Description:
The last half-century has witnessed dramatic declines in gender inequality, evidenced by the rise of egalitarian views on gender roles and the narrowing of long-standing gender gaps in university attendance and labor force participation. This development, while spectacular, has been coupled with similarly impressive forms of resistance to equalization, most notably the continuing tendency for women to crowd into female "occupational ghettos." This book answers the important questions: Why has such extreme segregation persisted even as other types of gender inequality have lessened? Why is segregation especially extreme in precisely those countries that appear most committed to egalitarian reform and family-friendly policies?
Review Quotes: "Occupational Ghettos: The World Wide Segregation of Women and Men addresses a fundamental paradox for gender and work: Women are increasingly present in high-status occupations, but the decline in sex segregation has stalled. In a provocative thesis Maria Charles and David Grusky identify two dimensions of segregation: a hierarchical dimension that egalitarian ideals have weakened and a horizontal dimension that an essentialist view of the sexes has preserved. In developing and painstakingly testing a new theoretical model, Occupational Ghettos is reminiscent of Blau and Duncan's pathbreaking book on the American occupational structure. No one interested in gender in contemporary societies can dare to ignore it."--Barbara Reskin, University of Washington