Sex-Segregated Employment, Wage Inequality and Labor-Intensive Production: A Study of 33 U.S. Manufacturing Industries

Jayne Dean
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Jayne Dean: Department of Economics and Business Administration, Wagner College

Review of Radical Political Economics, 1991, vol. 23, issue 3-4, 244-268

Abstract: This study develops and tests a two-part reproduction model of sex segregation and relative wage determination where both are hypothesized to be related to the technology or input requirements of production in ways that can account, in large part, for persistent wage inequality by gender. An analysis of occupational sex composition and relative wages in 33 manufacturing industries from the early 1960s to the late 1970s shows that women were and remained disproportionately employed in labor-intensive occupations and industries and that these technical conditions were associated with low earnings, independently of skills. The findings suggest that, once wage disparities by sex are established, the market forces of capitalism will continually resegregate women into jobs where, because of the lack of intrinsic bargaining power and disproportionate vulnerability to job loss, workers are unable to achieve wages commensurate with skills.

Date: 1991
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:23:y:1991:i:3-4:p:244-268

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