Reeve Vanneman

The Macro-Level Effect of Occupational Integration

Cotter, David A., JoAnn M. DeFiore, Joan M. Hermsen, Brenda Marsteller Kowalewski, and Reeve Vanneman. 1997. "All Women Benefit: The Macro-Level Effect of Occupational Integration on Gender Earnings Equality" American Sociological Review. 62 (October): 714-734.

ABSTRACT

Macro-level processes transfer many of the income benefits of occupational integration to all women in the labor market, not just to those women who enter predominantly male (and therefore high-paying) occupations. We investigate these macro-level effects in a multi-level model comparing 261 metropolitan area labor markets. We find that occupational integration is strongly associated with gender earnings equality, even after extensive individual- and macro-level controls are introduced. The size of the association implies that the entire gender gap in earnings would be eliminated if occupational integration were complete. This macro- level estimate is far higher than the 9 percent to 38 percent estimates found in individual-level studies. Moreover, an individual-level control for the gender composition of a worker's occupation explains little of the macro-level occupational association between integration and earnings equality. Women in predominantly female occupations benefit almost as much from an integrated labor market as do women in predominantly male occupations.