Women's Work, Men's Work Sex Segregation on the Job (1986) / Chapter Skim
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5. Findings and Recommendations
5. Findings and Recommendations
Pages 123-140
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From page 123... ...
Working in a preclominantly female occupation lowers the wages of both female and male workers, but women in such occupations, on average, earn even less than their male counterparts. The consequences of women's income loss due to job segregation extend beyond their years in the labor force.
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From page 124... ...
This measure of segregation understates the amount of sex segregation in jobs, since it does not capture the considerable amount of segregation within many occupations and across establishments. As successive generations of young black women have found jobs in clerical and professional occupations, rather than in the low-paid service occupations to which their mothers and grandmothers were largely restricted, the occupational distribution of black women increasingly resembles that of white women.
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From page 125... ...
In reviewing explanations for sex segregation, we considered the role of cultural beliefs; barriers to employment, including discrimination; socialization, education, and training; family responsibilities; and the opportunity structure. Cultural Beliefs Beliefs about differences between the sexes that are grounded in Western cultural values contribute to the persistence of sex segregation.
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From page 126... ...
Although definitive demonstration is not possible, theories of social change suggest that the increasing recognition by lawmakers and the courts of women's right to equal opportunity in the workplace reinforce attitudinal changes. As a result, as integration takes hold, occupational sex stereotyping declines, and policies that facilitate the movement of persons of either sex into sexatypical occupations should foster farther declines in segregation.
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From page 127... ...
people's perceptions have changed so that many women now apply to and are accepted at professional schools in numbers almost equal to men. Family Responsibilities Responsibility for the daily care of family members, which women bear more than men, also undoubtedly affects labor market outcomes in many ways, but its link specifically to sex-segregated occupations is less clear.
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From page 128... ...
Taken to WOMEN'S WORK, MEN'S WORK "ether, however, the case studies and statistical research present a compelling case for the long-term effectiveness of legislative remedies. The decreases in federal enforcement effort that have occurred since 1981 and recent changes in the philosophy of enforcement including reversals offederal civil rights policy in some areas, are likely to affect women's future employment opportunities.
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From page 129... ...
Evidence regarding the effectiveness of the 1976 amendments to the Vocational Education Act is clearer. These amendments called for vocational education programs that received federal funds to eliminate sex bias and stereotyping in vocational education programs.
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From page 130... ...
In both vocational education and job training, large-scale interventions have been less likely to show measurable success than smaller, locally run programs, probably because of the difficulty of ensuring replication in implementation. Conclusion Because the causes of segregation-cultural values, socialization, sex bias and tracking in the educational system and in job training programs, discrimination, and institutionalized and informal barriers in the workplace-interact with each other and operate together to restrict access to education, training, and employment in sexatypical occupations, remedies are most likely to be effective when they address multiple causes (e.g., training combined with placement programs)
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From page 131... ...
We urge the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to explore and develop enforcement strategies that would en sure equitable pay for female-clominated jobs whose wage rates have been depressed by discrimination. Although we believe wage equity strategies should be explored, we stress that the traditional equal access and affirmative action approaches are also necessary to ensure equal opportunity in the labor market.
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From page 132... ...
Work-related meetings or companysupported social events that take place at discriminatory clubs can convey a lack of commitment to equal employment opportunity goals and should be avoided. In addition, we recommend that employers explore ways to make work schedules more flexible, with attention to both the .
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From page 133... ...
Academic departments in which women are underrepresented should determine whether subtle biases tend to discourage them and take action to eliminate the biases. In the area of formal vocational education and employment training, states and local school districts need to make much greater efforts to comply with the Vocational Education Equity Amendment s mandate to eliminate sex stereotyping.
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From page 134... ...
Affirmative steps to recruit women should be employed when veterans' preference policies operate against them. Recommendations Concerning Family Responsibilides An important factor outside the labor market that affects women's labor market performance and opportunities is the way in which family life is typically organized in our society.
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From page 135... ...
The most pressing data needs are the collection of establishment-level data and longitudinal data on individuals; the improvement of data necessary to assess the effectiveness of statutes and regulations prohibiting employment discrimination; the improvement of data on the extent of oc cupational segregation, particularly by ethnicity; and the collection of observational data concerning the processes of discrimination and job segregation and the responses of individuals and organizations to change. Establishment-Levet Data Although much research concludes that employer personnel policies are an important cause of occupational sex segregation, only a small portion of this research is based on establishment-level data.
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From page 136... ...
More detailed data on patterns of job segregation in individual enterprises would facilitate research on changes that occur in these employment patterns as a consequence of intervention by enforcement agencies and would greatly improve our ability to assess the effectiveness of equal employment opportunity policies. Data on Race and Ethnicity In order to understand the patterns and effects of occupational segregation, data must be tabulated by race and ethnicity as well as sex.
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From page 137... ...
How are they maintained? Similarly, we have virtually no studies of the texture of change within organizations in response to equal employment opportunity policies.
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From page 138... ...
To date, the human capital explanation for occupational segregation has received at best mixed empirical support; direct investigation of whether women choose various occupations because they think they will accommodate family care responsibilities would contribute to a better understanding of this model. Family responsibilities may also affect men's work decisions, and their decision-making processes should also be studied.
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From page 139... ...
Further research is also necessary to determine the conditions under which various interventions contribute to reduced sex segregation that is sustained in the long run. In particular, we recommend closer study of the channels through which the statisticaDy observed effects offederal enforcement agencies, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, occur.
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