Job Segregation Women in the Workforce

Previous research on gender issues in the labor force has concluded that there still remains a disparity between men’s and women’s wages, the gender wage differential. While there are a number of factors contributing to this wage gap, occupational segregation continues to be one of the most important determinants of the differential. This paper builds upon previous research by looking specifically at the effect of the proportion of women within an occupation and its effect on the gender wage differential in an occupation. Using a mathematical and empirical analysis of the relationship between gender composition and wage differentials, this paper uncovers an indirect effect of the proportion of women on the gender wage differential. This indirect effect serves as a counteracting force to the direct effect of increasing proportion of women in an occupation on wages within that occupation and gives some evidence for a slowly improving situation for women in the U.S. labor force. This paper also shows how the changes in proportions of women within occupations and wage differentials within occupations have been uneven across occupations over time. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Luigi Pistaferri, for all of his time and hard work in advising me on my topic and the progression of my analysis. I could not have completed this thesis without him. Furthermore, I would like to thank Geoffrey Rothwell for his guidance during Junior Honors Seminar and Honors College, which provided me with the encouragement and guidelines to write this thesis. Finally, I would like to thank my fellow friends writing honors theses in economics, we could never have motivated to write these without support from each other