Sex Segregation in the Workplace Trends, Explanations, Remedies (1984) / Chapter Skim
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6 Occupational Sex Segregation: Prospects for the 1980s
6 Occupational Sex Segregation: Prospects for the 1980s
Pages 91-114
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From page 91... ...
. The best measure of occupational segregation, the segregation index, is computed as follows: St = i/2~ | m`'—fit | ~ where m`' is the percentage of the male labor force employed in occupation i in year t, end fi' is the percentage of the female labor force employed in occupation i in year t.
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From page 92... ...
First, we make three projections based upon information about the labor force as a whole, employing linear and logistic models. Then we make four projections based upon information for age cohorts; the equations are specified according to the linear spline model.
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From page 93... ...
to obtain the sex composition of each occupation for the labor force as a whole. Combining these with the BLS occupational employment projections, we compute the projected segregation index.
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From page 94... ...
Moderate Age Cohort Projection (P6) The moderate projection is constructed under the assumption that the rate of change in the sex composition of occupations for the youngest (entering)
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From page 95... ...
, the optimistic projection, P8. PROjECTIONS OF OCCUPATIONAL SEGREGATION, 1981 TO 1990 Segregation indexes computed using BLS occupation projections and our linear projections on the sex composition of occupations for the labor force yield only a modest decline in occupational segregation between 1981 and 1990.
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From page 96... ...
From these data we conclude that projected changes in the sex composition of occupalions during the 1980s based upon changes between 1971 and 1981 will decrease occupational segregation less than in the past in part because of opposing changes in the occupational distribution toward increased segregation. However, these projections of occupational sex composition may be somewhat off, because they project the female share of the labor force in 1990 as higher than the BLS projects them (Department of Labor, BLS, 1979, Table 5, p.
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From page 97... ...
Several traditionally female occupations are projected to continue to account for decreasing proportions of the female labor force, while some increase in segregation will result from the expansion of the predominantly female health services occupations. According to P2, occupations projected to continue contributing to declines in the segregation index during the 1980s are elementary school teachers; telephone operators; cooks, except private household; child care workers, private household; and maids and servants, private household.
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From page 98... ...
. Increasing the rate at which women enter those blue-collar occupations that are projected to grow during the coming decade should be a major focus of any public policy designed to reduce occupational segregation.7 PROJECTIONS BASED ON AGE COHORTS The four segregation indexes based upon projections of occupational sex composition within age cohorts vary considerably depending upon the assumptions.
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From page 99... ...
So far we have projected trends in the sex composition of occupations either for the whole labor force or for a subgroup of that population. Here we use an aggregate time series regression framework in which the segregation indexes are variables.
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From page 100... ...
First, we computed a time series of segregation indexes for college major among bachelor's degree recipients and for professional occupations, which appear in Table 6-2, columns (1)
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From page 101... ...
Projection III is computed based on projecting the previous linear trend (1969 to 1978) in the segregation index for college majors.
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From page 102... ...
Using these projections of sex composition by major, we recomputed the projected segregation indexes for college majors and, with Eq.
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From page 103... ...
i3 In order for the segregation indexes to decline by more than is due to the influx of less segregated college graduates alone, less quitting must occur among women already in nontraditional professional occupations. This interpretation of the data is consistent with findings from our earlier study (Belier, in this volume)
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From page 104... ...
Since the occupation projections are based upon these labor force projections, they should be consistent with them. Methodology of Projections Based on Age Cohorts In order to make projections by age cohort, we need to know the sizes of age-sex cohorts for the projected year to supplement information on the projected occupational distribution and the projected sex composition of each occupation.
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From page 105... ...
(Thus, looking ahead, when we use the projected sex composition within each occupation of each age group to compute segregation indexes, we will see differences in the indexes that are bases] upon differences in their occupational sex composition alone.)
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From page 106... ...
(A6) Using these projections of proportion of males by occupation and the BLS occupational employment projections for 1990, Ei, we compute four projected segregation indexes for 1990, P5 to P8.
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From page 107... ...
occ. Code Occupation Name 225 231 233 245 260 265 266 270 281 282 301 Bank tellers 305 Bookkeepers 315 Dispatchers and starters, vehicle 323 Expediters and production controllers 331 Mail carriers, post office 333 Messengers and office helpers 343 Computer and peripheral equip.
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From page 108... ...
of Code Occupation Name Change*
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From page 109... ...
Code Occupation Name 190 191 194 195 201 205 210 212 215 216 223 224 230 235 240 262 264 271 283 284 285 303 310 312 313 314 320 321 325 326 330 332 341 345 355 364 370 372 374 Clerks, shipping and receiving 376 Stenographers 382 Teacher aides 391 Typists 392 Weighers 394 Misc. clerical workers 402 Bakers 404 Boilermakers 405 Bookbinders 410 Brick- and stonemasons 413 Cabinetmakers 1972 1981 Annual Projected Rate 1990 of Change*
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From page 110... ...
Actual Occ. Code Occupation Name 652 Lathe and mill machine operatives .0488 653 NEC, precision machine operatives .1475 656 Punch and stamp press operatives .2739 662 Sawyers .0496 421 Cement and concrete finishers .0127 424 Crane, derrick, hoist operators .0467 425 Decorators and window dressers .5977 433 Install.
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From page 111... ...
ocC. Code Occupation Name l644 645 650 651 663 665 672 674 680 681 690 692 694 695 706 711 712 713 714 751 753 755 760 761 770 82 901 902 911 913 914 916 921 922 925 Nursing aides, orderlies, attend.
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From page 112... ...
All trend values are significant at the .05 level except communications, which is significant at .10 level. b Computed from the projected sex composition for each major field.
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From page 113... ...
Thus, the segregation indexes used here differ slightly from the other ones reported in this paper, which include 59 disaggregated categories. For example, the segregation index for professional occupations based on the published aggregated data is 49.61 in 1981, while that based on unpublished detailed data is 50.55.
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