Workplace Gender Segregation in the “New Economy”

Abstract

Using an institutional theory perspective we examine workplace gender segregation and provide a systematic analysis of what the rise of nonstandard employment means for gender inequality in the workplace. We compare four standard and nonstandard employment regimes paying special attention to independent contingent employment - the segment of nonstandard work representing novel and consequential developments in work arrangements. Our analyses based on a comprehensive sample of the U.S. workforce reveal that the overall degree of workplace gender segregation is lower in nonstandard employment, that the degree of segregation corresponds to the degree of attachment to the employer, and that the pattern of segregation in nonstandard work arrangements is not uniform but complex, with some occupations segregated more, not less, despite the overall lower segregation.