Sex Segregation in the Paid Workforce: The New Zealand Case

Abstract

Using New Zealand census data from 1971, 1976, and 1981, this research assesses three research questions concerning occupational sex segregation in New Zealand. The findings reveal: 1) high but moderately declining indexes of segregation, contemporaneous with 2) marked increases in the proportion of the female labour force in highly sex-segregated occupations (e.g., 52 per cent of women work ers employed in occupations comprised of two-thirds or more female in 1981, compared to 26 per cent in 1971); plus 3) both increasing proportions of young women in sex-typical occupations and succes sive movement of female cohorts into sex-typical occupations as they age. The results are compared to those previously documented in several other industrialised countries; some parallels are found with Australia and the United States. The conclusions discuss the results in terms of changes in the social organisation of work, and call for greater cross-national research on longitudinal change in occupa tional segregation as a means for assessing competing explanations of occupational sex segregation.