Why does the American workforce remain segregated with women continuously occupying professions that are historically female such as teaching, nursing, and administrative assistance? And why does Sweden, which is known for progressive family-friendly policies and gender equality, have higher levels of work segregation than Japan, which places less emphasis on gender segregation political reform?
These questions are at the heart of Occupational Ghettos: The Worldwide Segregation of Women and Men, by sociologists Maria Charles and David Grusky. The authors argue that "sex segregation is an organic feature of egalitarianism" and that it will continue to pervade modern economies even when pressure from other spheres of society push for gender equalization.
Based on an archive of cross-national data, the results of this study point to forces that continue to place men into manual sectors and women into non-manual sectors that, in turn, advance men into the most sought-after positions within each sector.—Mallory Stark