Gender segregation in the labor market is deeply rooted in the division of labor between the sexes - as in modern societies as well as in societies of the past. Segregation occurs both within and between firms, areas of employment, and industries. There are two components of occupational segregation: horizontal and vertical.

Horizontal gender segregation

Under horizontal occupational segregation understand the uneven distribution of men and women by economic sectors and professions; under vertical- uneven distribution job hierarchy. Today, there is a situation where industries and professions are divided into “male” and “female”.

Let us dwell on the characteristics of horizontal segregation. It is a general concept covering several more particular dimensions, namely: sectoral (the distribution of men and women between sectors of the economy); professional (their distribution by profession); inter-firm (distribution of men and women between firms of different size and status); intersectoral (the distribution of men and women between the private and public sectors of the economy) Theory and methodology of gender studies. Course of lectures / Under the general. ed. O.A. Voronina. M.: MTsGI, 2001, p. 139.

One of the most important mechanisms of horizontal segregation is gender discrimination, which contributes to the preservation of the traditional "gender portrait" of professions and industries.

Applied to the area of ​​employment gender discrimination means that “individual workers with the same performance characteristics are treated differently because they represent different socio-demographic groups” Ibid. Gender discrimination in the labor market is widely known both abroad and in our country. They write about it, discuss it and condemn it, but do practically nothing to eliminate it. Every time, there are weighty arguments against its destruction: who will raise children and do housework, if women, on an equal footing with men, become engaged in business and management, and so on.

There are several types of discrimination: in wages, in hiring, in downsizing, in advancement, in advanced training. We will focus on several of the basic approaches that explain the origin and essence of the phenomenon of discrimination.

Discrimination at the level of preferences (discrimination against women by the employer, consumer or colleagues). Employer discrimination has been discussed in general terms by Becker G. The Economics of Discrimination. 2nd ed. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 197, who suggested that some employers have a prejudice against hiring certain groups of workers (in this case, women).

Statistical discrimination (The essence of this type of discrimination is that, when making a hiring decision, the employer tries to guess the likely performance of candidates for a position on some indirect grounds (education, experience, gender, age, test results, etc.).

If an employer believes that women are worse workers than men, then he will systematically give preference to men, regardless of the individual professional and family characteristics of a particular candidate. Thus, a particular employee is evaluated based on the criteria that are formed for the group of which he is a representative. For example, it is assumed that for men, activities such as work with people, decision-making, intellectual work, and also those associated with increased physical activity are the most suitable. For women - work with papers, which requires increased attention and patience, purely performing work, and also does not require highly qualified and education Theory and methodology of gender studies. Course of lectures / Under the general. ed. O.A. Voronina. M.: MTsGI, 2001, p. 132.

Discrimination due to the monopoly structure of the labor market . This approach emphasizes that discrimination exists and persists because it brings profit to those who practice it. Discrimination against women in the labor market manifests itself in various forms. First, gender inequality persists in areas such as training and retraining, access to and control over productive resources (ie money); women continue to face employment discrimination. Secondly, gender segregation remains one of the main factors hindering labor market flexibility: men's and women's jobs are valued and paid differently; women continue to face difficulties and barriers to professional mobility. In almost all countries of the world, there is a clear trend towards the concentration of women in industries and professions with the least high level wages. Third, once unemployed, women usually face more difficulties than men in accessing various assistance programs.

Vertical segregation

Vertical segregation reflects differences in official position men and women. In most cases, we mean the low accessibility for women of prestigious professions and positions in the field of business and management, related to responsibility and decision making.

Russia today is characterized by an exceptionally low representation of women at the decision-making level, both in the state and non-state sectors of employment. Among senior civil servants, women make up only 5.7%, while in the category of senior employees there are almost half of them - 49.9%, and in the category of junior ones - over 80%. The gender “pyramid of power” looks similar in the non-state sector: in 2002, there were only two women among the owners and managers of 125 large Moscow companies, and only 11 women (8%) among 138 representatives of the business elite. In general, trends in the field job structure employment of women are as follows: the higher the job level, the lower the proportion of women in the total number of people employed in it.

