ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the overall determinants of occupational sex-typing. Sex-role theory argues that companies simply do not hire women for certain types of jobs because everyone in society, male and female, agrees that there are appropriate roles for men and appropriate roles for women. Tradition, sex roles, and physical strength do not provide compelling explanations of the gendered distribution of jobs within our economy. Labor cost buffering, however, provides some intriguing possibilities. The historical evidence suggests that relatively few jobs have been unable to feminize because they were unable to attract female job candidates. In the 1950s, a set of happy coincidences produced explosive growth in virtually every traditional female job sector. In the United States, in Britain, in India, and nearly everywhere else, women are more likely to work in low-paid jobs with relatively little power and status, and men are more likely to work in more lucrative jobs with relatively greater power and status.
