Occupational sex segregation and mobility : an analysis of the career experiences of mature women, 1967-1977

Abstract

The major goal of this research is to analyze the labor experiences of mature women through the empirical examination of their mobility between occupational sectors defined on the basis of sex composition. The basis of this conceptualization is the theoretical intersection of three substantive traditions of literature and empirical research: occupational sex segregation, labor market segmentation, and occupational mobility. Five general multivariate propositions are derived from this theoretical intersection and are representative of a multi-theoretical approach to the analysis of mobility. This approach emphasizes both structural and individual influences. More specifically, the influences of early formative influences, human capital investments, familial investments, market conditions, and job conditions are assessed on two types of mobility patterns: mobility from the typical occupational sector and mobility from the atypical occupational sector. Based on data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Work Experience, the empirical analysis intends to accomplish two interrelated goals. First, the fact of mobility between sex-typed occupational sectors is established. The fact of mobility pertains to both the extent of mobility and the direction of movement. Second, explanatory models of the two types of inter-sectorial mobility are assessed. Even though little change in the overall occupational opportunities available to labor force participants is detected, an important amount of individual movement is observed between the atypical, balanced, and typical occupational sectors. Analysis of the determinants of mobility between sex-typed occupational sectors are presented according to three explanatory models. For Model I, indicators of early formative influences and job conditions are significantly associated with mobility from the typical occupational sector. For Model II, indicators of early formative influences, human capital investments, and job conditions are significantly associated with mobility from the atypical occupational sector. For Model III, indicators of human capital investments, familial investments, market conditions, and job conditions are significantly associated with both types of mobility. The importance of these findings does not lie in their singular significance, but in their linkages to past and future research and implications for sociological theory and social policy.