Engineering Occupational Segregation

• In Event: Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 3: Racial and Gender Dynamics at Work

Abstract

The separation of masculine and feminine spaces is a cornerstone of gender inequality. One of the clearest cases of this separation is the distribution of men and women into largely separate and unequal occupations. While theoretical and empirical scholarship has identified the frequently negative experiences of women in male-dominated work environments, the contribution of such experiences to occupational gender segregation remains unclear. Using a probability sample of U.S. engineering graduates and a novel data source of technology workers in six organizations, this analysis provides support for the theory that subtle gender differences in workplace experiences – what I refer to collectively as ambient exclusion – lead qualified women across race and age to leave or otherwise avoid engineering and technology jobs, helping to perpetuate occupational gender segregation. Results suggest that organizational factors keep traditionally masculine, higher paying jobs inaccessible to many women and point to the critical role of organizations in maintaining – and potentially integrating – spaces and occupations still segregated by gender. I focus here on women in male-dominated work environments but suggest that the process described here may be a more general phenomenon upholding status-based segregation in a variety of environments along multiple axes of difference.

Author

• Christianne Corbett, University of Arkansas