Young Women's and Men's Occupational Plans: The Role of the Local Labor Market

• In Event: 293 - Regular Session. Social Stratification and Inequality

Abstract

Gender differences in occupational plans have been documented as a mechanism underlying occupational gender segregation. Research finds that young men’s and women’s occupational plans reflect overall gender patterns in the occupational division of labor. Given increasing geographic variation in the kinds of jobs available to men and women, we use the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) to investigate the role of the local occupational structure in shaping young men’s and women’s occupational plans. Results indicate that young adults’ occupational plans are associated with local variation in the kinds of jobs that men and women occupy. We find that young men’s and women’s plans to pursue gender-typical occupations are heightened in local contexts with higher local shares of men and women working in gender-segregated jobs (e.g., blue-collar, service, and health). In addition, results suggest that young men and women in communities with higher shares of same-gender workers in higher-paying gender-atypical jobs (e.g., women in STEM) are more likely to expect to work in these gender-atypical occupations. Taken together, the current study finds evidence that the types of female and male workers in the local occupational structure can act to either strengthen or weaken youth’s tendencies to expect to work in gender-typical occupations.

Authors

• April Sutton, Cornell University

• Kim Weeden, Cornell University