ABSTRACT
There are few women in the top jobs, those with the highest status, authority and earnings. The gloomy v iew says this is a permanent si tuation that equal opportunities legislation has not changed to any significant degree. Pessimists point out that the majority of low-paid workers are women, that the earnings gap between men and women has not been eliminated, that there is a glass ceiling excluding women from the top jobs. This chapter looks at trends in the occupational segregation of men and women, in particular vertical job segregation, and in the sex differential in earnings, commonly called the pay gap. It shows that important changes started in the 1980s. These developments can only be identified if we take account of historical data showing the long term trend, thus revealing a sharp increase in the pace of change after equal opportunities policies were introduced in the 1970s.
