IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ozl/journl/v24y2021i1p47-69.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis of gender segregation within detailed occupations and industries in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Gerard Lind

    (SGS Economics and Planning)

  • Rebecca Colquhoun

    (Department of Education, Skills and Employment)

Abstract

This study provides new and detailed estimates of gender segregation in the Australian labour market. Using ABS Labour Force Survey and Census data, we explore and decompose long-term trends of segregation and integration by employing a shiftshare analysis and index measures across time, age and space. We find that over the last three decades, gender segregation has not significantly changed across either industries or occupations. Gender segregation across industries is, in general, more resistant to gender integration than across occupations and detailed classifications are profoundly more segregated than top-level classifications. Additionally, gender segregation increases as individuals get older and the farther they work from urbanised locations. We show that decades of gender equality policy have not had a major impact on minimising labour market segregation. Women continue to have more constrained labour supply choices than men, hindering labour market efficiency and flexibility.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:ozl:journl:v:24:y:2021:i:1:p:47-69
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ftprepec.drivehq.com/ozl/journl/downloads/AJLE241lind.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer Jarman & Robert M. Blackburn & Bradley Brooks & Esther Dermott, 1999. "Gender Differences at Work: International Variations in Occupational Segregation," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 4(1), pages 29-50, March.
    2. 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.
    3. R. G. Gregory & R. C. Duncan, 1981. "Segmented Labor Market Theories and the Australian Experience of Equal Pay for Women," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(3), pages 403-428, April.
    4. Anker, Richard, & Melkas, Helinä. & Korten, Ailsa., 2003. "Gender-based occupational segregation in the 1990s," ILO Working Papers 993665943402676, International Labour Organization.
    5. repec:adr:anecst:y:2003:i:71-72:p:11 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:ilo:ilowps:366594 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. 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.
    8. repec:bla:ecorec:v:67:y:1991:i:198:p:205-16 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Juan J. Dolado & Florentino Felgueroso & Juan F. Jimeno, 2003. "Where do Women Work Analysing Patterns in Occupational Segregation by Gender?," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 71-72, pages 267-292.
    10. Sheila M. Rimmer, 1991. "Occupational Segregation, Earnings Differentials and Status among Australian Workers," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 67(3), pages 205-216, September.
    11. Francine Blau & Peter Brummund & Albert Liu, 2013. "Trends in Occupational Segregation by Gender 1970–2009: Adjusting for the Impact of Changes in the Occupational Coding System," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 471-492, April.
    12. 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.
    13. Francine Blau & Patricia Simpson & Deborah Anderson, 1998. "Continuing Progress? Trends in Occupational Segregation in the United States over the 1970s and 1980s," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 29-71.
    14. Martin Watts, 1992. "How Should Occupational Sex Segregation be Measured?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 6(3), pages 475-487, September.
    15. Michael P. Kidd & Xin Meng, 1997. "Trends in the Australian Gender Wage Differential over the 1980s: Some Evidence on the Effectiveness of Legislative Reform," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 30(1), pages 31-44, March.
    16. Francine D. Blau & Wallace E. Hendricks, 1979. "Occupational Segregation by Sex: Trends and Prospects," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 14(2), pages 197-210.
    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. Breunig, Robert & Hansell, David & Win, Nu Nu, 2023. "Modelling Australian Public Service Careers," IZA Discussion Papers 16549, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Leonora Risse & Angela Jackson, 2021. "A gender lens on the workforce impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 24(2), pages 111-144.
    3. Sandra Buchler & Alfred M. Dockery, 2023. "Women’s work: myth or reality? Occupational feminisation and women’s job satisfaction in Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 26(1), pages 51-83.

    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. Juan D. Barón & Deborah A. Cobb‐Clark, 2010. "Occupational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap in Private‐ and Public‐Sector Employment: A Distributional Analysis," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 86(273), pages 227-246, June.
    2. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Tan, Michelle, 2011. "Noncognitive skills, occupational attainment, and relative wages," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 1-13, January.
    3. Francine Blau & Peter Brummund & Albert Liu, 2013. "Trends in Occupational Segregation by Gender 1970–2009: Adjusting for the Impact of Changes in the Occupational Coding System," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 471-492, April.
    4. 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.
    5. Ariane Hegewisch & Hannah Liepmann, 2013. "Occupational segregation and the gender wage gap in the US," Chapters, in: Deborah M. Figart & Tonia L. Warnecke (ed.), Handbook of Research on Gender and Economic Life, chapter 13, pages 200-217, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Stephan HUMPERT, 2015. "Gender-based Segregation before and after the Great Recession," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(4(605), W), pages 53-62, Winter.
    7. Humpert , Stephan, 2014. "Trends in occupational segregation: What happened with women and foreigners in Germany?," European Economic Letters, European Economics Letters Group, vol. 3(2), pages 36-39.
    8. Syed, Iffath Unissa, 2020. "Racism, racialization, and health equity in Canadian residential long term care: A case study in Toronto," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    9. Connolly, Laura, 2022. "The effects of a trade shock on gender-specific labor market outcomes in Brazil," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    10. repec:ilo:ilowps:298900 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Robert M. Blackburn & Jennifer Jarman & Janet Siltanen, 1993. "The Analysis of Occupational Gender Segregation Over Time and Place: Considerations of Measurement and Some New Evidence," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 7(3), pages 335-362, September.
    12. Francis Vella, 1993. "Gender Roles, Occupational Choice and Gender Wage Differential," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 69(4), pages 382-392, December.
    13. Coral Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2015. "The Evolution of Occupational Segregation in the United States, 1940–2010: Gains and Losses of Gender–Race/Ethnicity Groups," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 967-988, June.
    14. Ricardo Mora & Javier Ruiz-Castillo & Neus Herranz, 2005. "An algorithm to reduce the occupational space in gender segregation studies," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(1), pages 25-37.
    15. Lucia Rizzica, 2016. "Why go public? A study of the individual determinants of public sector employment choice," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 343, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    16. Martin Watts, 1997. "Multidimensional Indexes of Occupational Segregation," Evaluation Review, , vol. 21(4), pages 461-482, August.
    17. Falk, Susanne, 2002. "Geschlechtsspezifische berufliche Segregation in Ostdeutschland zwischen Persistenz, Verdrängung und Angleichung : ein Vergleich mit Westdeutschland für die Jahre 1991-2000 (Gender-specific occupation," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 35(1), pages 37-59.
    18. Jeff Borland & Michael Coelli, 2016. "Labour Market Inequality in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 92(299), pages 517-547, December.
    19. Falk, Susanne, 2002. "Geschlechtsspezifische berufliche Segregation in Ostdeutschland zwischen Persistenz, Verdrängung und Angleichung : ein Vergleich mit Westdeutschland für die Jahre 1991-2000 (Gender-specific occupation," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 35(1), pages 37-59.
    20. Martin J. Watts, 1994. "A Critique of Marginal Matching," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 8(3), pages 421-431, September.
    21. Falk, Susanne, 2002. "Geschlechtsspezifische berufliche Segregation in Ostdeutschland zwischen Persistenz, Verdrängung und Angleichung : ein Vergleich mit Westdeutschland für die Jahre 1991-2000 (Gender-specific occupation," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 35(1), pages 37-59.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    employment; gender; occupational segregation; industrial segregation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General

    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:ozl:journl:v:24:y:2021:i:1:p:47-69. 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: Sandie Rawnsley (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/becurau.html .

    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.