Changes In Occupational Segregation Research Articles

Computer Use, Job Tasks and the Part‐Time Pay Penalty

AbstractUsing data from the UK Skills Surveys 1997–2012, we show that the part‐time pay penalty (PTPP) for women within low‐ and medium‐skilled occupations has decreased significantly. The convergence in computer use and non‐routine job tasks between part‐time and full‐time workers explains a large share of the decrease in the PTPP. This convergence took place mainly within occupations, and was not driven by changes in occupational segregation between the two groups of workers. The lower PTPP is also related to changes in the returns to job tasks. Relative changes in the importance of and returns to computer use and job tasks together explain more than 50 per cent of the decrease in the PTPP.

Empirical analysis of the changing pattern of sex segregation of occupation in Ghana

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the changing pattern and direction of sex segregation of occupation as a measure of unbalanced distribution of occupation by sex in Ghana between 1960 and 2010, identify the sources of the changes and show whether female-male earnings difference has changed in line with the changes in occupational segregation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies two segregation indices to data from population censuses and household surveys in the empirical analysis Findings – The outcome of the segregation measure indicates a generally modest to high but declining occupational sex segregation in Ghana over a period of five decades. Sex composition and occupational mix effects are found to be the underlying drivers of the declining segregation with the former coming up strongly during the initial 40 years. This has, however, not translated into narrowing female-male earnings gap. Practical implications – The paper recommends measures towards economic transformation for a change in occupational structure backed by implementation of education policy to enhance female access to male-dominated science and engineering programmes and employment in high-skill occupations. Originality/value – The strength of the paper is seen from its originality as it is the first attempt to assess changing pattern of occupational segregation over a long period of five decades with consistent and comparable data sources.

Changes in Occupational Segregation by Gender and Race-Ethnicity in Healthcare: Implications for Policy and Union Practice

This paper analyzes the extent to which gender and racial-ethnic segre gation in healthcare occupations changed from 1983-2002. Although gender segregation was sizably reduced during this period, men and women in healthcare were still substantially segregated in 2002, to a greater extent by gender than by race and ethnicity. Blacks and non- blacks were more segregated than Hispanics and non-Hispanics. Over the last two decades, the index of segregation of blacks compared with non-blacks remained fairly stable while segregation of Hispanics compared with non-Hispanics markedly increased. Although women made progress entering the highest-paying healthcare occupations, they remained substantially underrepresented. Women and blacks were extremely overrepresented in the lowest-paying occupations. Blacks and Hispanics were underrepresented in better-rewarded occupations. This paper also examines the implications of the findings for policy and union practice.

Changes in Occupational Segregation by Gender and Race-Ethnicity in Healthcare: Implications for Policy and Union Practice

This paper analyzes the extent to which gender and racial-ethnic segregation in healthcare occupations changed from 1983-2002. Although gender segregation was sizably reduced during this period, men and women in healthcare were still substantially segregated in 2002, to a greater extent by gender than by race and ethnicity. Blacks and non-blacks were more segregated than Hispanics and non-Hispanics. Over the last two decades, the index of segregation of blacks compared with non-blacks remained fairly stable while segregation of Hispanics compared with non-Hispanics markedly increased. Although women made progress entering the highest-paying healthcare occupations, they remained substantially underrepresented. Women and blacks were extremely overrepresented in the lowest-paying occupations. Blacks and Hispanics were underrepresented in better-rewarded occupations. This paper also examines the implications of the findings for policy and union practice.

Changes in occupational segregation by race and ethnicity in the USA

This paper analyses changes in segregation by race and ethnicity in the USA across 13 broad occupational groups over the period 1983–2002. It is found that overall segregation between Blacks and Non-Blacks modestly declined while overall segregation between Hispanics and Non-Hispancis significantly increased during this period. It is also found that Blacks and Hispanics remained underrepresented in higher-paying occupations and overrepresented in lower-paying occupations. However, Blacks tended to be less underrepresented in the former occupations and less overrepresented in the latter occupations than Hispanics.

The impact of opening markets on Mexican male/female wage and occupational differentials

This article addresses the effect of a more open market under NAFTA on the economic status of Mexican women. It is assumed that increases in export processing and tourism, industries that have a high demand for female labor, will result from the agreement. The approach of this study is to use regression and correlation analysis to compare wage and occupational differences in two Mexican cities: Tijuana, on the U.S.-Mexican border, and Torreon, in the interior. A major findings is that the overall wage gap is statistically significantly lower where there is increased export processing activity, but there appears to be very little change in occupational segregation. Three additional impacts are: first, that labor force participation rates increase for both men and women, but proportionally more for women. Second, the higher labor demand appears to weaken the relationship between the job qualifications of education and experience and wages. Third, wages by gender are more equal, but for the labor force as a whole there is a greater level of wage dispersion.

