ABSTRACT
Sex segregation in the workplace persists in the United States. Workplaces are gendered not only by the numerical predominance of one sex within them, but also by the cultural interpretations of given types of work. Men’s work is stereotypically associated with the outdoors, with strength and with highly technical skills (whether they be mechanical or scientific knowledge). It is perceived as heavy, dirty, dangerous and requiring creativity, intelligence, responsibility, authority and power. Women’s work is stereotypically understood as being indoors, lighter, cleaner, safer, repetitive, requiring dexterity rather than skill, having domestic associations, being tied to a certain work station, and often requiring physical attractiveness and charm (Bradley 1989). Important modulations of this generalization are necessary for understanding class
and ethnic divisions within the workplace. Middle-class jobs are more likely to allow workers to exercise mental skills (analytic reasoning for men, social and interpersonal skills for women) while working-class jobs require the exercise of physical skills (strength for men, dexterity for women). Because many ethnic minorities tend to have working-class or lower-middle-class jobs, the jobs designated as ‘men’s’ and ‘women’s’ within these communities will often be specified according to community norms about which sorts of work are best done by men or by women. In most cases, men’s work, however defined, is rewarded more heavily in terms of money and prestige, because the skills ‘men’s’ jobs require are more highly valued and more likely to be recognized as labour. Explicit specifications of the sex of workers (sometimes couched as ‘protective’
legislation) have often maintained this sex segregation of the workplace in the past, though such dictates are increasingly rare in the United States.1 Today, more subtle cultural pressures work to reproduce sex segregation in the workplace, from the
tracking of girls and boys into different career paths to unions’ and professional organizations’ attempts to maintain power and jobs for existing members. Social stigma arising from sexism and homophobia prevents women and men from taking jobs normatively linked to the opposite sex. The fear of being labelled as a lesbian or masculine works to prevent all women from protesting sex discrimination or taking on sex-atypical roles (Pharr 1988).2
