Patterns Of Sex Segregation Research Articles

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.

Ideological Wage Inequalities? The Technical/Social Dualism and the Gender Wage Gap in Engineering

Can professional cultures contribute to wage inequality? Recent literature has demonstrated how widely held cultural biases reproduce ascriptive inequalities in the workforce, but cultural belief systems within professions have largely been ignored as mechanisms of intra-profession inequality. I argue that cultural ideologies about professional work, which may seem benign and have little salience outside of a profession’s boundaries, play an important role in reproducing wage inequalities therein. Using nationally representative data on engineers, I demonstrate that patterns of sex segregation and gendered wage allocation in engineering break consistently along the lines predicted by its “technical/social dualism”—an ideological distinction between “technical” and “social” engineering subfields and work activities. After explaining how these findings deepen our understanding of gender inequality in engineering, the article discusses how the consideration of professional cultures may open up fresh areas of inquiry into intra-profession inequality more generally.

Distribution, group characteristics and movements of the Critically Endangered Maui’s dolphin Cephalorhynchus hectori maui

Maui's dolphin Cephalorhynchus hectori maui is one of the most endangered sub- species of mammals, and yet its ecology is poorly known, partly because of the difficulty in follow- ing individuals throughout their range and over time. Here we combined group sightings (n = 45) from 23 boat surveys and genotype recaptures from biopsy samples (n = 73, 20 microsatellite loci) collected over 2 summers (2010 and 2011) to investigate along-shore distribution, group charac- teristics and individual movements of Maui's dolphins. We found a clumped distribution extend- ing along 139 km of coastline, with the highest density of dolphins between Manukau Harbour and south of Port Waikato, New Zealand. As recapture events (n = 32) revealed movements throughout most of their range, we suggest that the clumped distribution is driven by patchy food resources and/or social factors rather than by site fidelity. Mean group size was 4.7 (SD = 3.0), with several large aggregations (≥8 dolphins) containing a higher proportion of calves than smaller groups and thus probably acting as nursery groups. Group composition by sex was different in large and small groups, with more adult females in large groups. The majority of small groups contained individuals of both sexes, which contrasts with the pattern of sex segregation described in the South Island, New Zealand. A conservative estimate indicates that the mean along-shore range for Maui's dolphins is at least 35.5 km, suggesting similarity to Hector's dolphins. However, some aspects of Maui's dolphin ecology as described here might have been affected by the recent history of population decline and low abundance.

MODELS OF CROSS-NATIONAL VARIATION IN OCCUPATIONAL SEX SEGREGATION

Cross-national studies of occupational sex segregation have shown not only that industrial countries are markedly segregated by sex, but also that the level of sex segregation varies substantially between countries. The overall aim of this article is to study any association between patterns of cross-national variation in levels of sex segregation and the structuring of welfare states. It represents a new approach to comparative studies of occupational sex segregation as it uses log-linear modelling and comparable micro data from the Luxembourg Employment Study (LES) to describe patterns of sex segregation in the labour market. The results presented here demonstrate some cross-national variation in levels of sex segregation. However, considering substantial cross-national differences in the structure of the welfare state, the relative distribution of women and men in the occupational structure largely follows the same pattern in the Western countries included. Cross-national variation in the structure of the welfare state seems therefore to be of primary importance for understanding the cross-national variation in sex segregation between unpaid labour in the home and paid labour in the market.

Sex Segregation in the U.S. Labor Force

This paper examines the structure and development of sex segregation in the U.S. labor force between 1950 and 1979. The findings show that there has been a considerable degree of stability in the overall extent of sex segregation during the postwar period. There has been some tendency for employment in exclusively male occupations to decline as a percentage of the total male labor force, but this has been counterbalanced by a tendency for women workers to become more concentrated in exclusively female occupations. Beneath this overall stability in the extent of sex segregation there are important differences in the patterns of sex segregation in different occupational sectors. In general, there has been a significant decline in the degree of sex segregation in middle-class (i.e., professional, technical and managerial) occupations during the postwar period, while segregation in working-class (i.e., blue-collar and lower whitecollar) occupations has remained stable or increased in some cases. These results are interpreted within the framework of segmented labor market theory and in terms of the differential interests of employers and male employees in the preservation of occupational sex segregation. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these findings for the development of strategies to reduce sex segregation in occupations.