1 Measuring Occupational Segregation and its Dimensions of Inequality and Difference

The segregation of populations is an important feature of societies1. The two main bases of segregation, at least in the industrially developed countries, are ethnicity and gender. Ethnic segregation is frequently measured in relation to residential location. That is, the ethnic segregation is concerned with the extent to which the various ethnic minorities are concentrated in particular areas. Also, ethnic segregation is found in employment, where different ethnic groups tend to work in separate occupations. Gender segregation is also concerned with the tendency to work in different occupations, in this case the separation involving women and men. However, for fairly obvious reasons gender segregation is not concerned with residential areas. Segregation is inherently symmetrical (Siltanen et al 1995). In so far as women are separated from men, so are men separated from women in the employment structure under consideration. Similarly the segregation of any two ethnic groups is symmetrical, whether it be in employment or residence.2 While there has been extensive research on these forms of segregation, there has been relatively little consideration of the dimensions of segregation. The vertical dimensio