EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Gender Segregation in the Engineering and Science Professions: A Case of Continuity and Change

Fiona Devine
Additional contact information
Fiona Devine: University of Liverpool

Work, Employment & Society, 1992, vol. 6, issue 4, 557-575

Abstract: It has been argued that gender segregation may be declining or, at least, that more complex and subtle forms of gender segregation are now discernible as women acquire the necessary educational credentials to enter previously male-dominated professional occupations. Drawing on a case study of engineering and science, it will be seen that the `gendered' nature of subject choices in the educational system accounts for the persistence of gender segregation in the technical professions. Moreover, despite the introduction of equal opportunity legislation, the small number of women acquiring technical degrees still face discrimination from hostile managers in the recruitment process, and childcare and domestic responsibilities continue to block their occupational mobility within organisations where uninterrupted linear careers are the norm. The `liberal feminist' strategy of acquiring the necessary `human capital' to undermine social closure, in other words, has not substantially reduced horizontal and vertical gender segregation in technical professions historically almost exclusively dominated by men.

Date: 1992
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/095001709264002 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:6:y:1992:i:4:p:557-575

DOI: 10.1177/095001709264002

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Work, Employment & Society from British Sociological Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-20
Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:6:y:1992:i:4:p:557-575