Search results

This paper examines the relationship between the gender wage gap and occupational gender segregation in Sweden. The results show that the gender wage gap varies substantially across occupations. It is small in male-dominated occupations and relatively large in female-dominated occupations. Further, as much as 30% of the overall gender wage gap in Sweden can be attributed to occupational segregation by gender. Finally, the return to work experience for women is substantially higher in male-dominated occupations than in female-dominated occupations, suggesting that the cost for work interruptions are lower in female-dominated occupations than in male-dominated occupations. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that women choose occupations in which the penalty for work interruptions is low. Thus, occupational segregation may arise because of gender differences in preferences for occupational characteristics and not necessarily because of discriminatory practices by employers.

This study developed new measures of the routine and non-routine task contents of managerial, professional, technical, and clerical occupations from a workload perspective. Here, we present a comparative analysis of the workload structures of state and industrial sector employees.

Our method involves detailed descriptions of work processes and an element-wise time study. We collected and analysed data to obtain a workload structure that falls within three conceptual task categories: (i) non-routine analytic tasks, (ii) non-routine interactive tasks and (iii) routine cognitive tasks. A total of 2,312 state and industrial sector employees in Kazakhstan participated in the study. The data were collected using a proprietary web application that resembles a timesheet.

The study results are consistent with the general trend reported by previous studies: the higher the job level, the lower the occupation’s routine task content. In addition, the routine cognitive task contents of managerial, professional, technical, and clerical occupations in the industrial sector are higher than those in local governments. The work of women is also more routinary than that of men. Finally, vthe routine cognitive task contents of occupations in administrative units are higher than those of occupations in substantive units.

Our study sought to address the challenges of using the task-based approach associated with measuring tasks by introducing a new measurement framework. The main advantage of our task measures is a direct approach to assessing workloads consisting of routine tasks, which allows for an accurate estimation of potential staff reductions due to the automation of work processes.

Although there have been significant increases in female representation in several previously male‐dominated occupations, when the occupational structure of the labour force as a whole is considered the changes in segregation have been only marginal. There has been some movement of females into predominantly male occupations, but little movement in the reverse direction. A comparison of the Great Britain Census of Population (using the Classification of Occupations 1970 system) for 1971 and 1981 shows that the overall pattern has changed little during the ten‐year period. Possibly the decade 1981–1991 will see greater changes as the impact of more recent legislation (including the Sexual Discrimination Act) has time to take effect.

Advanced education is often thought to respond to the demands of the economy, market forces create new occupations, and then universities respond with new degrees and curricula aimed at training future workers with specific new skills. Presented here is comparative research on an underappreciated, yet growing, concurrent alternative process: universities, with their global growth in numbers and enrollments, in concert with expanding research capacity, create and privilege knowledge and skills, legitimate new degrees that then become monetized and even required in private and public sectors of economies. A process referred to as academization of occupations has far-reaching implications for understanding the transformation of capitalism, new dimensions of social inequality, and resulting stratification among occupations. Academization is also eclipsing the more limited professionalization processes in occupations. Additionally, it fuels further expansion of advanced education and contributes to a new culture of work in the 21st century. Commissioned detailed German and US case studies of the university origins and influence on workplace consequences of seven selected occupations and associated knowledge, skills, and degrees investigate the academization process. And to demonstrate how universal this could become, the cases contrast the more open and less-restrictive education and occupation system in the US with the centralized and state-controlled education system in Germany. With expected variation, both economies and their occupational systems show evidence of robust academization. Importantly too is evidence of academic transformations of understandings about approaches to job tasks and use of authoritative knowledge in occupational activities.

Human beings are dependent upon social approval to strengthen their identities. Therefore, they practice impression management: They anticipate which behaviour provokes which reactions in their social environment, and they tend to exhibit the kind of behaviour that promises positive feedback. Based on the assumption that human beings also show this behaviour in their choice of vocation, we hypothesise that young people are more likely to expect negative reactions from their social environment when choosing a gender-atypical occupation. Furthermore, we assume that the expected reaction of the social environment influences vocational orientation: The anticipation of negative reactions to gender-atypical vocational choice might contribute to explain why young people ignore this occupation. We tested both hypotheses with the help of data retrieved from a survey of young people in Germany who are interested in vocational education and training (VET). The results support our hypotheses; however, they also show that the relevance of a gender-typed vocational choice is weaker if adolescents have a higher educational background. In this case, the choice of an occupation that expresses a high educational status becomes more important. It may lead to an exclusive kind of social approval that is denied to people with a lower educational background.

This paper defines local segregation measures that are sensitive to status differences among organizational units. So far as we know, this is the first time that status-sensitive segregation measures have been offered in a multigroup context with a cardinal measure of status. These measures allow researchers to aggregate employment gaps of a target group by penalizing its concentration in low-status occupations. They are intended to complement rather than substitute for previous local segregation measures. The usefulness of these tools is illustrated in the case of occupational segregation by race and ethnicity in the United States.

We report three findings in a comprehensive study of hourly wage differences between women and men working in same occupation and establishment in Sweden in 1970–1990. (1) Within same occupation and establishment in 1990, women on average earn 1.4% less than men among blue-collar workers, 5.0% less among white-collar employees. This occupation-establishment level wage gap declined strongly from 1970 to 1978. (2) For white-collar employees, occupational segregation accounts for much of the wage gap, establishment segregation for little. For blue-collar workers both types of segregation are important. (3) The within-occupation gaps are small, below 4% and 7% for blue- and white-collar workers.

Critical occupations refer to professions in which workers perform critical duties to protect and serve the public; the nature of these jobs often exposes workers to events and conditions that critically impact their mental and physical well-being. In addition to the traumatic experiences part and parcel to the job, characteristics of these critical occupations – long work hours, nonstandard schedules, dangerous tasks, and a physically demanding work environment – contribute additional stressors. Yet, many workers in these occupations thrive despite the risks. Given the stressful conditions of critical occupations and potential for adverse individual and familial outcomes, it is important to consider why individuals would choose to work in critical occupations, why they might respond differently during stressful work-related events, and why some workers are particularly resilient. We posit that personality research offers intriguing insights into career selection, coping, and resilience for workers in critical occupations. Examining factors that reduce risk and promote resilience for these multiple-stressor occupations has the potential to inform research and policies that better meet the needs of employees and their families.

Due to their pervasiveness in American society, cultural gender beliefs often organize workplaces and justify what jobs are suitable for men and for women (Ridgeway, 2009, 2011). When an occupation experiences feminization, jobs and occupations once considered “men’s work” must be “retyped” to justify and accommodate the movement of women into the occupation (Lincoln, 2010; Reskin & Roos, 1990). Using the case of funeral directing, this chapter explores the “retyping” of funeral directing, a formerly male-dominated, currently feminizing occupation by examining shifting gender narratives about funeral work in trade journals published between 1995 and 2013. Findings indicate multiple gender narratives involved in explaining the movement of women into funeral directing and the implications for gender inequality in feminizing occupations. Some narratives (old boy and gender essential) explain women’s entry and justify sex segregation by drawing on stereotypical gender differences in physical strength and emotional labor between men and women. While other narratives (gender blind and gender progressive) reject and challenge essentialism by impugning the notion that gender stereotypes are a reliable indicator of skill.