Female-dominated Occupations Research Articles

She Works Hard for the Money: Tackling Low Pay in Sectors Dominated by Women – Evidence from Health and Social Care

This working paper provides data confirming that workers in lower-skilled health and social care assistant positions earn considerably less than the national average wage in their country. The publication argues that the wage penalty for working in female-dominated sectors and occupations such as health and social care can be explained by the underfinancing and privatisation of social care, weaker bargaining power in these sectors than many male-dominated sectors and the fact that care work is subject to a general undervaluation of what often continues to be seen as “women’s” work.

Air Male: Exploring Flight Attendant Masculinities in North America and Thailand

Flight attendant work, although now referred to with gender-neutral terminology, continues to be archetypically feminine. Male flight attendants are often assumed to be gay, which frequently includes an emasculated, hyper-sexualised dimension to the stereotyped minority within the female-dominated occupation. The ways in which straight men navigate this occupation and its gendered/hypersexualised connotations problematises both the notions of a gay community as well as flight attendant work as inherently or necessarily feminine. Based on ethnography amongst flight attendants who work for two international airlines, this paper considers how notions of masculinity and heteronormativity operate in a feminised occupational role and how workplace dynamics affect gendered senses of self and relations with others, including with coworkers and in the public.

Do Men Favor Men in Recruitment? A Field Experiment in the Swedish Labor Market

Utilizing a field experiment design, this article examines whether discrimination based on any combination of job applicant gender and recruiter gender occurs in the first stage of the recruitment process, that is, selecting applicants to be contacted. This study includes 1,643 job applications in the Swedish labor market. Overall, based on the callbacks received, male recruiters, unlike female recruiters, are found to contact male applicants more often than female applicants. The results show a pro-male bias by male recruiters in gender-mixed occupations, whereas no significant gender differences in callbacks by recruiter gender are found in male- and female-dominated occupations.

Changes in the gender segregation of occupations in Sweden between 2003 and 2011.

The aim of this study was to analyze possible changes in the gender composition of occupations in Sweden, using register data covering the whole working population. Cross tabulations on gender by occupation were computed and comparisons made of numbers and proportions of women and men aged 20-64 years to illustrate occupational gender-segregation categories in 2003 and 2011, respectively. All of those in working ages, employed in 2003 and 2011 (4.2 resp 4.7 millions individuals), were included. Differences in the distribution of women and men in all occupations were summarized using two gender-segregation indexes from 2003 and 2011, separately. The proportion of women increased in the gender-integrated (⩾40-<60% women) occupations. Also, the proportion of women in high-skilled professional occupations in the male-dominated category increased, as well as the proportion of men in mostly low-skilled female-dominated occupations, mainly in the service sector. The gender-segregation of occupations measured by the Index of Dissimilarly and the Karmel and MacLachlan Index was lower in 2011 than in 2003. The process of de-segregation has continued during our study period, from 2003 to 2011. The proportion of women increased in occupations that demand higher education, both in gender-integrated and in male-dominated occupations, which can contribute to a decrease in the level of sickness absence for women. Men increased their proportion in low-skilled, female-dominated occupations - a group with high levels of sickness absence or disability pension.

A Gender Perspective on Teachers as Crisis Managers

ABSTRACTStressful conditions affect communities at different levels and may involve occupational groups not normally associated with issues of crisis and security. Teachers in the compulsory school system are members of such a group. The purpose of this study is to examine teachers’ view of their own role as crisis management actors in a female-dominated occupation. A Grounded Theory approach applying a gender perspective was used as an analytical tool for data processing. In total, 16 informants from four different schools in two different municipalities in Sweden were interviewed. The analysis of these interviews shows that teachers’ perceptions of risk, crisis, and security are influenced and characterized by social and emotional regulation aimed at (a) reducing vulnerability, (b) increasing the sense of security, and (c) regaining or restoring a sense of order and control. These strategies have been discussed from a gender perspective as teachers do not regard themselves as legitimate crisis management actors.

The Effect of Perceived Discrimination on Gender Role Conflict Among Men Engaged in A-typical Occupations: The Moderating Role of Work Autonomy

Empirical research suggests that gendered job-segregation have effects on men in the workplace consequent upon bias evaluations stemming from social norms regarding acceptable gender roles. These biases are capable of inducing workplace stressors that may affect the psychological well being of men engaged in female-dominated occupations. This study investigates the moderating role of work autonomy in the relationship between perceived gender discrimination and gender role conflict for men in atypical occupations. A cross-sectional survey method was used to collect data from a sample of 150 men in the occupations of nursing, librarian, and primary school teaching, and a hierarchical regression test analyzed hypotheses. Regression analysis demonstrated that perceived discrimination and work autonomy were significant predictors of gender role conflict (β = .60, p < .001), and β = -.62, p < .001, respectively). A moderated regression analysis was also conducted to test the assumption that job autonomy moderates the relationship between perceiving a discriminatory work environment and workers’ gender role conflict. The analysis indicated that 79% of the variation in the dependent variable could be explained by the main effects and the interaction effects, F (4, 145) =140.58, p < .05). This interaction effect, although significant, accounted for a minimal incremental effect above and beyond the direct effects of perceived gender discrimination and work autonomy (ΔR2 = .008, F (1, 145) = 5.48, p < .05). Research implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Gender segregation of occupations and sustainable employment: A prospective population-based cohort study.

