IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/vig/wpaper/1502.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Occupational Segregation of Black Women in the United States: A Look at its Evolution from 1940 to 2010

Author

Listed:
  • Olga Alonso-Villar
  • Coral del Río

Abstract

Based on detailed occupation titles and making use of measures that do not require pairwise comparisons among demographic groups, this paper shows that the occupational segregation of Black women declined dramatically in 1940-1980, decreased slightly in 1980-2000, and remained stagnant in 2000-2010. An important contribution of this paper is the quantification of the well-being losses that these women derive from their occupational sorting. The segregation reduction was indeed accompanied by well-being improvements, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. Regarding the role that education has played, this study highlights that, only from 1990 onward, Black women with either some college or university degrees had lower segregation (as compared with their peers) than those with lower education. Nevertheless, the well-being loss that Black women with university degrees derived in 2010 for being segregated from their peers in education was not too different from that of Black women with lower education.

Suggested Citation

  • Olga Alonso-Villar & Coral del Río, 2015. "The Occupational Segregation of Black Women in the United States: A Look at its Evolution from 1940 to 2010," Working Papers 1502, Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Economía Aplicada.
    • Handle: RePEc:vig:wpaper:1502
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://webx06.webs8.uvigo.es/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/wp1502.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2015
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Herve Queneau, 2009. "Trends in occupational segregation by race and ethnicity in the USA: evidence from detailed data," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(13), pages 1347-1350.
    2. Carlos Gradín, 2013. "Conditional occupational segregation of minorities in the US," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(4), pages 473-493, December.
    3. Anne McDaniel & Thomas DiPrete & Claudia Buchmann & Uri Shwed, 2011. "The Black Gender Gap in Educational Attainment: Historical Trends and Racial Comparisons," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(3), pages 889-914, August.
    4. Alonso-Villar, Olga & del Río, Coral, 2010. "Local versus overall segregation measures," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 30-38, July.
    5. Francine Blau & Peter Brummund & Albert Liu, 2013. "Trends in Occupational Segregation by Gender 1970–2009: Adjusting for the Impact of Changes in the Occupational Coding System," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 471-492, April.
    6. 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.
    7. Boisso, Dale & Hayes, Kathy & Hirschberg, Joseph & Silber, Jacques, 1994. "Occupational segregation in the multidimensional case : Decomposition and tests of significance," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 161-171, March.
    8. Suzanne Bianchi & Nancy Rytina, 1986. "The decline in occupational sex segregation during the 19705: census and cps comparisons," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 23(1), pages 79-86, February.
    9. Fosu, Augustin Kwasi, 1997. "Occupational Gains of Black Women since the 1964 Civil Rights Act: Long-Term or Episodic?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 311-314, May.
    10. Victor R. Fuchs, 1975. "A Note on Sex Segregation in Professional Occupations," NBER Chapters, in: Explorations in Economic Research, Volume 2, number 1, pages 105-111, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Olga Alonso-Villar & Coral Del Rio & Carlos Gradin, 2012. "The Extent of Occupational Segregation in the United States: Differences by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 179-212, April.
    12. Katrinell M. Davis, 2013. "An End to Job Mobility on the Sales Floor: The Impact of Department Store Cost Cutting on African-American Women, 1970--2000," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 54-75, January.
    13. repec:bla:ecorec:v:68:y:1992:i:202:p:276-77 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. The Occupational Segregation of Black Women in the United States: A Look at its Evolution from 1940 to 2010
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2015-06-04 18:53:50

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Shelby R. Buckman & Laura Choi & Mary C. Daly & Lily Seitelman, 2021. "The Economic Gains from Equity," Working Paper Series 2021-11, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    2. Olga Alonso-Villar & Coral Río, 2017. "Mapping the occupational segregation of white women in the US: Differences across metropolitan areas," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96(3), pages 603-625, August.
    3. Coral del Río & Olga Alonso Villar, 2013. "Mujeres ante el empleo (y el desempleo) en el mercado laboral español," Working Papers 1305, Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Economía Aplicada.
    4. Coral del Rio & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2014. "The Evolution of Occupational Segregation in the U.S., 1940-2010: The Gains and Losses of Gender-Race/Ethnicity Groups," Working Papers 323, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    5. Shelby R. Buckman & Laura Choi & Mary C. Daly & Lily Seitelman, 2021. "The Economic Gains from Equity," Working Paper Series 2021-11, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    6. 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.

    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. 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.
    2. Coral del Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2014. "The Evolution of Occupational Segregation in the U.S., 1940-2010: Gains and Losses of Gender- Race/ethnicity Groups," Working Papers 1405, Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Economía Aplicada.
    3. Olga Alonso-Villar & Coral del Río, 2017. "The Occupational Segregation of African American Women: Its Evolution from 1940 to 2010," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 108-134, January.
    4. Olga Alonso-Villar & Coral Río, 2017. "Mapping the occupational segregation of white women in the US: Differences across metropolitan areas," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96(3), pages 603-625, August.
    5. Olga Alonso-Villar & Coral Del Río, 2017. "Local Segregation and Well-Being," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(2), pages 269-287, June.
    6. Coral del Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2018. "Social Welfare Losses Due to Occupational Segregation by Gender and Race/Ethnicity in the U.S.: Are There Differences across Regions?," Working Papers 1802, Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Economía Aplicada.
    7. Olga Alonso‐Villar & Coral del Río, 2020. "The welfare effects of occupational segregation by gender and race: Differences across US Regions," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(6), pages 1773-1797, December.
    8. 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.
    9. Carlos Grad�n & Coral Del R�o & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2015. "Occupational Segregation by Race and Ethnicity in the United States: Differences Across States," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(10), pages 1621-1638, October.
    10. Olga Alonso-Villar & Coral del Río & Carlos Gradín, 2010. "The extent of occupational segregation in the US: Differences by race, ethnicity, and gender," Working Papers 180, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    11. 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.
    12. O. Alonso-Villar & C. Grad󸀍 & C. del R􈀍, 2013. "Occupational segregation of Hispanics in US metropolitan areas," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(30), pages 4298-4307, October.
    13. Francine Blau & Peter Brummund & Albert Liu, 2013. "Trends in Occupational Segregation by Gender 1970–2009: Adjusting for the Impact of Changes in the Occupational Coding System," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 471-492, April.
    14. Coral Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2018. "Segregation and Social Welfare: A Methodological Proposal with an Application to the U.S," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 257-280, May.
    15. Coral Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2019. "Occupational segregation by sexual orientation in the U.S.: exploring its economic effects on same-sex couples," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 439-467, June.
    16. Daniel Guinea-Martin & Ricardo Mora, 2022. "Computing decomposable multigroup indices of segregation," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 22(3), pages 521-556, September.
    17. Carlos Gradín, 2013. "Conditional occupational segregation of minorities in the US," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(4), pages 473-493, December.
    18. Coral del Rio & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2015. "Segregation and social welfare," Working Papers 378, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    19. 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.
    20. Humpert , Stephan, 2014. "Trends in occupational segregation: What happened with women and foreigners in Germany?," European Economic Letters, European Economics Letters Group, vol. 3(2), pages 36-39.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    occupational segregation measurement; race; gender; Black women; wages; United States;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:vig:wpaper:1502. 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: Departamento de Economía Aplicada (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deviges.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.