European Perspectives on Occupational Gender Segregation

Occupational gender segregation is prevalent across Europe and has been a remarkably persistent characteristic of the labor markets in Western industrialised countries. There have been few changes with respect to the extent of gender segregation over the last decades, even though the female participation in the labour force is steadily increasing and levels of qualification are converging. The majority of studies concentrates on various outcomes of occupational gender segregation – particularly by referring to the gender wage gap. But in order to intensify our knowledge on this research topic, it is necessary to take a closer look on the actual causes and backgrounds by applying a detailed analysis of the occupational level itself. Therefore, the main research questions of this paper are: How has gender composition developed in different occupational groups in Europe over the last 10 years? And which occupational preferences and working conditions help to explain occupational gender segregation? Drawing on secondary data from the LFS (2005-2015) and the EWCS (2000, 2010, 2015), in the first step of the analysis a descriptive overview is established using various index measurements determining gender segregation and gender concentration. In the second step exploratory factor analyses are applied in order to detect intrinsic and extrinsic professional values. The factorial values are subsequently integrated into an OLS regression model, whereas the share of women resp. men in different occupations are serving as regressands in this context. In a final step, we examine in greater detail if occupation specific working conditions regarding work-life-balance (e.g. part-time work) can contribute to explain occupational gender segregation. We focus on Germany and generate an occupational panel dataset which is based on individual information from the German Microcensuses (1996-2011). Results of this case study will show if changes in working conditions lead to changes of occupations' gender composition.