Sex Segregation in the Workplace Trends, Explanations, Remedies (1984) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
8 Toward a General Theory of Occupational Sex Segregation: The Case of Public School Teaching
8 Toward a General Theory of Occupational Sex Segregation: The Case of Public School Teaching
Pages 144-156
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 144... ...
TOWARD A GENERAL THEORY OF OCCUPATIONAL SEX SEGREGATION Extant sociological and economic theories of occupational segregation by gender in the labor market stem Tom remarkably divergent world views and locate the causes of segregation in a variety of different actors
|
From page 145... ...
Although the world view of the dual labor market or internal labor market theories is much less oriented toward individual choice and market processes than is neoclassical economics, these theories also locate the source of occupational segregation in employer behavior. Employers create segments in the labor market, either to take advantage of profit opportunities (the view of the non-Marxist dual labor market theorists)
|
From page 146... ...
Neither the formal theories nor the ad hoc explanations offered thus far can answer the three major questions concerning the gen3 Rubery (1978) , while not mainly interested in sex segregation, has also noted the importance of unions in perpetuating dual labor markets.
|
From page 147... ...
have responded to this question by citing various market rigidities that prevent profit maximization. Marxist dual labor market theorists such as Reich et al.
|
From page 148... ...
If the employer believes that an adequate supply of native male labor can be attracted from other industries or other parts of the country, he may raise the wage rate slightly to attract men. The employer will be more likely to do this if he believes that women may not be interested in holding the job, e.g., because holding such a job might violate existing norms and/or if he believes that native men would perform the job significantly better than either women or foreign workers.
|
From page 149... ...
to increase it as fast as others, thereby further increasing the gender wage differential. As noted earlier, when a wage rate is first set for a new occupation when employers think that men will enter We occupation the wage rate is set in accordance with the firm's or industry's internal wage structure and in accordance with wages for similar jobs in the local labor market.
|
From page 150... ...
In recent times, of course, equal employment opportunity legislation and affirmative action orders have served to increase women's choices and decrease the scope of men's exclusionary behavior. The following discussion, however, examines the dynamics of occupational segregation in the absence of legislation and executive and court orders.
|
From page 151... ...
For teaching to have remained a male profession, the percentage of all male workers engaged in teaching would have had to be increased. Nonetheless, although demand for teachers was increasing, school boards were not willing to raise wages to attract male teachers.
|
From page 152... ...
noted that in 1850 in New England about 80 percent of white males and about 75 percent of white females ages 5 to 19 attended school. Attendance rates for 1850 for both sexes and the ratio of female/male school attendance descends, however, as we move through the Middle Atlantic, North Central, South Central, and South Atlantic regions, respectively.
|
From page 153... ...
It is useful to answer these questions by looking separately at rural and urban labor markets. In rural areas, one-room schoolhouses often persisted even after school terms were lengthened and credentialling was formalized at the state level.
|
From page 154... ...
First, although male employers set wages and working conditions, within the constraints set down by race and class, male employers allow male workers to decide which occupations they will inhabit. Second, in deciding which jobs to claim for themselves and which to leave for women, male workers, again within the constraints laid down by race and class, attempt to maximize their economic gain by comparing the economic package presented by any particular occupation with the economic packages offered by other occupations.
|
From page 155... ...
demand factors in the labor market are inextricably interwoven. It would appear that, unless there is widespread agreement on the virtues of breaking down patriarchal relations, mate employers and male workers will find ample opportunities for frustrating the goals of governmental interventions in the job market.
|
From page 156... ...
Strober, Myra H., and Audri Gordon L Sanford 1981 The Percentage of Women in Public School Teaching: A Cross-Section Analysis, 1850 1880. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Social Science History Association, Nashville, Tenn., October.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.