I
NTRODUCTION
:
S
EX SEGREGATION AND
U
NSOLVED
P
UZZLES
Occupational sex segregation still persists in most advanced industrial countries:
women are less likely to hold positions of responsibility; and they tend to be segregated
into “female” occupations. Sex segregation is a problem because it stalls economic
equality between the two sexes: sex segregation accounts for the large bulk of the gender
wage gap that currently exists.
A closer look at the cross-national patterns of sex
segregation poses a series of important empirical as well as normative questions.
Notwithstanding universal tendencies of sex segregation, a highly counter-
intuitive—but well documented—cross-national pattern of sex segregation exists. Figure
1 plots countries in terms of female and male occupational concentrations as measured by
Richard Anker (1998). Figure 1 shows the relatively high levels of occupational
segregation in Scandinavian countries compared to Anglo-American countries, which are
notorious for their lack of policy support for working mothers. Scandinavian countries,
otherwise known for their success in achieving gender equality, actually show high levels
of occupational sex segregation.
This is surprising precisely because no other countries
in the world are as committed to the advancement of gender equality as Scandinavian
countries. Why do Scandinavian countries do worse than others in integrating the two
sexes in the labor market? And, by the same token, why do countries less supportive of
working women—the Anglo-American countries—have less sex-segregated labor
markets?
[Figure 1 around here]
Experts of sex segregation have long puzzled over the counter-intuitive patterns
of occupational segregation among advanced industrial societies.
Advocates of the
1
Convention