Gendered occupations: Exploring the relationship between gender segregation and inequality

Abstract

While the existence of occupational gender segregation is well known, it has been usual to see it as a reflection of women's disadvantage. However, cross-national data show that the greater the segregation, the less tends to be women's disadvantage. The solution to this puzzle entails the introduction of the two orthogonal dimensions of segregation, where only the vertical dimension measures inequality while the horizontal dimension measures difference without inequality. Furthermore, the two dimensions tend to be inversely related, with a tendency for the horizontal component to be larger and so have more effect on the resultant overall segregation; hence the inverse relation between overall segregation and inequality. The usual explanations of segregation, being focused on inequality, are inadequate. To understand the situation it is necessary to take account of the many related factors in social change, and to recognize that horizontal segregation reduces opportunities for gender discrimination within occupations. An exploratory test of the argument is conducted for the US, Canada and Britain. With pay as the vertical dimension the results are essentially as predicted. With CAMSIS, a measure of occupational advantage, a slight advantage lies with women. The test is less clear but consistent with the argument.