IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v15y2001i3p511-538.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Vertical Dimension of Occupational Segregation

Author

Listed:
  • Robert M. Blackburn

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Bradley Brooks

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Jennifer Jarman

    (Dalhousie University)

Abstract

This article presents a new approach to measuring the most important dimension of gender segregation - the vertical dimension-in quantitative survey data. This, in turn, allows for a reassessment of the view that high levels of gender segregation are synonymous with high levels of social inequality. In order to do this, the article also draws upon significant conceptual developments. `Segregation' as it is commonly understood is named as `overall' segregation, and is the resultant of two components, `horizontal' and `vertical' segregation, representing difference and inequality separately. This provides a clear approach to measurement. The argument is developed with a case study of the British labour force. The pattern of segregation, in terms of its overall level and its components, varies considerably across sections of the labour force. In terms of inequality, the vertical components measured indicate that British women working full-time are more advantaged than we would expect, and that women working in part-time manual occupations, though facing the greatest relative disadvantage in terms of pay, are actually slightly advantaged over men working in manual occupations in terms of social stratification. Although overall segregation has remained relatively unchanged over the five year period from 1991 to 1996, there have been some significant changes to its components within the various sections of the employed British labour force in that time. By looking at the various sections of the labour force, relative to the labour force as a whole, we can achieve a better understanding of how segregation operates with respect to gender inequalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert M. Blackburn & Bradley Brooks & Jennifer Jarman, 2001. "The Vertical Dimension of Occupational Segregation," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 15(3), pages 511-538, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:15:y:2001:i:3:p:511-538
    DOI: 10.1177/09500170122119138
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170122119138
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09500170122119138?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Grusky & Maria Charles, 1998. "The past, present, and future of sex segregation methodoloqy," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 35(4), pages 497-504, November.
    2. Silber, Jacques G., 1989. "On the measurement of employment segregation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 237-243, September.
    3. Jacques Silber, 1992. "Occupational Segregation Indices in the Multidimensional Case: A Note," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 68(3), pages 276-277, September.
    4. 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.
    5. Richard Lampard, 1994. "Comment on Blackburn, Jarman and Siltanen: Marginal Matching and the Gini Coefficient," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 8(3), pages 407-411, September.
    6. Robert M. Blackburn & Jennifer Jarman & Janet Siltanen, 1994. "A Reply to Lampard," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 8(3), pages 413-419, September.
    7. Francine D. Blau & Wallace E. Hendricks, 1979. "Occupational Segregation by Sex: Trends and Prospects," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 14(2), pages 197-210.
    8. Jennifer Jarman & Robert M. Blackburn & Bradley Brooks & Esther Dermott, 1999. "Gender Differences at Work: International Variations in Occupational Segregation," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 4(1), pages 29-50, March.
    9. Philip Almond & Jill Rubery, 1998. "The Gender Impact Of Recent European Trends In Wage Determination," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 12(4), pages 675-693, December.
    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. Tugce, Cuhadaroglu, 2013. "My Group Beats Your Group: Evaluating Non-Income Inequalities," SIRE Discussion Papers 2013-49, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    2. Leuze, Kathrin & Helbig, Marcel, 2015. "Why do girls' and boys' gender-(a)typical occupational aspirations differ across countries? How cultural norms and institutional constraints shape young adolescents' occupational preferences," Discussion Papers, Presidential Department P 2015-002, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.

    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. Falk, Susanne, 2002. "Geschlechtsspezifische berufliche Segregation in Ostdeutschland zwischen Persistenz, Verdrängung und Angleichung : ein Vergleich mit Westdeutschland für die Jahre 1991-2000 (Gender-specific occupation," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 35(1), pages 37-59.
    2. repec:cte:werepe:we056231 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Falk, Susanne, 2002. "Geschlechtsspezifische berufliche Segregation in Ostdeutschland zwischen Persistenz, Verdrängung und Angleichung : ein Vergleich mit Westdeutschland für die Jahre 1991-2000 (Gender-specific occupation," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 35(1), pages 37-59.
    4. 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.
    5. Falk, Susanne, 2002. "Geschlechtsspezifische berufliche Segregation in Ostdeutschland zwischen Persistenz, Verdrängung und Angleichung : ein Vergleich mit Westdeutschland für die Jahre 1991-2000 (Gender-specific occupation," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 35(1), pages 37-59.
    6. Muhammad Zaheer Khan & Rusmawati Said & Nur Syazwani Mazlan & Norashidah Mohamed Nor, 2023. "Measuring the occupational segregation of males and females in Pakistan in a multigroup context," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. repec:cte:werepe:we034014 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Alonso-Villar, Olga & del Río, Coral, 2010. "Local versus overall segregation measures," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 30-38, July.
    9. Coral Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2010. "Gender Segregation in the Spanish Labor Market: An Alternative Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 98(2), pages 337-362, September.
    10. repec:cte:werepe:we077544 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Branko Milanovic & Paola Salardi, 2016. "The Evolution of Gender and Racial Occupational Segregation Across Formal and Non-Formal Labor Markets in Brazil, 1987 to 2006," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 62, pages 68-89, August.
    12. 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.
    13. Coral Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2022. "On Measuring Segregation in a Multigroup Context: Standardized Versus Unstandardized Indices," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 633-659, September.
    14. Martin Watts, 1998. "Occupational gender segregation: Index measureiient and econometric modeling," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 35(4), pages 489-496, November.
    15. Coral Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2015. "The Evolution of Occupational Segregation in the United States, 1940–2010: Gains and Losses of Gender–Race/Ethnicity Groups," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 967-988, June.
    16. Martin Watts, 1997. "Multidimensional Indexes of Occupational Segregation," Evaluation Review, , vol. 21(4), pages 461-482, August.
    17. Ricardo Mora & Javier Ruiz-Castillo, 2003. "Additively Decomposable Segregation Indexes. The Case of Gender Segregation by Occupations and Human Capital Levels in Spain," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 1(2), pages 147-179, August.
    18. Jane Elliott, 2005. "Comparing occupational segregation in Great Britain and the United States," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 19(1), pages 153-174, March.
    19. Olga Alonso Villar & Coral del Río, 2010. "Segregation of female and male workers in Spain: occupations and industries," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 194(3), pages 91-121, June.
    20. Barbezat D., 1993. "Occupational segmentation by sex in the world," ILO Working Papers 992989003402676, International Labour Organization.
    21. Ricardo Mora & Javier Ruiz-Castillo, 2004. "Gender segregation by occupations in the public and the private sector.The case of Spain," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 28(3), pages 399-428, September.
    22. repec:ilo:ilowps:298900 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Diganta Mukherjee, 2002. "On A Symmetric Measure of Occupational Segregation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 1-11, January.
    24. Coral del Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2010. "Occupational segregation measures: A role for status," Working Papers 167, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.

    More about this item

    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:sae:woemps:v:15:y:2001:i:3:p:511-538. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    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.