IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v27y2020i4p527-544.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why is the gender revolution uneven and stalled? Gender essentialism and men's movement into ‘women's work'

Author

Listed:
  • Megan Moskos

Abstract

Men's limited movement into female occupations has been identified as a key barrier to future declines in occupational sex segregation and achieving greater gender equality. So why are men so reticent to enter jobs normatively regarded as female? Drawing from qualitative interviews with multiple stakeholders in four female‐dominated occupations in Australia, this article documents the processes that influence men's employment in gender‐atypical jobs. Gender essentialism is central to many processes that generate and/or stall changes in men's representation in female‐dominated occupations. While gender essentialism's role in producing and reproducing occupation sex segregation is well known, its role in reducing occupational sex segregation is a critical process which has previously received limited attention. The article details gender essentialism's integrative function.

Suggested Citation

  • Megan Moskos, 2020. "Why is the gender revolution uneven and stalled? Gender essentialism and men's movement into ‘women's work'," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 527-544, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:27:y:2020:i:4:p:527-544
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12406
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12406
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12406?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Autor & David Dorn & Gordon Hanson, 2019. "When Work Disappears: Manufacturing Decline and the Falling Marriage Market Value of Young Men," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 161-178, September.
    2. Patricia Roos & Lindsay Stevens, 2018. "Integrating occupations: Changing occupational sex segregation in the U.S. from 2000 to 2014," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(5), pages 127-154.
    3. Paul W. Miller & Yew Liang Lee, 2004. "Occupational Segregation on the Basis of Gender: the Role of Entry-level Jobs," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 7(3), pages 355-374, September.
    4. Dorn, David & Autor, David & Hanson, Gordon, 2017. "When Work Disappears: Manufacturing Decline and the Falling Marriage-Market Value of Men," CEPR Discussion Papers 11878, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Alison Preston & Gillian Whitehouse, 2004. "Gender Differences in Occupation of Employment within Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 7(3), pages 309-327, September.
    6. Martin Watts, 2003. "The Evolution of Occupational Gender Segregation in Australia: Measurement and Interpretation," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(4), pages 631-655, December.
    7. Jane Harrison, 2004. "How Segregated are Australian Workplaces? Evidence from the Australian Industrial Workplace Relations Survey," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 7(3), pages 329-353, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alison Sheridan & Lucie Newsome, 2021. "Tempered disruption: Gender and agricultural professional services," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 1040-1058, May.
    2. Karin Schwiter & Julia Nentwich & Marisol Keller, 2021. "Male privilege revisited: How men in female‐dominated occupations notice and actively reframe privilege," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 2199-2215, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gerard Lind & Rebecca Colquhoun, 2021. "Analysis of gender segregation within detailed occupations and industries in Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 24(1), pages 47-69.
    2. Liepmann, Hannah, 2018. "The impact of a negative labor demand shock on fertility – Evidence from the fall of the Berlin Wall," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 210-224.
    3. Ferrara, Federico, 2023. "Why does import competition favor republicans? Localized trade shocks and cultural backlash in the US," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 111961, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Sarah Xue Dong, 2021. "The effect of labour demand on women’s intra-household decision power: Evidence from Indonesia," Departmental Working Papers 2021-01, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    5. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Tan, Michelle, 2011. "Noncognitive skills, occupational attainment, and relative wages," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 1-13, January.
    6. David A. Jaeger & Theodore J. Joyce & Robert Kaestner, 2020. "A Cautionary Tale of Evaluating Identifying Assumptions: Did Reality TV Really Cause a Decline in Teenage Childbearing?," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(2), pages 317-326, April.
    7. Fletcher, Jason M. & Polos, Jessica, 2017. "Nonmarital and Teen Fertility," IZA Discussion Papers 10833, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Zurab Abramishvili & William Appleman & Sergii Maksymovych, 2019. "Parental Gender Preference in the Balkans and Scandinavia: Gender Bias or Differential Costs?," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp643, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    9. Anne Case & Angus Deaton, 2017. "Mortality and Morbidity in the 21st Century," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 48(1 (Spring), pages 397-476.
    10. Simona Iammarino & Andrés Rodriguez-Pose & Michael Storper, 2019. "Regional inequality in Europe: evidence, theory and policy implications," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 273-298.
    11. Melissa S. Kearney & Riley Wilson, 2018. "Male Earnings, Marriageable Men, and Nonmarital Fertility: Evidence from the Fracking Boom," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(4), pages 678-690, October.
    12. Courtney C. Coile & Mark G. Duggan, 2019. "When Labor's Lost: Health, Family Life, Incarceration, and Education in a Time of Declining Economic Opportunity for Low-Skilled Men," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 191-210, Spring.
    13. Shushanik Hakobyan & John McLaren, 2018. "NAFTA and the Wages of Married Women," NBER Working Papers 24424, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/7upb3pbvdn8fbq3fscr7otbg9t is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Francesco Vona, 2018. "Job losses and the political acceptability of climate policies : an amplified collective action problem," Post-Print hal-03458275, HAL.
    16. Pavel JELNOV, 2023. "The marriage age U-shape," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(2), pages 211-252, June.
    17. Nils Braakmann, 2018. "Company Closures and the Erosion of the Political Centre: Evidence from Germany," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(4), pages 835-858, December.
    18. Teresa C. Fort & Justin R. Pierce & Peter K. Schott, 2018. "New Perspectives on the Decline of US Manufacturing Employment," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(2), pages 47-72, Spring.
    19. Krisztina Kis-Katos & Janneke Pieters & Robert Sparrow, 2018. "Globalization and Social Change: Gender-Specific Effects of Trade Liberalization in Indonesia," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 66(4), pages 763-793, December.
    20. Francesco Vona, 2018. "Job losses and the political acceptability of climate policies : an amplified collective action problem," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03458275, HAL.
    21. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2018. "Deaths of Despair or Drug Problems?," NBER Working Papers 24188, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:27:y:2020:i:4:p:527-544. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.