THE JOURNEY TO WORK AND OCCUPATIONAL SEGREGATION

Abstract

I ndividual-level explanations of occupational sex segregation have focused on women's poor education, their weak labor-force attachment, and their household responsibilities. The importance of locational factors has not been examined. Using the 1980 census Public Use Microdata Sample for Worcester, MA, I investigated the link between occupational type (defined in terms of the sex composition of specific occupations) and each of these previously examined factors, but the primary focus here is on the link between occupation type and the characteristics of the work trip. The analysis of 1002 male and 798 female workers suggests that neither educational background nor the presence of young children in the home is responsible for women's holding female-typed occupations in Worcester, although women's weak labor-force attachment is related to occupational type. Patterns of auto use and travel time are related to differences in women's, but not men's occupation type, suggesting that convenient access to work does play a role in the type of work women do. The study illustrates that in addition to the better-researched sociodemographic characteristics like labor-force attachment and household responsibility, journey-to-work characteristics contribute to occupational sex segregation.