Occupational Sex-Segregation: Causes and Changes

本研究旨在探讨职业性别隔离的决定因素。尽管长期以来，人们一直认为男性和女性的工作分布差异很大，但人们对其原因一直存在广泛的分歧。对职业隔离的解释包括性别歧视、基于性别的特定工种的不同比较优势以及男女不同的工作偏好。这项研究之所以重要，是因为它将为劳动力市场的运行提供有用的见解，目前人们正就政府干预的必要性和适当性展开相当大的辩论，以便在不同职业中实现更均匀的男性和女性分布。为了帮助区分可能解释职业隔离的相互矛盾的假设，将汇编一个数据集，其中包含来自不同来源的职业特征，包括职称词典、就业质量调查、1970年和1980年的人口普查以及目前的人口调查。这些特点将被用来调查主要由女性担任的工作与通常由男性担任的工作有何不同。此外，为什么1970年只有一些职业由一种性别主导的问题将得到调查，这些职业显示出朝着更均匀的男女分工方向发展的实质性变化。

This purpose of this research is to investigate the determinants of sex segregation by occupation. Although it has long been established that the distribution of jobs held by men and women varies greatly, there has been wide disagreement over the causes. Explanations for occupational segregation include sex discrimination, different comparative advantages based on gender for particular types of work, and different job preferences of men and women. This study is important because it will provide useful insights into the functioning of the labor market, at a time when there is considerable debate about the need for and the appropriateness of government intervention, in order to produce a more uniform distribution of men and women across occupations. To help distinguish among the competing hypotheses that might explain occupational segregation, a data set will be assembled containing occupational characteristics from various sources including the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, the Quality of Employment Surveys, the 1970 and 1980 censuses, and the Current Population Surveys. These characteristics will be used to investigate how jobs held predominantly by women differ from those typically held by men. In addition, the question of why only some occupations that were dominated by one sex in 1970 have shown substantial movement toward a more even division between men and women will be investigated.