IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ozl/journl/v6y2003i4p631-655.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Evolution of Occupational Gender Segregation in Australia: Measurement and Interpretation

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Watts

    (University of Newcastle)

Abstract

In this paper, we build on earlier work (Watts and Rich, 1991, 1992a) and examine the conceptual and measurement issues associated with documenting trends in occupational segregation in Australia over the period 1986-2002. Some specific issues will be addressed, including: Is the rate of gender integration still pro-cyclical? Has gender stereotyping diminished in the atypical occupations? Have women crowded into occupations that were previously male dominated, so that resegregation has occurred? What has been the impact on gender segregation of the continued growth of part-time employment? What role can legislation play in promoting occupational gender integration?

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:ozl:journl:v:6:y:2003:i:4:p:631-655
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ftprepec.drivehq.com/ozl/journl/downloads/AJLE064watts.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Grusky & Maria Charles, 1998. "The past, present, and future of sex segregation methodoloqy," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 35(4), pages 497-504, November.
    2. Paula England, 1982. "The Failure of Human Capital Theory to Explain Occupational Sex Segregation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 17(3), pages 358-370.
    3. Robert M. Blackburn & Janet Siltanen & Jennifer Jarman, 1995. "The Measurement of Occupational Gender Segregation: Current Problems and a New Approach," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 158(2), pages 319-331, March.
    4. T. Karmel & M. Maclachlan, 1988. "Occupational Sex Segregation —Increasing or Decreasing?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 64(3), pages 187-195, September.
    5. Riach, Peter A & Rich, Judith, 1987. "Testing for Sexual Discrimination in the Labour Market," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(49), pages 165-178, December.
    6. Horrell, Sara & Rubery, Jill, 1991. "Gender and Working Time: An Analysis of Employers' Working-Time Policies," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 15(4), pages 373-391, December.
    7. Martin Watts, 1992. "How Should Occupational Sex Segregation be Measured?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 6(3), pages 475-487, September.
    8. Karmel, T & Maclachlan, M, 1988. "Occupational Sex Segregation--Increasing or Decreasing?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 64(186), pages 187-195, September.
    9. Donald E. Lewis, 1985. "The Sources of Changes in the Occupational Segregation of Australian Women," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 61(4), pages 719-736, December.
    10. Rumberger, Russell W & Carnoy, Martin, 1980. "Segmentation in the US Labour Market: Its effects on the Mobility and Earnings of Whites and Blacks," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 4(2), pages 117-132, June.
    11. Martin J. Watts, 1994. "A Critique of Marginal Matching," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 8(3), pages 421-431, September.
    12. Martin Watts, 1998. "Occupational gender segregation: Index measureiient and econometric modeling," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 35(4), pages 489-496, November.
    13. Martin Watts, 1998. "The analysis of sex segregation: When is index measurement not index measurement," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 35(4), pages 505-508, November.
    14. Watts, Martin J & Rich, Judith, 1992. "Labour Market Segmentation and the Persistence of Occupational Sex Segregation in Australia," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(58), pages 58-76, June.
    15. 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. Martin Watts, 2014. "Spatial indexes: a focus on segregation," Chapters, in: Robert Stimson (ed.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Spatially Integrated Social Science, chapter 15, pages 287-314, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    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. 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.
    4. Stephan Humpert, 2014. "Occupational Sex Segregation and Working Time: Regional Evidence from Germany," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 61(3), pages 317-329, June.
    5. Somayeh Parvazian & Judith Gill & Belinda Chiera, 2017. "Higher Education, Women, and Sociocultural Change: A Closer Look at the Statistics," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(2), pages 21582440177, May.
    6. Alison Preston & John Burgess, 2003. "Women’s Work in Australia: Trends, Issues and Prospects," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(4), pages 497-518, December.
    7. Martin John Watts, 2009. "The Impact of Spatial Imbalance and Socioeconomic Characteristics on Average Distance Commuted in the Sydney Metropolitan Area," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(2), pages 317-339, February.
    8. Icardi, Rossella, 2021. "Returns to workplace training for male and female employees and implications for the gender wage gap: A quantile regression analysis," International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET), European Research Network in Vocational Education and Training (VETNET), European Educational Research Association, vol. 8(1), pages 21-45.
    9. 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.

    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. Martin J. Watts, 1995. "Trends in Occupational Segregation by Race and Gender in the U.S.A., 1983-92: A Multidimensional Approach," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 27(4), pages 1-36, December.
    2. Martin J. Watts, 1994. "A Critique of Marginal Matching," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 8(3), pages 421-431, September.
    3. Martin Watts, 1997. "Multidimensional Indexes of Occupational Segregation," Evaluation Review, , vol. 21(4), pages 461-482, August.
    4. M. Mavrikiou, Petroula & Angelovska, Julijana, 2020. "The Impact Of Sex Segregation By Economic Activity On The Gender Pay Gap Across Europe," UTMS Journal of Economics, University of Tourism and Management, Skopje, Macedonia, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12.
    5. Barbezat D., 1993. "Occupational segmentation by sex in the world," ILO Working Papers 992989003402676, International Labour Organization.
    6. repec:ilo:ilowps:298900 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Stephan HUMPERT, 2015. "Gender-based Segregation before and after the Great Recession," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(4(605), W), pages 53-62, Winter.
    8. Ricardo Mora & Javier Ruiz-Castillo, 2009. "The invariance properties of the mutual information index of multigroup segregation," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Occupational and Residential Segregation, pages 33-53, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    9. Casey J. Dawkins, 2004. "Measuring the Spatial Pattern of Residential Segregation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(4), pages 833-851, April.
    10. Iris Jerby & Moshe Semyonov & Noah Lewin-Epstein, 2005. "Capturing Gender-Based Microsegregation," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 34(1), pages 122-136, August.
    11. Branko Milanovic & Paola Salardi, 2016. "The Evolution of Gender and Racial Occupational Segregation Across Formal and Non-Formal Labor Markets in Brazil, 1987 to 2006," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 62, pages 68-89, August.
    12. 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.
    13. Renata Semenza & Giorgio Boccardo & Simone Sarti, 2021. "So Far, so Similar? Labour Market Feminization in Italy and Chile," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 917-942, April.
    14. Martin J Watts, 2008. "Ethnic Residential Segregation: Some Comments on a Commentary," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(9), pages 2031-2036, September.
    15. 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.
    16. Donald E. Lewis, 1996. "Occupational Crowding," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 72(217), pages 107-117, June.
    17. Tara Sinclair & Martha Gimbel, 2020. "Mismatch in Online Job Search," Working Papers 2020-1, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    18. Robert M. Blackburn & Bradley Brooks & Jennifer Jarman, 2001. "The Vertical Dimension of Occupational Segregation," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 15(3), pages 511-538, September.
    19. Borghans, L. & Groot, L.M.J., 1999. "Educational presorting as a cause of occupational segregation," ROA Research Memorandum 3E, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    20. Borghans, Lex & Groot, Loek, 1999. "Educational presorting and occupational segregation," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 375-395, 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

    Labor Force and Employment; Size; and Structure (by industry; occupation; demographic characteristics; etc.); Professional Labor Markets and Occupations; Economics of Gender;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    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:6:y:2003:i:4:p:631-655. 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.