It's
a Man's Job, or So They Say:
The Production of Sex Segregation in Occupations
Judith A. Levine
Abstract
Based on a case study of a manufacturing plant, this paper addresses
weaknesses in the way that new structuralist theories and the literature
on sex segregation in occupations treat barriers to women's mobility.
I examine the forces that prevent sex integration in occupations
and the reasons why women may fail to protest against these forces.
I distinguish between barriers met before and after women enter
male departments, demonstrate the ways in which institutional and
cultural barriers to integration interact, and show the inadequacy
of simple images of male domination to portray shop-floor social
interaction. I find that competition for social rewards, tensions
between racial groups, and animosity between mobile and immobile
women undermine the potential for solidarity among women which in
turn makes resistance to gender-based barriers unlikely. The paper
concludes with an argument that women are likely to experience more
disadvantage in organizations in which male and female workers are
geographically isolated, women are disproportionately assigned jobs
in departments with fewer job titles, and the internal labor market
is departmentally based.
Judith A. Levine, Department of Sociology,
Northwestern University
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