Sex Segregation in Local Labour Markets

The paper addresses the question of whether sex segregation in the labour market, one of the most significant causes in gender inequality in paid work, has changed recently. The paper starts by suggesting new ways of distinguishing between the horizontal and vertical components of segregation, by separating industrial from hierarchical segregation. Further, while most previous analysis has been at either a national level or at the level of specific industries, this paper approaches the issue in actual local labour markets, or travel-to-work areas. The paper uses these newly refined measures to address the issue of changes in sex segregation during 1971-1981. We argue that while some aspects of segregation have decreased, such as the extreme horizontal clustering of men in the same industries, other aspects have increased, especially the vertical segregation of women.