Although the labour market is characterized by a strong numerical gender segregation of occupations, there is little knowledge about the associations of this with the future labour market situation for an individual person. This study aimed to elucidate whether working in a gender-segregated or gender-integrated occupation is associated with future labour market attachment and sickness absence or disability pensions among women and men. We used a population-based prospective cohort study with univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses stratified by gender, including all people living in Sweden aged 20-56 years and in paid work in 2003 ( n=3,239,989). They were followed up eight years later with regard to employment status, sickness absence and disability pension. Women and men employed in extremely female-dominated occupations in 2003 had the highest employment levels and the lowest unemployment levels at follow up in 2011. When adjusting for age, level of education and sector of employment, the highest odds ratios (ORs) for not being employed in 2011 were found for women working in extremely male-dominated occupations in 2003 (OR 1.27; 95% CI 1.21-1.33) and for men in female-dominated occupations (OR 1.42; 95% CI 1.39-1.45) relative to those in gender-integrated occupations. Women in extremely male-dominated occupations had the highest ORs for sickness absence or the receipt of a disability pension at follow up (OR 1.26; 95% CI 1.17-1.36) and men in female-dominated occupations had the highest OR 1.15 (95% CI 1.11-1.20). For both women and men, the gender composition of the occupation they work in seems to be of importance for their future labour market attachment and sickness absence or receipt of a disability pension.

Stopgappers? The Occupational Trajectories of Men in Female-Dominated Occupations

This study examines the determinants of men’s exit from female-dominated occupations. Using census data and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data set, the author analyzes the job history of men employed in the United States between 1979 and 2006. Supporting the theoretical model, evidence indicates a group of stopgappers—men entering female-dominated occupations and leaving soon after their entry, thereby contributing to the perpetuation of segregation in female settings. By identifying the stopgapper occupational trajectory, this article contributes to the development of a comprehensive theory accounting for the way structural inequality is reproduced.

Occupational segregation and wage differences: the case of Poland

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the relation between occupational segregation and the gender wage differences using data on three-digit occupational level of classification. The authors examine whether a statistically significant relation between the share of men in employment and the size of the unexplained part of the gender wage gap exists.Design/methodology/approachTraditional Oaxaca (1973) – Blinder (1973) decomposition is performed to examine the differences in the gender wage gaps among minor occupational groups. Two types of reweighted decomposition – based on the parametric estimate of the propensity score and non-parametric proposition presented by Barsky et al. (2002) – are used as the robustness check. The analysis is based on individual data available from Poland.FindingsThe results indicate no strong relation between occupational segregation and the size of unexplained differences in wages. The unexplained wage differences are the smallest in strongly female-dominated and mixed occupations; the highest are observed in male-dominated occupations. However, they are probably to a large extent the result of other, difficult to include in the econometric model, factors rather than the effects of wage discrimination: differences in the psychophysical conditions of men and women, cultural background, tradition or habits. The failure to take them into account may result in over-interpreting the unexplained parts as gender discrimination.Research limitations/implicationsThe highest accuracy of the estimated gender wage gap is obtained for the occupational groups with a similar proportion of men and women in employment. In other male- or female-dominated groups, the size of the estimated gender wage gaps depends on the estimation method used.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that decreasing the degree of segregation of men and women in different occupations could reduce the wage differences between them, as the wage discrimination in gender balanced occupations is the smallest.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the few conducted at such a disaggregated level of occupations, and one of few studies focused on Central and Eastern European countries and the first one for Poland.

Gender Difference in Early Occupational Attainment: The Roles of Study Field, Gender Norms, and Gender Attitudes

Drawing data from the Beijing College Student Panel Survey, this article examines how study fields would influence gender disparities in early occupational attainment in China. Results from multinomial logistic regression show that women are more likely than men to become office clerks, a typically female-dominated occupation. Gender disparities in professional/technical occupations are largely attributed to women’s underrepresentation in science and engineering fields. As to managerial/marketing occupations, after controlling for study field, gender disparity in attaining these jobs grows even larger. Innovatively constructing a hypothetical scenario, we further examined probable career outcomes if women were as likely as men to enter the specific study field. Our results suggest that, despite pervasive influence of gender norms, egalitarian gender attitudes at job entry can partially moderate women’s disadvantage in entering male-dominated occupations. Holding traditional gender attitudes would increase women’s chances of becoming office clerks. In contrast, those tending to be more progressive are more likely to become managers.