Changing Patterns of Sex Segregated Occupations throughout the Life-Course

Analysing retrospective, longitudinal data from the SCELI survey, this paper studies changes in occupational segregation for women, and also for men, from 1946 to 1986. Occupational segregation by sex, which has shown remarkable stability since the turn of the century, has attracted considerable interest, but most research has been carried out on cross-sectional data. The study of longitudinal data adds the important time dimension, providing a dynamic analysis. Changes can be examined throughout the life- course of individuals. This has been done in Germany but not yet in Britain. Using both subjective recall and census occupational groupings, occupations are categorized as male-dominant, integrated, or female- dominant. Three recent hypotheses are tested and varying degrees of support are found. The findings are that movement between sectors is not random, nor are changes in the integrated sector limited to the full- time workforce. There is agreement with German longitudinal findings on the importance of (a) first jobs and (b) first labour-market re-entry jobs after childbirth. This helps explain continuities in occupational sex segregation and the associated sex differentials in earnings and social status. ABSTRACT Analysing retrospective, longitudinal data from the SCELI survey, this paper studies changes in occupational segregation for women, and also for men, from 1946 to 1986. Occupational segregation by sex, which has shown remarkable stability since the turn of the century, has attracted considerable interest, but most research has been carried out on cross-sectional data. The study of longitudinal data adds the important time dimension, providing a dynamic analysis. Changes can be examined throughout the life- course of individuals. This has been done in Germany but not yet in Britain. Using both subjective recall and census occupational groupings, occupations are categorized as male-dominant, integrated, or female- dominant. Three recent hypotheses are tested and varying degrees of support are found. The findings are that movement between sectors is not random, nor are changes in the integrated sector limited to the full- time workforce. There is agreement with German longitudinal findings on the importance of (a) first jobs and (b) first labour-market re-entry jobs after childbirth. This helps explain continuities in occupational sex segregation and the associated sex differentials in earnings and social status. ABSTRACT Analysing retrospective, longitudinal data from the SCELI survey, this paper studies changes in occupational segregation for women, and also for men, from 1946 to 1986. Occupational segregation by sex, which has shown remarkable stability since the turn of the century, has attracted considerable interest, but most research has been carried out on cross-sectional data. The study of longitudinal data adds the important time dimension, providing a dynamic analysis. Changes can be examined throughout the life- course of individuals. This has been done in Germany but not yet in Britain. Using both subjective recall and census occupational groupings, occupations are categorized as male-dominant, integrated, or female- dominant. Three recent hypotheses are tested and varying degrees of support are found. The findings are that movement between sectors is not random, nor are changes in the integrated sector limited to the full- time workforce. There is agreement with German longitudinal findings on the importance of (a) first jobs and (b) first labour-market re-entry jobs after childbirth. This helps explain continuities in occupational sex segregation and the associated sex differentials in earnings and social status. ABSTRACT Analysing retrospective, longitudinal data from the SCELI survey, this paper studies changes in occupational segregation for women, and also for men, from 1946 to 1986. Occupational segregation by sex, which has shown remarkable stability since the turn of the century, has attracted considerable interest, but most research has been carried out on cross-sectional data. The study of longitudinal data adds the important time dimension, providing a dynamic analysis. Changes can be examined throughout the life- course of individuals. This has been done in Germany but not yet in Britain. Using both subjective recall and census occupational groupings, occupations are categorized as male-dominant, integrated, or female- dominant. Three recent hypotheses are tested and varying degrees of support are found. The findings are that movement between sectors is not random, nor are changes in the integrated sector limited to the full- time workforce. There is agreement with German longitudinal findings on the importance of (a) first jobs and (b) first labour-market re-entry jobs after childbirth. This helps explain continuities in occupational sex segregation and the associated sex differentials in earnings and social status.

A century of change in occupational segregation 1891–1991

Abstract Data from the Population Censuses for 1891 and 1991 are analysed to assess long term trends in the degree and pattern of occupational segregation. Two competing theories are addressed: that occupational segregation is linked to levels of female employment, and that occupational segregation was prompted in the nineteenth century by a concern to control sexuality and fertility behaviour. Sociologists have overlooked the impact of social factors outside the labour force on developments within the workforce.

