Gender and The Workplace
I. Composition of the Labor
Force
A.
Historical Perspective
B. Jumps
in women’s labor force participation
§
Depression
§
WW II
§
1960s
·
·
·
·
·
II. Two Primary Indicators of
“Difference” and Inequality in the Labor Market
A. Occupational Segregation
·
Dissimilarity
index (D)
§
Problems: 1)
sensitivity to occupational classifications; 2) masks industry wide and
establishment segregation
·
Sex segregation
has decreased over time but:
o
More men and
women have entered sex typical jobs
o
Those who hold
sex atypical jobs leave them at disproportionate rates
o
Some that were
balanced have become resegregated.
o
Number of women
in many occupations have been so low that increases do not mean that large
numbers of women hold these jobs
o
Several
female-dominated occupations have become even more so
o
Dependent on the
age of the worker
o
Other forms of
segregation
v
Industry sex
segregation
v
Establishment sex
segregation
·
Consequences
o
Tokenism
§
Glass ceiling vs.
glass escalator
o
Sexual Harassment
III. The Wage Gap
A. Change over time
o
Change at end of
century:
§
Welfare changes
§
Men’s wages
declining
§
Increase in
minimum wage
B. Explaining the Wage Gap
o
Individual
Explanations
§
Gender
socialization
§
Human Capital
o
§
Sex
Discrimination
·
Taste for
Discrimination
·
Statistical and
Error
·
Comparable worth
o
Direct bias
against jobs held by women
o
Indirect bias
against jobs that utilize “female” skills
C. Putting it together
o
·
Status
characteristics – diffuse and specific
·
Status
generalization – tendency for status characteristics to affect group structure
and interaction
o
Can help to
explain:
·
Men/women’s
relative influence in interaction in the workplace
·
Why there aren’t
more challenges to pay inequity
o
Who people
compare themselves to
o
Rewards they feel
entitled to