Leisure-time physical inactivity and psychological distress in female-dominated occupations in Lithuania

ABSTRACTPoor mental health, manifesting as psychological distress, has become a leading problem recently; therefore, determining associated factors is important, especially in female-dominated occupations, as women are more prone to psychological distress than men, in part due to demands of both professional and domestic tasks. The objective of the present study was to investigate associations between leisure-time physical inactivity and psychological distress, accounting for the possible relation of psychosocial factors at work (job demands, job control, social support at work, workplace bullying) and life events in representative samples of family physicians, internal medicine department nurses and secondary-school teachers in Lithuania. In total, 323 family physicians, 748 internal medicine department nurses and 517 secondary-school teachers were interviewed during 2012–2014 in Lithuania. Godin leisure-time exercise, Goldberg General Health, Job content, and Negative acts questionnaires were administered. Logistic regression was used. A high proportion of family physicians, nurses and teachers were physically inactive during leisure. Leisure-time physical inactivity was strongly associated with psychological distress, adjusting for age, workplace bullying, job demands, job control, social support at work and traumatic life events in all three female-dominated occupations. Efforts to increase leisure-time physical activity level in medical occupations could be beneficial.

Practices of Labor Activism in Greece: Inside and Outside the Workplace

Confronting mass lay-offs, wage cuts, increasingly precarious conditions, unpaid work, employer violence, and mass unemployment, workers in Greece have organized strikes, workplace occupations, action outside workplaces, and attempts at self-management. These practices, and their strengths and limitations in the context of the crisis, are analyzed using secondary data, ethnographic, and documentary material. Contrasting the tactics located externally to the workplace, such as protests and blockades, to practices of self-management, I argue that the former may better represent the contemporary face of labor activism in Greece. This is because these tactics, despite their limitations, reflect most directly the growing expulsion of workers from a secure wage relation. Attention to the specific obstacles encountered by irregular immigrant workers and women in female-dominated occupations also highlights the important dimension of visibility in tactics external to the workplace. Further, the locus of these tactics in the sphere of circulation allows their connection with broader social claims and communities of struggle.

Masculine vs feminine personality traits and women’s employment outcomes in Britain

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether masculine personality traits in women generate better job market prospects, as compared to feminine personality traits.Design/methodology/approachThe authors utilized a field experiment (correspondent test) to capture the way in which firms respond to women who exhibit masculine and feminine personality traits. In doing so, the authors minimized the potential for reverse causality bias and unobserved heterogeneities to occur.FindingsWomen who exhibit masculine personality traits have a 4.3 percentage points greater likelihood of gaining access to occupations than those displaying feminine personality traits. In both male- and female-dominated occupations, women with masculine personality traits have an occupational access advantage, as compared to those exhibiting feminine personality traits. Moreover, women with masculine personality traits take up positions which offer 10 percentage points higher wages, in comparison with those displaying feminine personality traits. Furthermore, wage premiums are higher for those exhibiting masculine personality traits in male-dominated occupations than for female-dominated positions.Practical implicationsWithin the labor market, masculine personality traits may increase competency levels and leadership capability.Social implicationsAs feminine personality traits are stereotypically attributed to women, and these characteristics appear to yield fewer rewards within the market, they may offer one of many plausible explanations as to why women experience higher unemployment rates, while also receiving lower earnings, as compared to men.Originality/valueMasculine and feminine personality traits may be a probable outcome of wage-related differentials. The experimental study isolates spurious relationships and offers clear evaluations of the effect of masculine and feminine personality traits on occupational access and wage distribution. To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first-field experiment to examine the effect of masculine and feminine personality traits on entry-level pay scales.

Nursing Gender Pay Differentials in the New Millennium.

The gender pay gap in the United States is an ongoing issue, affecting women in nearly all occupations. Jobs traditionally associated with men tend to pay better than traditionally female-dominated jobs, and there is evidence to suggest within-occupation gender pay differences as well. We compared and contrasted gender wage disparities for registered nurses (RNs), relative to gender wage disparities for another female-dominated occupation, teachers, while controlling for sociodemographic factors. Using data in the American Community Survey, we analyzed the largest U.S. random representative sample of self-identified RNs and primary or secondary school teachers from 2000 to 2013 using fixed-effects regression analysis. There is greater disparity between nurse pay by gender than in teacher pay by gender. In addition, the net return in wages for additional education is higher for school teachers (21.7%) than for RNs (4.7%). Findings support preferential wages for men in nursing, more so than for men in teaching. The substantial gender disparities are an indirect measure of the misallocation of resources in effective patient care.

