Gender segregation : from birth to occupation

Abstract

This paper offers a framework to study the gender segregation induced, not only by occupational choices among the employed population, but also by human capital characteristics and labor market participation decisions in the population consisting of non-students of working age. For that purpose, an additively decomposable gender segregation index related to the entropy notion in information theory is used. The approach is illustrated with Labor Force Survey data for Spain in 1977 and 1992. It is found that gender differences in labor market participation behavior is the most important source generating gender segregation in a given moment in time and the reduction in overall gender segregation during this period.