IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ozl/journl/v7y2004i3p309-327.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender Differences in Occupation of Employment within Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Alison Preston

    (Curtin University of Technology)

  • Gillian Whitehouse

    (The University of Queensland)

Abstract

Occupational segregation by sex is a persistent phenomenon in contemporary labour markets, and widely assumed to contribute to ongoing gender earnings inequality. In spite of continuing change in the occupational composition of labour markets and legislative efforts to proscribe sex discrimination in employment processes, only limited changes in overall indices of occupational segregation have been recorded in Australia over recent decades. This paper uses disaggregated data to show that even this modest level of integration is underpinned by trends that are not unequivocally favourable for women. Our analysis emphasises the influence of men’s increased representation in part-time work, and highlights increased feminisation in some areas alongside integrating trends in others.

Suggested Citation

  • Alison Preston & Gillian Whitehouse, 2004. "Gender Differences in Occupation of Employment within Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 7(3), pages 309-327, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:ozl:journl:v:7:y:2004:i:3:p:309-327
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ftprepec.drivehq.com/ozl/journl/downloads/AJLE073preston.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francine D. Blau & Marianne A. Ferber, 1991. "Career Plans and Expectations of Young Women and Men: The Earnings Gap and Labor Force Participation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 26(4), pages 581-607.
    2. Michael P. Kidd & Michael Shannon, 1996. "Does the Level of Occupational Aggregation Affect Estimates of the Gender Wage Gap?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 49(2), pages 317-329, January.
    3. Alison Preston, 1997. "Where Are We Now With Human Capital Theory in Australia?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 73(220), pages 51-78, March.
    4. Blau, Francine D & Kahn, Lawrence M, 1992. "The Gender Earnings Gap: Learning from International Comparisons," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(2), pages 533-538, May.
    5. Martin Watts, 2003. "The Evolution of Occupational Gender Segregation in Australia: Measurement and Interpretation," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(4), pages 631-655, December.
    6. Damian Grimshaw & Jill Rubery, 1997. "The Concentration of Women's Employment and Relative Occupational Pay: A Statistical Framework for Comparative Analysis," OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Papers 26, OECD Publishing.
    7. Robert M. Blackburn & Janet Siltanen & Jennifer Jarman, 1995. "The Measurement of Occupational Gender Segregation: Current Problems and a New Approach," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 158(2), pages 319-331, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Tan, Michelle, 2011. "Noncognitive skills, occupational attainment, and relative wages," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 1-13, January.
    2. Sara Charlesworth & Lyndall Strazdins, 2011. "Parents jobs in Australia: work hours polarisation and the consequences of job quality and gender equality," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 14(1), pages 35-57.
    3. Megan Moskos, 2020. "Why is the gender revolution uneven and stalled? Gender essentialism and men's movement into ‘women's work'," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 527-544, July.
    4. Gerard Lind & Rebecca Colquhoun, 2021. "Analysis of gender segregation within detailed occupations and industries in Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 24(1), pages 47-69.
    5. Luisa Maria Diele-Viegas & Thamara Santos Almeida & Iris Amati-Martins & Christine D. Bacon & Cibele Cassia-Silva & Rosane G. Collevatti & Jéssica Fenker & Tabata Elise Ferreira Cordeiro & Giuliana Ca, 2022. "Community voices: sowing, germinating, flourishing as strategies to support inclusion in STEM," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-5, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Koncz, Katalin, 2011. "A munkaerőpiac nemek szerinti szegregációjának jellemzői, mechanizmusa és következményei [The features, mechanism and results of gender-based segregation on the labour market]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 74-94.
    2. Kristy Eastough & Paul W. Miller, 2004. "The Gender Wage Gap in Paid‐ and Self‐Employment in Australia," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 257-276, September.
    3. Plasman, Robert & Sissoko, Salimata, 2004. "Comparing Apples with Oranges: Revisiting the Gender Wage Gap in an International Perspective," IZA Discussion Papers 1449, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Richard Breen & Cecilia Garcia-Penalosa, 2002. "Bayesian Learning and Gender Segregation," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(4), pages 899-922, October.
    5. Carsten Hundertmark, 2013. "Ökonometrische Verfahren zur Messung von Segregation: eine theoretische und empirische Studie," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 559, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    6. Joanna Tyrowicz & Lucas van der Velde, 2017. "When the opportunity knocks: large structural shocks and gender wage gaps," GRAPE Working Papers 2, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    7. Christian Pfeifer & Tatjana Sohr, 2009. "Analysing the Gender Wage Gap (GWG) Using Personnel Records," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 23(2), pages 257-282, June.
    8. Alison L. Booth, 2006. "The Glass Ceiling in Europe: Why Are Women Doing Badly in the Labour Market?," CEPR Discussion Papers 542, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    9. Thomas Dohmen & Hartmut Lehmann & Anzelika Zaiceva, 2008. "The Gender Earnings Gap inside a Russian Firm: First Evidence from Personnel Data - 1997 to 2002 ; Updated Version," ESCIRRU Working Papers 6, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    10. Ariana Need & Uulkje Jong, 2008. "Personality traits and gender-specific income expectations in Dutch higher education," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 86(1), pages 113-128, March.
    11. Svenja Gärtner, 2013. "German Stagnation vs. Swedish Progression: Gender Wage Gaps in Comparison, 1960-2006," LIS Working papers 586, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    12. Töpfer, Marina, 2017. "Detailed RIF decomposition with selection: The gender pay gap in Italy," Hohenheim Discussion Papers in Business, Economics and Social Sciences 26-2017, University of Hohenheim, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences.
    13. Lepinteur, Anthony & Flèche, Sarah & Powdthavee, Nattavudh, 2016. "My Baby Takes the Morning Train: Gender Identity, Fairness, and Relative Labor Supply Within Households," IZA Discussion Papers 10382, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Jane Waldfogel & Wendy Sigle-Rushton, 2006. "Motherhood and Women’s Earnings in Anglo-American, Continental European, and Nordic Countries," LIS Working papers 454, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    15. Steve Dowrick, 2003. "Ideas and Education: Level or Growth Effects?," NBER Working Papers 9709, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Júlia Varga, 2002. "Earnings Expectations and Higher-education Enrolment Decisions in Hungary," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 24(1), pages 121-152, July.
    17. Vaishali Zambre, 2018. "The Gender Gap in Wage Expectations: Do Young Women Trade off Higher Wages for Lower Wage Risk?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1742, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    18. Chul Chung & Bonggeun Kim, 2007. "Understanding Wage Inequality - Trade, Technology, and Location," Labor Economics Working Papers 22043, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    19. Christofides, Louis N. & Polycarpou, Alexandros & Vrachimis, Konstantinos, 2010. "The Gender Wage Gaps, 'Sticky Floors' and 'Glass Ceilings' of the European Union," IZA Discussion Papers 5044, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Mariana Olga De Santis & María Cecilia Gáname & Pedro Esteban Moncarz, 2022. "The Impact of Overeducation on Wages of Recent Economic Sciences Graduates," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 409-445, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination Labor Force and Employment; Size; and Structure (by industry; occupation; demographic characteristics; etc.) Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity (Formal Training Programs; On-the-Job Training);
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ozl:journl:v:7:y:2004:i:3:p:309-327. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sandie Rawnsley (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/becurau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.