Gender segregation, underemployment and subjective well-being in the UK labour market

This article argues that gender segregation influences patterns of underemployment and the relationships that underemployment has with the subjective well-being of men and women. Previous studies have paid little attention to how gender segregation shapes underemployment, an increasingly prominent feature of the UK and European labour markets since the economic crisis of 2008. Using data from the UK Annual Population Surveys, this article examines time-related underemployment: people working part time because they cannot find a full-time job. The article asks whether there are gender differences in underemployment trends and in the links between underemployment and subjective well-being. The results suggest that the probability of underemployment is growing at a faster rate among women rather than men and that underemployment is most common in the jobs that women are more likely to perform, namely in female-dominated occupations, the public sector and small organizations. Underemployment is least common in male-dominated occupations and industries and in the private sector. Moreover, for employees with longer tenures, underemployment has more negative relationships with the subjective well-being of women than with that of men. These findings imply that gender segregation in labour markets is a crucial factor to consider when researching underemployment and its consequences.

Crossing the gender boundaries: The gender experiences of male nursing students in initial nursing clinical practice in Taiwan

BackgroundThe initial nursing clinical practice is the necessary practicum required for nursing students. Because of the changing learning style, many of them are under great pressure for environmental change and therefore their daily routine is severe affected.Interacting directly with patients in a female-dominated occupation, along with the general gender stereotypes, the impact is especially significant to male nursing students than to female nursing students. PurposeThe purpose of this preliminary qualitative study is to explore the gendered experiences of male nursing students during their first initial nursing clinical practice. MethodsBoth focus group interviews and individual interviews are conducted with twenty-two sophomore nursing students from a university of technology in northern Taiwan, with ten male students and twelve female students. ResultsTwo main themes emerge from the gendered experiences shared by the nursing students: Gender consciousness awakening and thus maintaining masculinity, and male advantage in the learning environments. ConclusionsThe results identify the specific gendered experiences of nursing students, providing implications for future nursing education and counseling service. Further, this study may serve to promote an active yet gender-sensitive nursing education for training nursing professionals.

When Men Wear Pink Collars: Gender Similarity and Discrimination in Female-Dominated Settings

In female-dominated occupations and organizations (i.e., pink-collar settings), we investigated the gender differences among employees in hierarchical gender-similar dyads with respect to superviso...

The employability of ex-offenders: a field experiment in the Swedish labor market

This paper presents the findings of a field experiment on hiring discrimination against ex-offenders in the Swedish labor market. Matched pairs of written job applications for fictitious male and female applicants with and without a past conviction of assault were sent to employers for nine different occupations. Results show that discrimination against ex-offenders exists, but the extent of it varies across occupations. The past conviction of assault was associated with 7–18 percentage point lower probability of receiving a positive employer response. Discrimination against ex-offenders was pronounced in female-dominated and high-skilled occupations. The magnitude of discrimination against ex-offenders did not vary by applicants’ sex.

NAFTA and the Gender Wage Gap

Using U.S. Census data for 1990–2000, we estimate effects of NAFTA on U.S. wages, focusing on differences by gender. We find that NAFTA tariff reductions are associated with substantially reduced wage growth for married blue-collar women, much larger than the effect for other demographic groups. We investigate several possible explanations for this finding. It is not explained by differential sensitivity of female-dominated occupations to trade shocks, or by household bargaining that makes married female workers less able to change their industry of employment than other workers. We find some support for an explanation based on an equilibrium theory of selective non-participation in the labor market, whereby some of the higher-wage married female workers in their industry drop out of the labor market in response to their industry’s loss of tariff. However, this does not fully explain the findings, so we are left with a puzzle.

The duration of family-related employment interruptions \u2013 the\xa0role\xa0of occupational characteristics

After childbirth, women often interrupt their careers. These interruptions are associated with negative consequences for later employment, which are greatly influenced by the duration of the interruption. We analyse the influence of occupational characteristics on this duration, as occupations are crucially important for career trajectories in Germany. Specifically focusing on occupational sex segregation, the occupational wage level and the share of part-time workers in occupations, we test two competing hypotheses: on the one hand, lower wages in female-dominated occupations should lead to longer employment interruptions due to lower opportunity costs. On the other hand, a higher ratio of part-time workers should lead to shorter interruptions due to better reconciliation between family and work. In addition, we analyse whether the proportion of women in a given occupation influences the duration of employment interruptions. We test these hypotheses using data from the National Educational Panel Study (starting cohort 6), combined with occupational information from the Sample of Integrated Labour Market Biographies and the German Microcensus. We focus on family-related employment interruptions after the birth of the first child between 1992 and 2010. The results of our discrete event history models indicate that higher wages lead to shorter breaks, while the part-time rate and the proportion of women in an occupation have no significant effects.