Skills and occupational sex segregation in Europe

Abstract

This chapter examines levels and trends in the average rate of occupational sex segregation within Europe between 2000 and 2020. The aim is to map out average segregating and integrating forces in total and across nine major occupational groups. We use data from the EU Labour Force Survey and apply the Mutual Information (MI) index to decompose the changes in occupational sex segregation into “pure” (margin free) changes, marginal changes in gender composition of labour supply and occupational composition, as well as emerging and disappearing occupations. Consistent with previous research we find that the average level of occupational sex segregation has decreased in Europe over time. Nevertheless, occupational sex segregation still remains substantive. The average decline seemed mainly to be due a decrease in “pure” (margins-free) segregation, implying that there are fundamental societal forces moving towards a more gender balanced distribution of women and men across European labour markets.