The Gender MobiliTy Paradox Gender Segregation and Women’s Mobility across Gender-Type boundaries, 1970–2018

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

in this article, we examine trends in women’s mobility among male-dominated, gender-neutral, and female-dominated occupations. earlier research, largely employing data fromthe 1970s and early 1980s, showed that along with significant net movement by women intomale-dominated fields, there was also substantial attrition from male-dominated occupa-tions. Here, we build on previous research by examining how “gender-type” mobility rateshave changed in recent decades. the findings indicate that while still quite high, levels ofwomen’s occupational mobility among female, gender-neutral, and male occupations havedecreased considerably over time. We suggest that this is the result of increasing differentia-tion among women. in particular, many women, especially those in high-status occupations,plan to pursue employment in a male-dominated field, succeed in gaining entry, and tend toremain in these fields more often than their counterparts in previous decades. We interpretthese findings as evidence that gender segregation is maintained by an enduring but imper-fect system of social control that constrains women’s choices before, during, and after entryinto the labor market. the evidence presented here underscores the importance of studyinggender-type mobility as a distinct dimension of labor market inequality.