ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on women’s power in the labor market. There are several ways women’s position in the labor market might be documented. Except for rising labor force participation rates, however, almost any index would show the inferior position that women hold in the labor market. For black women, the issue of labor market power is particularly critical. The chapter reviews the extent of occupational segregation and the differential pay patterns that result from occupational segregation it discusses theories of labor market stratification. It examines occupational segregation in the context of market power development. Discussions about women in the workplace tend to assume that women earn a “market” wage. If women’s “market” worth is lower than that of men, so goes the argument, women will earn less than men do. Janice Madden considers male power to unionize, or to bargain in concert, one of the ways men gain market power at women’s expense.
