Gender Segregation and Social Change

Despite profound economic and social changes in Britain during the 1980s, men and women remain highly segregated at work; a segregation strongly related to inequalities in pay, career prospects, and employment protection. This book analyses the nature and significance of gender segregation within the context of labour market change. The analysis has many novel features. These include a combination of economic and sociological approaches; the integration of demand and supply explanations; systematic comparisons between 'male' and 'female' jobs; the incorporation of work history and life cycle variables; and the investigation of 'sexist attitudes' and the sex-labelling of jobs. The effects of social change are analysed through employer, industry, and locality case studies. The results show that the sex ratio of a job is an important aspect of labour market structure, whether or not gender is the focus of the study, and that desegregation is still a long way off.