Occupational sex segregation

Occupational sex segregation is often regarded as the central component of gender inequality in the labour market in contemporary industrial societies. Through comparing the situation between Britain and Japan, which have contrasting features in their patterns of occupational sex segregation and in the position of women in the labour market, this thesis examines the mechanism of occupational sex segregation - how it is constructed and maintained - in the two societies with different social and economic backgrounds. Particular focus is on the impact of occupational sex segregation on individual workers' experiences, and systematic analysis is applied to investigate the impact by using a range of national-level large-scale data sets. The findings suggest that the implications of occupational sex segregation differ for Britain and Japan; for the former, occupational sex segregation contributes to gender inequality in the labour market, but this is not the case for the latter. It is suggested that occupational sex segregation could be one of the components of gender inequality in the labour market, but not necessarily the principal one. This thesis argues that the implications of occupational sex segregation in a society very much depend on the given social and economic institutions in the society that differ across countries, and thus occupational sex segregation should not be treated a priori as the central component of gender inequality.