Education and the Ethnic Division of Labor in Reform-Minded Societies

Abstract

Has the expansion of secondary and higher education during the period from 1950 to 1970 restructured the ethnic division of labor? This seven-nation cross-cultural study examines the extent to which changes in education have transformed the ethnic occupational structure in reform-oriented societies. The results show that in five out of the seven countries, the ethnic division of labor became less hierarchically specialized. In the remaining two countries, the New Zealand Maoris have become increasingly overrepresented in secondary jobs during the 1970s, and South African Coloureds, Asians, and Africans have not regained their pre-apartheid occupational position. These subsequent changes in occupational segregation across 19 pairwise comparisons are, surprisingly, not due to the initial spread of education. This finding lends support to the radical thesis that education in societies that have implemented different types of social reforms have had little impact on the likely trajectories of the ethnic division of labor.