The Intersection of Race/Ethnicity and Gender in Occupational Segregation

Abstract

In this article, we examine changes in the types of occupations that members of various racial/ethnic-gender groups have entered. We are interested in two trends that we believe may have contributed to differences in occupational concentration: budget reductions and policy changes in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforcement procedures, and the continuing increases in women's educational attainment. Using whites, African Americans, and Hispanics in our analysis, we evaluate race and ethnic differences by gender, and gender differences by race and ethnicity; thus, we pay particular attention to the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender in these processes. Our results suggest that white men have maintained their advantage in the occupational hierarchy in the period under investigation, and that white women have made more progress than any other group. For women, educational investment reaps rewards, although these benefits continue to be unequal. At the same time, the rewards accruing to white men, above and beyond the additive effects of their race and gender, have not changed over time; white women's progress has not intruded on this. Instead, white women's progress is a result of changes in two additive effects: the cost of being female has declined over time and the white advantage has increased. To the extent that changes in EEOC policies have had a negative impact on occupational desegregation, the impact is racialized but not gendered.