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Presented By: Interdisciplinary Committee on Organizational Studies - ICOS

Is the Gender Revolution Really Stalled?

Kim Weeden, Cornell University

Photo of Kim Weeden Photo of Kim Weeden
Photo of Kim Weeden
Progress toward gender equality in the U.S. labor market is often described as a "stalled revolution," with rapid progress in the 1980s and 1990s followed by slower change thereafter. This characterization emerges from period-based analyses. We introduce a new approach to studying occupational sex segregation, distinguishing cohort and life-cycle changes in men’s, women’s, and labor-market patterns. We find that few cohorts of women stalled in entering male-dominated occupations relative to their predecessors, and indeed the youngest cohorts show faster integration. Men’s cohort change is slower but still substantial. The combined effect is a monotonic inter-cohort decline in occupational segregation, as measured by the index of dissimilarity. Over the life cycle, women’s likelihood of entering male-dominated occupations increases steadily, while men’s follows an inverted U-pattern. Cohort and life-cycle patterns vary by parental status and education. Our findings caution against a broad “stalled revolution” narrative and highlight the need for gender inequality theories to attend to the different “clocks” underpinning social change.

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