Catherwood LibraryILR School

Maria Charles and David B. Grusky

The last half-century has witnessed dramatic declines in gender inequality, evidenced by the rise of egalitarian views on gender roles and the narrowing of long-standing gender gaps in university attendance and labor force participation. These developments, while spectacular, have been coupled with similarly impressive forms of resistance to equalization, most notably the continuing tendency for women to crowd into female "occupational ghettos." Why has such extreme segregation persisted even as other types of gender inequality have lessened? Why is segregation especially extreme in precisely those countries that appear most committed to egalitarian reform and family-friendly policies?The authors address these questions by developing a new archive of cross-national data and applying new models and methods of analysis to this archive. The results indicate that two deep structures underlie occupational segregation: a horizontal dynamic that allocates men into the manual sector and women into the nonmanual sector, and a vertical dynamic that allocates men to the most desirable occupations. [from dust jacket]