The term "glass ceiling" is often used to describe such phenomena. gender factors in the process of adoption economic decisions// UN Chronicle, November 1995. Vol. XXXVI. No. 2. p. 228, introduced in the early 1980s and reflecting the fact that, despite formally equal opportunities for both sexes, there are many informal, "invisible" barriers that prevent women from advancing through the official hierarchy. Today, the nature and character of the glass ceiling has changed: in most cases, modern women, although not openly removed from leadership positions, nevertheless receive positions in companies that have only the appearance of power and prestige.

Conclusions to Chapter 1

It is obvious that modern men have much more opportunities to shape their working career than women. And yet, women continue to advance in the field of employment, sometimes in its most intellectual and prestigious sectors and, above all, in management and entrepreneurship. According to the observations of Western experts, this offensive has become especially active in the last 20 years. But, despite the active entry of women into managerial activity, among them there is still a small number of managers, not only of the highest, but also of the middle level. Women are still a small part of entrepreneurs: their opportunities are limited by insufficient education, training and access to credit. The exception is family business where small business owners are becoming an increasingly visible phenomenon.

Horizontal gender segregation

Horizontal gender segregation means separating men and women into qualitatively different areas of employment. It should be noted that today it is not as pronounced as in the past. Thus, in Great Britain in 1900, over 70% of wage earners were men.

Clerical workers were predominantly male, and professions such as lawyers and lawyers were exclusively male. However, by the beginning of the XXI century. men made up only 54% of all employees, and 28% of lawyers and lawyers were women. Despite the seemingly obvious progress, horizontal segregation continues to exist, albeit in more hidden forms. Many professions continue to be gendered. For example, in all countries, the majority of nurses, housekeepers and cleaners are women, while the majority of police and military personnel are men. A similar situation is observed in Russia: in 2013, 92.6% of nurses and 94.1% of nannies and teachers in kindergartens were women.

Vertical gender segregation

Vertical gender segregation is the division of men and women into high and low job positions within the same profession/field of employment. In recent decades, developed Western countries there is clear evidence of a reduction in vertical segregation. For example, in the UK, the concentration of women in low-level positions in public service, schooling, trade becomes less prominent. Nevertheless, in general, the situation remains unchanged, and the higher and more prestigious this or that official position, the less accessible it becomes for women.

According to the State Statistics Committee of Russia for 2013, among the heads of government and administration at all levels, including heads of organizations, 62% are men. Since these data combine both directors of large enterprises and heads of small departments, a more accurate picture emerges if we turn to pay data for men and women in managerial positions. In October 2013, the average monthly salary of male managers was 59,645 rubles, while that of women managers was only 43,727 rubles.

Thus, despite the media broadcast and the image of women storming the “strongholds” of male employment, which has become quite popular, the feminization of labor has not destroyed the demarcation of male and female professions/areas of employment. Some researchers characterize this situation as a paradox, when, on the one hand, there is a huge increase in female employment, and, on the other hand, an equally intense concentration of women in the secondary labor market (temporary and low-paid employment).

There are several explanations for this situation. Some researchers believe that this is due to the very nature of the modern restructuring of the labor market, which has led to the emergence of a large number of jobs that are temporary, non-guaranteed and low pay. It is these places that occupy the majority of working women.

Another explanation for gender segregation in the labor market refers to a wider division of labor in society and emphasizes that the need to bear and care for children forces many women to accept part-time jobs and low wages. However, while part-time work is disadvantageous to some women, its prevalence among women cannot explain the situation of gender segregation in general. So, although in the UK women of Afro-Caribbean origin prefer to work full-time, despite their “childish” workload, they are nevertheless concentrated in low-paid positions.

