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Continuing Progress? Trends in Occupational Segregation in the United States Over the 1970s and 1980s

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Author Info
Francine D. Blau
Patricia Simpson
Deborah Anderson

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Abstract

This study uses comparable data on 470 detailed occupations from the 1970, 1980 and 1990 Censuses to analyze trends in occupational segregation in the United States in the 1980s and compare them in detail to the 1970s experience of declining segregation. We find that the trend towards reduced segregation did indeed continue into the 1980s at only a slightly slower pace. In both decades, changes in sex composition within occupations accounted for the major share of the decline in segregation (compared to changes in the mix of occupations in the economy). We also find that the pattern of changes in the sex composition of occupations and in the employment distribution of workers that produced the observed reductions in segregation were remarkably similar in each of these two periods. This similarity potentially poses some problems for the future. As women continue to enter the same areas, resegregation, which we found to have relatively moderate effects in the 1970s and 1980s, becomes an increasing possibility. Continued progress towards reducing occupational segregation requires that women succeed in entering a broader range of traditionally male occupations and/or a greater flow of men into traditionally female occupations.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 6716.

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Date of creation: Sep 1998
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:6716

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Bielby, William T & Baron, James N, 1986. "Sex Segregation within Occupations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 43-47, May.
  2. Cabral, Robert & Ferber, Marianne A & Green, Carole A, 1981. "Men and Women in Fiduciary Institutions: A Study of Sex Differences in Career Development," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(4), pages 573-80, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Bertaux, Nancy E., 1991. "The roots of today's "women's jobs" and "men's jobs": Using the index of dissimilarity to measure occupational segregation by gender," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 433-459, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Victor R. Fuchs, 1975. "A Note on Sex Segregation in Professional Occupations," NBER Chapters, in: Explorations in Economic Research, Volume 2, number 1, pages 105-111 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  5. Gary S. Becker, . "The Allocation of Effort, Specific Human Capital, and Differences Between Men and Women in Earnings and Occupations," University of Chicago - Population Research Center 83-20, Chicago - Population Research Center.
  6. Kenneth R Troske & William J Carrington, 1992. "Gender Segregation Small Firms," Working Papers 92-13, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau, revised May 1993. [Downloadable!]
  7. Bergmann, Barbara R, 1971. "The Effect on White Incomes of Discrimination in Employment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(2), pages 294-313, March-Apr. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Neumark, David, 1996. "Sex Discrimination in Restaurant Hiring: An Audit Study," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 111(3), pages 915-41, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Duncan, Greg J & Hoffman, Saul, 1979. "On-the-Job Training and Earnings Differences by Race and Sex," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 61(4), pages 594-603, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Macpherson, David A & Hirsch, Barry T, 1995. "Wages and Gender Composition: Why Do Women's Jobs Pay Less?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(3), pages 426-71, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Polachek, Solomon William, 1981. "Occupational Self-Selection: A Human Capital Approach to Sex Differences in Occupational Structure," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(1), pages 60-69, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Anne B. Royalty, 1996. "The effects of job turnover on the training of men and women," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 49(3), pages 505-521, April.
  13. Dennis J. Aigner & Glen G. Cain, 1977. "Statistical theories of discrimination in labor markets," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 30(2), pages 175-187, January.
  14. Leonard, Jonathan S, 1989. "Women and Affirmative Action," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 61-75, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Carrington, William J & Troske, Kenneth R, 1997. "On Measuring Segregation in Samples with Small Units," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 15(4), pages 402-09, October.
  16. Erica L. Groshen, 1987. "The structure of the female/male wage differential: is it who you are, what you do, or where you work?," Working Paper 8708, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
  17. Hutchens, Robert M., 1991. "Segregation curves, Lorenz curves, and inequality in the distribution of people across occupations," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 31-51, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Barbara R. Bergmann, 1974. "Occupational Segregation, Wages and Profits When Employers Discriminate by Race or Sex," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 103-110, April. [Downloadable!]
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  1. Almunia, Miguel & Dolado, Juan J. & Felgueroso, Florentino, 2005. "Do Men and Women Economists Choose the Same Research Fields?: Evidence From Top 50 Departments," CEPR Discussion Papers 5421, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Baron, Juan & Cobb-Clark, Deborah, 2008. "Occupational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap in Private- and Public-Sector Employment: A Distributional Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 3562, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  3. Nabanita Datta Gupta & Anders Poulsen & Marie-Claire Villeval, 2005. "Male and Female Competitive Behavior - Experimental Evidence," Post-Print halshs-00180022_v1, HAL. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Nabanita Datta Gupta & Anders Poulsen & Marie-Claire Villeval, 2005. "Male and Female Competitive Behavior: Experimental," Post-Print halshs-00175039_v1, HAL. [Downloadable!]
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