Discrimination Against Women, Occupational Segregation, and the Relative Wage

Abstract

As of 1968 the income of women working full-time, year-round was 58 percent of that received by males.' While such factors as continuity of labor force experience, type of education, or on-the-job training may explain a portion of this income differential, it is extremely difficult, given the data at hand, to estimate accurately just what portion can be so explained, and that is of course a very crucial question. Rather than make a valiant attempt to do so, and assuming that the portion of the male-female income differential attributable to discrimination is significant, I will instead discuss a mechanism of discrimination-occupational segregation-and examine its implications for change in the relative wage of women as the supply of women to the labor market increases over time. Examination of the occupational distribution of women and men reveals an extreme degree of segregation. As of 1960, about 50 percent of employed women were concentrated in occupations where they represented 80 percent or more of total employment; only 2 percent of employed men were in these occupations. Whereas 20 percent of employed women were in occupations where they represented less than 33 percent of total employment, almost 90 percent of employed men were in these occupations.2

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