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I came across an interesting article in the San Jose Mercury News which tackles the concept of “occupational segregation.” What is it about?
Despite the women’s movement and the changes that occurred in the 70’s and 80’s that helped women make larger strides in the workforce, social economists are now saying that the progress that allowed the gender crossover in jobs may have stalled a bit since the last decade. The social scientists call this “occupational segregation” and they don’t seem to be too happy about it.
Why so?
Why the need to have a more equal workforce?
#1 To narrow the pay gap
Women earn 25% less than men do in general. But the reason why everyone harps about women getting less money than men do in their jobs is because of the type of jobs that most women find themselves in. If a man finds himself working in a “female” oriented job, he ends up earning 12.5 percent less than his male counterparts; whereas a woman who works in a “male” dominated field earns 25.9 percent more than her female peers. So interestingly, it’s all about the job type that changes the averages here.
#2 To better respond to shortages in fields, jobs, industries
Instead of getting worked up over perceived shortages in certain professions, it would be great if the labor pool can be easily balanced out by drawing from a supply of trained men or women to cover the skill gaps. But this is tough to achieve in reality because job stereotyping by gender is alive and well and is hard to vanquish. Even with laws out there that encourage openness in professions, the enforcement of sexual discrimination laws has been weak.
Data from the San Jose Mercury News:
The 10 Most Female Occupations
(highest percentage of workers that are female)
| Occupation | % Female | Annual Wage |
| Dental hygienists | 98.6% | $60,980 |
| Preschool and kindergarten teachers | 97.7% | $21,990 |
| Secretaries and administrative assistants | 96.9% | $26,670 |
| Dental assistants | 95.4% | $29,520 |
| Speech-language pathologists | 95.3% | $54,880 |
| Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses | 94.2% | $35,230 |
| Child care workers | 94.2% | $17,050 |
| Hairdressers, hair stylists and cosmetologists | 93.4% | $20,610 |
| Receptionists and information clerks | 92.7% | $22,150 |
| Payroll and timekeeping clerks | 92.4% | $31,360 |
The 10 Most Male Occupations
(highest percentage of workers that are male)
| Occupation | % Male | Annual Wage |
| Logging workers | 99.8% | $29,430 |
| Automotive body and related repairers | 99.4% | $34,810 |
| Cement masons, concrete finishers and terrazzo workers | 99.3% | $32,030 |
| Bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists | 99.1% | $36,620 |
| Electrical power-line installers and repairers | 99.1% | $50,150 |
| Tool and die makers | 99.1% | $43,580 |
| Roofers | 98.9% | $31,230 |
| Heavy vehicle/mobile equipment service technicians and mechanics | 98.6% | $39,410 |
| Home appliance repairers | 98.5% | $32,980 |
| Crane and tower operators | 98.5% | $38,870 |
But how do we really feel about gender crossovers in the workplace? How comfortable would you be to see men in the maternity ward and day care centers or women in trucking, construction and heavy machinery operations? Strangely, I’m reading some reports which contradict the pay gap issues, such as this article, which appears that in less traditional and more gender blind type jobs, women in fact are earning more than men!
So don’t cry for the women yet, because reports are popping up about how they are gaining more lucrative jobs at a better pace than men are doing in the last several years.
It would be great to achieve an ideal employment balance on a national scale and I believe we’re still very much headed in the right direction. But I don’t lose sleep over the preponderance of traditional jobs today. We have immigration resolving job shortage issues (though that’s another hot topic!), plus there are less gender specific jobs out there that we can always try to gain skills for.
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We can’t change the fact that women are different from men and that they differ in capabilities as well. There may be some who exceed their limit, but there are also those who can’t reach the normal limit.
I think it’s unfair. The skills people possess differ on experience and knowledge. Although there are skills that men and women are better with, it doesn’t mean that it applies to everything.
I agree that sex shouldn’t be the means to measure our skill. It should be our skill level that determines how good we are and how we should be paid.
I believe the jobs segregate themselves based on the more natural abilities of each gender. Logging and roofing is hard, extremely physical, heavy lifting type work. Could a woman do it? Yes. I’m not saying she couldn’t. But would your average woman want to do it? Take a look at “Deadliest Catch” on Discovery Channel. 99.99% men. It’s hard, cold, dangerous work.
The more female dominated jobs are generally more about caring, talking, nurturing. Men are less inclined for these things (again, not saying it isn’t possible).
Yes, it is unfair there is a pay gap. I’m just talking about what leads to different genders in different jobs.
Just my 2 cents.
Wow, what a great post! I love that you dug a little deeper into the statistics, as it is easy to “pick a statistic” to support any position.
My husband is a teacher, and it is a growing trend where we live. Many men, however, are the primary breadwinner, so the prospect of having a job that pays so poorly is out for them. So sometimes, the pay-gap is what perpetuates the gender trends.
I couldn’t help but comment on this topic, having stumbled upon it somewhere during my regular blog-surfing.
@ KMull, these ‘natural’ tendencies of women to do ‘nurturing’ jobs while men do the ‘physical and difficult’ jobs is something that has been around since the dawn of humanity. Do you want to know why?
It’s because, for the large majority of human existence, women had to take care of their children. Simple as that. There were no bottles or breast pumps until very VERY recently. Because of this, women were responsible for the ‘interruptable’ work, such as digging up roots, cooking, and mending, what we would consider ‘housework’ nowadays. That means that families relied on men to do the hunting, something that could not be successful if little children are around.
While you may think this to be a natural, ingrained trait of men and women, it’s not. It’s a cultural, man-created divide. Of course, our survival as a species relied on it for thousands of years. But now that women have the technology to leave their kids with others, women CAN and will do these more ‘physically demanding’ jobs.
By the way, have you ever taken care of a 200 lbs physically disabled person? And you say that women don’t want to do physically demanding jobs….
Just my 2 cents.
I think that’s unfair and really stupid. Why are men and women treated differently if women are just as smart as men are. Why do men get more money for the same job, like soccer. No one knows about women soccer stars but men get all over the papers.
I think that it’s because the men do all the scandals and because of that they are recognized more.
I think that people miss a large problem here. Yes jobs do seem to be gender specific and yes people do complain but how many actually DO anything about it. How many women actually put in for some of these construction jobs, roofers, or electrical repair? Yes women do..and normally are hired because we have laws that say you have to have a certain percentage of women and minorities on the job. So it no longer matters IF they can do the job only that they are hired for it. Look at those women jobs, now think how many male teachers, nurses, secretaries, etc. there are…LOTS. Again it isn’t because women don’t but for some reason aren’t. I work as a machine operator-when I started the plant had more men then women..now more women..we chose to learn and make it our job. Where are the women who are going into these male dominated trades? Not on here complaining. To have a change you must go out and make a change.