ABSTRACT
In the three decades since passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, women have significantly increased their participation in a wide range of nontraditional occupations. Many social scientists assumed that the opening up of the job structure would eliminate or greatly reduce work-related differences between men and women (such as, differences in income, hours worked, occupation entered, and so on). Yet these and other differences remain large. Discrimination explains some but perhaps not all of these gaps, which may be caused in part by continuing differences in work-related concerns and interests. Researchers using representative national samples find men and women differ somewhat in regard to work interests or concerns. However, these differences may not occur when men and women are in the same occupation. To see if the sexes bring different work interests to their jobs, it is best to compare men and women in the same occupation.
