UZH: For this reason, occupational groups are often gender-typical
Typical man, typical woman? A new study by the University of Zurich explains how female- and male-dominated specializations occur within professions.
Many women and men work in gender-typical professions. A new study by the University of Zurich explains why: According to the study, one important reason is that men selectively leave professions that are increasingly taken up by women.
There is still a strong gender divide in the labor market, even though the occupational status of the sexes has converged over the past 50 years. For example, many nursing professions are female-dominated, while many skilled trades are mainly performed by men. Why? That's what the University of Zurich is trying to explain with a new study. According to it, there is therefore a theory in gender research that men selectively leave professions and specializations that are newly taken up by more women.
Theory empirically tested
Per Block, professor of sociology at the University of Zurich, has empirically tested the theory using new methods from network research. The labor market is understood as a network, in which employees change their occupations to link different occupations. This makes it possible to analyze whether men selectively leave occupations that become feminized. This is done by considering the different occupational characteristics that channel men and women into different occupations. The empirical data for the study come from the United Kingdom; the labor market there has similarities with many European countries as well as with North American countries.
The results clearly show that men are less likely to stay in occupations to which more women switch. For example, the study compares two hypothetical occupations that are identical in all job characteristics and differ only in that one has 25 percent women and the other 75 percent. "The analysis shows that men are twice as likely to leave the feminizing occupation," says Prof. Block. The impact of this behavior is being explored in a simulation study in which women and men are not influenced by the gender of other workers in occupations. If only occupation-specific attributes (such as wage, flexibility, or job characteristics) actually influenced occupational changes, the simulation study predicts a 19-28 percent decrease in gender segregation in occupations.
The research concludes that gender segregation is caused not only by gender-typical job attributes, but also by men (and women) who consciously or unconsciously resist mixing.
