Administration and Equal Employment Opportunity in the U. S. Federal Government , 1987, American Journal of Sociology.

[80]  R. Rosenfeld,et al.  Gender Inequality in the Labor Market , 1991 .

[81]  Otis Dudley Duncan,et al.  Residential Distribution and Occupational Stratification , 1955, American Journal of Sociology.