Setting Occupational Sex Segregation in Motion

Abstract

The employment of women in female-dominated occupations and men in male-dominated occupations (sex traditional employment) is a fundamental source of economic sex inequality. Despite this, we know little about how organizational practices and policies link workers to sex traditional jobs. The author tests theoretically hypothesized determinants of sex traditional employment using data on the sex of the last hire and the sex type of his or her occupation in nearly 3,000 establishments. The results are generally consistent with deskilling and organizational staffing accounts of sex traditional employment and confirm that a different system of sex segregation operates for women and men.