The Effect of the Decline in Occupational Segregation on Sex Differences in Earnings Among Professional and Technical Workers: 1971-1981
This study examines the effect of the large decline in occupational segregation on sex differences in earnings among professional and technical workers between 1971-1981. The analyses are based upon data from the Annual Demographic Files of the Current Population Survey for 1972 and 1982. Contrary to expectations, the results indicate that the portion of the earnings differential that is attributed to occupational segregation actually increased over this decade. Detailed decomposition analyses reveal, however, that there was infact a decline in the overall earnings differential due to an improvement in women's distribution over higher paying male occupations, but that this was offset by a relative worsening in average earnings in female occupations where a large number of women are still concentrated. Overall, sex differences in earnings among professional and technical workers declined over this period, mainly because of a decline in earnings differences between men and women within occupational categories. Two additional findings in this study were the evidence of an increase in segregation within the male group of occupations, and also an increase in the penalty for both men and women for occupying the more feminized occupations within the male sector. Considering all the findings together, this study points in the direction of a slow narrowing of earnings differences even in the face of impressive declines in occupational segregation among professional and technical workers.
Women's Studies, Economics, Labor, Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations, Sociology, Demography
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign