ABSTRACT
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 sexatypical roles (Pharr 1988).2
