Labor-Market Entry and the Sexual Segregation of Careers in the Federal Republic of Germany

This article traces the emergence of sex-specific structures over the life course, compares these patterns across cohorts, and discovers the importance of entry into the labor market for the subsequent occupational careers of men and women. New life-history data from the Federal Republic of Germany show that there is an impressive equalization of educational opportunities between men and women across cohorts. Despite this covergence in educational levels of men and women, sex-specific differences in the field of vocational training continue to be a major component within the process of sex segregation, both over the life course and across cohorts, in West Germany. At entry into the occupational system an increasing tendency to sex-specific occupational segregation across cohorts is observable. This does not imply that women's occupational chances have become worse across cohorts but the opposite. Across the cohorts, many of the new skilled occupations created by a changing economic structure and the expanding welfare state were filled by young women.