Moreover, comparative studies provide contradictory data and reveal serious flaws in explanations based on the need for women to bear the “childish” burden. For example, in the UK, 43% of women work part-time due to the need to care for children. By contrast, in France, where women only choose to leave their jobs if they have three or more children or are fired due to age, only one in five working women is employed part-time. If the reason for women's disadvantaged position in the labor market was their family burden, then the women of France, whose working career is in many ways similar to men, should have been in a more equal position with men. However, in reality, although French women are more successful than British women in moving into grassroots management positions, the degree of vertical and horizontal segregation in the two countries appears to be similar.

It is also important to consider how women, and especially mothers, are constructed by society itself as lower-level workers. One of the significant factors here is gender discourse, i.e. accusations of working mothers (by public opinion) in a number of social problems. Thus, in many societies, the roles of mother and working woman are seen as incompatible.

Another factor is the role of the state in the gender structuring of the labor market, such as allowing employers to enter into temporary employment contracts with women. labor contracts, which do not provide for any measures to protect mothers, which actually contributes to the development of a two-tier labor market.

Finally, any explanation of gender segregation must take into account how gender is embedded in the organizational process of the company, i.e. the ways in which organizational culture can perpetuate gender segregation and hinder women's career advancement by creating a so-called glass ceiling for them.

• Discourse is a complex of ideas, concepts and representations that are established as knowledge or worldview of a particular society. These ideas create a certain model for understanding and behavior in society.
• The "glass ceiling" is a metaphor for invisible barriers to women's advancement into high-paying professional, managerial, or political positions.

As a result of the existence of discriminatory barriers to labor mobility, there is segregation in the labor market. Segregation is the division of workers into groups and the restriction of access of any groups of workers to a part of jobs (directly or through restriction of access to vocational training). Segregation is a form of discrimination in the labor market. Usually consider sectoral segregation (unequal distribution of groups of workers by industry) or occupational segregation (unequal distribution of groups of workers by profession). The consequences of this form of discrimination are described by the model of occupational segregation, or the “pandemonium” model. It is based on the following premises:

there are two groups of workers in the labor market that are identical in terms of their productivity and performance;

for a discriminated group of workers, some jobs are inaccessible, interprofessional mobility for this group is limited.

Consider this model on the example of a competitive labor market, consisting of three professions A, B, C (Fig. 8.9). Let us assume that the demand for labor is the same in terms of its characteristics for all three professions. The labor force is distributed equally between workers in the discriminated and non-discriminated groups, but only occupation C is available for the discriminated group. Then workers in the non-discriminated group are distributed evenly among occupations A and B so that LA = LB, and the wage rate is W1. On the other hand, workers in the discriminated group will all be concentrated in occupation C, and since LC = LA + LB, the equilibrium is reached at a lower wage equal to W2. Employees of a discriminated group due to occupational segregation cannot

Rice. 8.9. Occupational segregation

move from profession C, workers in the non-discriminatory group can move from professions A and B to profession C, but will not do this, since their wages in jobs in professions A and B are higher. Thus, as a result of occupational segregation, employees of the non-discriminatory group receive a higher wages at the expense of employees of a discriminated group, but the latter do not receive wages less than their own marginal product. The problem is that they are concentrated in certain professions, the labor market does not have perfect mobility due to discrimination, therefore, due to excess supply, equilibrium is achieved at low wages.

Various indices are used to measure occupational segregation. One of the most common is the segregation index, or the Duncan index. It is determined by summing the absolute values ​​of differences over all occupational groups specific gravity employment in a given occupational group in the total employment of each of the two compared groups. After that, the amount is divided in half. The segregation index D can be represented by the formula:

where Mi is the percentage share of profession i among all employed in group M;

Fi is the percentage share of profession i among all employed in group F.

The index shows what percentage of the members of each of the two compared groups (it is the same for each group, since movements between professions are symmetrical for both groups, so the denominator of the formula is 2) must change jobs to eliminate segregation. If the index is equal to 1, then professions or industries are completely divided into two groups, if it is 0, then each of the groups is evenly represented in all professions or industries.

