The Decline of Sex Segregation and the Wage Gap, 1970-80

Judith Fields and Edward Wolff ()

Journal of Human Resources, 1991, vol. 26, issue 4, 608-622

Abstract: This study makes use of 1970 and 1980 Census of Population employment and earnings data at the detailed occupation and industry level to examine changes in the distribution of the U.S. work force by sex and to assess their impact on relative female earnings. First, we find clear evidence that both occupational segregation and industrial segregation declined during these years. Second, high employment growth within an occupation is associated with declines in segregation. Third, declines in industry segregation within occupation are associated with improvements in relative female earnings independently of other factors which affect relative pay. Fourth, high employment growth is associated with improvements in relative female earnings, independently of its effect on occupational segregation. As a result, employment growth acts to reduce the wage gap directly, possibly by lowering barriers to women finding jobs at high wage firms, and also indirectly by lowering the degree of industrial segregation. These results thus suggest that barriers or discrimination against women tend to be lower in sectors where demand is strong.

Date: 1991
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/145977
A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.

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:uwp:jhriss:v:26:y:1991:i:4:p:608-622

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Human Resources from University of Wisconsin Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().