Gender Differences in Skill Content of Jobs

It is well-known that men and women segregate by occupation, but less is known about how they segregate by task within occupation. We show that the tasks performed by women are less skill intensive on the average than those performed by men having the same occupation. Neither demographic composition nor differences in cognitive and social skills can explain this pattern. In contrast, the fact that women use cognitive skills less often at home can explain one third of the differences in skill use at the workplace. As we control for work environment and the ability to use cognitive skills the remaining females' penalty in skill use suggest the possibility of labor market discrimination against women. Although skill use at the workplace has a significant wage premium, females' penalty in skill use cannot explain the gender wage gap.