Segregated and Integrated Occupations: A New Approach to Analysing Social Change

Although equal opportunities legislation came into force in the early 1970s in Britain, the subsequent decline in occupational segregation has been regarded as disappointingly low. The explanation considered here is that the overall level of occupational segregation is the sum of two opposing trends which largely cancel out. Declining levels of occupational segregation in the full-time workforce have been hidden by the impact of the high degree of occupational segregation in the rapidly expanding part-time workforce, which is almost entirely female. Testing the hypothesis with data for trends over 1971–91 reveals the limitations of the widely used Dissimilarity Index and the Sex Ratio Index. An alternative approach is developed, which captures the changing importance of integrated occupations within the overall pattern of occupational segregation, and displays conflicting trends within the full-time and part-time workforces, as expected. This new approach to assessing trends in women's position in the labour force also offers advantages over the conventional ‘single number’ indices for cross-national comparative research, for linking the results of macro-level analyses of national statistics with micro-level case-study research, and thus for explaining continuities and change in occupational segregation and the associated sex differential in earnings.

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

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.

Further Comment on the Sex Ratio Index

In 'The Sex Ratio Index Revisited', Watts questions the demonstration of the limitations of the index in Siltanen (1990), and rejects the standardised version as an alternative measure. In this reply, I would like to briefly reiterate my original argument, for its intention has been misread, at least by Watts. In addition, I would like to make explicit, and comment on, two closely related conceptual issues that frame his detailed comments: the interpretation of change in occupational segregation that is afforded by a measure, and the possibility of distinguishing composition effects in segre gation trends. My main purpose was to indicate the need to reassess trends in occu pational segregation by sex in Britain due to measurement problems in past research. The standardised sex ratio index was introduced as a means of making this case. It was proposed as a 'rough' (p. 12) solution to the fact that the sex ratio index is not composition invariant (it is affected directly by the female share of the labour force). The adjective was inserted precisely because while the standardised index improves on the original by removing a major distorting effect (the multiplication of the difference in proportions by N/F), it shares other limitations of the original index which preclude its use overall. Nevertheless, as an aid in demonstrating the need to reinvestigate trends the standardised sex ratio index is very helpful. It suggests strongly that in the post-war period, when women's share of the labour force was increasing, the sex ratio index has misidentified the trend in occupational segregation as one of a straightforward decline. According to the standardised index there is a general pattern of increasing segregation since 1961, with a short-lived decline around the mid-1970s. The validity of this new pattern is given some support by the results reported in Tzannatos (1990). Using the Index of Dissimilarity he also shows an increase in segregation over the 1960s, and again (with some intervening fluctuations) over the 1970s.1 I suspect Watts would agree that in past British research the pattern of change in the post-war period has not been properly identified, and I would simply reiterate that a comparison of the original and the standardised versions of the sex ratio index illustrates this effectively (see chart II, Siltanen 1990). While neither index can be regarded as totally reliable, the comparison makes clear the misleading effect of the major distortion in the sex ratio index. Although Watts has specific comments about the examples set out in the section on problems of aggregation (tables 3 to 5), the concerns these examples raise are more complex than he appreciates. It is explicitly stated

Causes of Shifts in Occupational Segregation of the Foreign-Born: Evidence from American Cities, 1870-1880

T7his article applies arguments about the dynamics of competition in an ethnic and racial job queue to an analysis of causes of changes in occupational segregation in late 19th century America. The evidence lends credibility to the hypothesis that the presence of lower-status blacks enabled some white ethnics to move up the job queue and out of segregated occupations. The findings are that cities that had initially large and growing numbers of blacks had decreasing occupational segregation for foreigners, while those with growing numbers of foreigners had increasing levels. Where there were a relatively larger number of illiterate blacks, levels of segregation for the foreign-born decreased, but the numbers of foreign-born who were illiterate did not affect occupational segregation for this group. Research on the late 19th and early 20th century finds that the structure of opportunity for blacks in the United States deteriorated sharply just as occupational mobility for white immigrants improved.' We know little about the mechanisms that produced these paths of opportunity, despite the fact that they undoubtedly have consequences for today's gaps in occupational attainment between blacks and whites (Farley 1984). In order to explore these issues, this article analyzes data on changes in levels of occupational segregation of the foreign-born population in cities in the late 19th century.

Sex Segregation in the Paid Workforce: The New Zealand Case

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.

Changes in Occupational Segregation in Britain, 1971–1981

Although there have been significant increases in female representation in several previously male‐dominated occupations, when the occupational structure of the labour force as a whole is considered the changes in segregation have been only marginal. There has been some movement of females into predominantly male occupations, but little movement in the reverse direction. A comparison of the Great Britain Census of Population (using the Classification of Occupations 1970 system) for 1971 and 1981 shows that the overall pattern has changed little during the ten‐year period. Possibly the decade 1981–1991 will see greater changes as the impact of more recent legislation (including the Sexual Discrimination Act) has time to take effect.