As a result of the existence of discriminatory barriers to labor mobility, there is segregation in the labor market. Segregation is the division of workers into groups and the restriction of access of any groups of workers to a part of jobs (directly or through restriction of access to vocational training). Segregation is a form of discrimination in the labor market. Usually consider sectoral segregation (unequal distribution of groups of workers by industry) or occupational segregation (unequal distribution of groups of workers by profession). The consequences of this form of discrimination are described by the model of occupational segregation, or the “pandemonium” model.

Consider this model on the example of a competitive labor market, consisting of three professions BUT, AT, With(Fig. 9). Let us assume that the demand for labor is the same in terms of its characteristics for all three professions. The labor force is distributed equally between workers of the discriminated and non-discriminated groups, but only the profession is available for the discriminated group With. Then the employees of the non-discriminatory group are distributed evenly by profession BUT and AT so L A = L B, and the wage rate is W one . On the other hand, workers in the discriminated group will all be concentrated in occupation C, and since L C = L A + L B, then equilibrium is reached at a lower wage equal to W 2. Employees of a discriminated group due to occupational segregation cannot leave the profession With, employees of the non-discriminatory group can switch from professions BUT and AT into the profession With, but will not do this, since their wages at workplaces by profession BUT and AT higher.

Rice. nine

Thus, as a result of occupational segregation, workers in the non-discriminated group receive higher wages at the expense of workers in the discriminated group, but the latter do not receive wages less than their marginal product. The problem is that they are concentrated in certain professions, the labor market does not have perfect mobility due to discrimination, therefore, due to excess supply, equilibrium is achieved at low wages.

Various indices are used to measure occupational segregation. One of the most common is the segregation index, or the Duncan index.

It is determined by summing over all occupational groups the absolute values ​​of the differences in the share of employment in a given occupational group in the total employment of each of the two compared groups. After that, the amount is divided in half. segregation index D can be represented by the formula:

where M i- percentage share of profession i among all employed groups M;

F i- percentage share of profession i among all employed groups F.

The index shows what percentage of the members of each of the two compared groups (it is the same for each group, since movements between professions are symmetrical for both groups, so the denominator of the formula is 2) must change jobs to eliminate segregation.

If the index is equal to 1, then professions or industries are completely divided into two groups, if it is 0, then each of the groups is evenly represented in all professions or industries.

Occupational segregation is the term scholars use to describe this split: Women's work has historically been a low-paying, "support" occupation, while men are left with high-paying, prestigious jobs.
The split starts even sooner than you think. “This is clearly visible already in adolescence, much earlier than is commonly believed,” says Yasemin Besen-Cassino, professor of sociology at Montclair state university and author of The Cost of a Girl's Life.

Besen-Cassino says occupational segregation occurs as early as age 14. Boys perform more high paying job such as yard work or snow removal, while the girls are left with babysitting. In subsequent years, boys tend to switch to permanent job and minimum wage jobs earlier than girls.

After they go to work, young people still fill different roles - girls are told they are good for working with people, so they are hired as hostesses in restaurants or as saleswomen, consultants and cashiers in stores. These jobs have high requirements for "aesthetic labor" - meaning that girls may have more negative experiences with clients.
The latest data from LinkedIn shows that over the course of four decades, some of the professional stereotypes have changed.

Women are slowly making their way into high-paying, long-male-dominated professions such as science, engineering and technology. Industries such as software and IT services, manufacturing and public safety are hiring more women in leadership positions. But experts warn that this does not mean the end of occupational segregation.

According to Nick Eng, Senior Research Fellow for economic development on LinkedIn, women often do all the same "female" work in these male-dominated areas. For example, women who work in software may not work as engineers. A significant number may be employed in public relations or human resources departments.

But there is a more optimistic view of the gender gap, says Arian Hegewicz, director of research at the Gender Policy Institute. By presenting potential career opportunities for young women, growth opportunities can help contribute to a shift in occupational segregation. For example, telling young women that men make up the majority of the STEM workforce might discourage candidates from even trying to get into the field, but pointing out that the number of women is on the rise might encourage them to pursue careers in the industry instead.

According to www.money.cnn.com