Avenues of Attainment: Occupational Demography and Organizational Careers in the California Civil Service

Abstract

This article outlines a comprehensive approach to analyzing organizational career inequality, emphasizing interdependencies among multiple �avenues of attainment�: job shifts and lateral moves, within and between organizations; changes in salary and salary ceilings associated with job shifts; and within‐job salary advancement. Hypotheses regarding how occupational sex and race composition affect these career outcomes are tested with data describing work histories of California state government employees. Although female‐ and minority‐dominated occupations were disadvantaged in many respects, their incumbents moved among state agencies more frequently (and reaped greater economic benefit) than did employees in occupations dominated by white males. Intraorganizational promotions yielded roughly comparable salary gains for incumbents of male‐ and female‐dominated occupations, but through distinct paths: male‐dominated occupations had less frequent promotions with larger salary increases; female‐dominated occupations experienced more frequent job shifts with smaller pay changes. Men in female‐dominated occupations were shielded from many of the adverse career outcomes experienced by their female counterparts.