Mechanisation and the Gender-Based Division of Labour in the U.S. Cigar Industry

Mark J Prus

Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1990, vol. 14, issue 1, 63-79

Abstract: This paper presents a historical explanation for the changes in occupational sex segregation in the U.S. cigar industry. Mechanization which diminished craft skill barriers while retaining the labor intensity and limited technical interdependence of production created employment opportunities for women. At the same time, the boundaries of occupational sex segregation were redrawn as men left production jobs and remained in the industry only as mechanics and machine fixers. This paper has implications for the contemporary debate regarding the relationship between production technology and employment structure: namely that technological change which reduces craft skill within the context of massed, batch processing allows employers to shift work to less skilled, low wage labor. Copyright 1990 by Oxford University Press.

Date: 1990
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