What we do For a Living: Gender biased differences in tasks and pay

Project Background

Even after decades of gender convergence in skill-levels and employment, the occupational distribution of workers remains surprisingly segregated by gender. Occupational and task segregation are key factors behind the current slowdown in the narrowing of the earnings gap between men and. At the same time, changes in the occupational structure and demand for different tasks are attracting increased attention both in research and among policy makers: Digitalization and automation, globalization, and structural transformation are changing what we do for a living.

These occupational transitions are likely to take a new turn in the current corona-crisis: Digitalization is getting a new push, the secular decline in retail occupations and concurrent rise in health and care occupations are likely to accelerate, while offshoring may come to a halt with interruptions in the international value chains.

Knowledge about these patterns is essential for understanding gender inequalities in the labor market and for designing policies that can remedy costs of occupational change that has a strong gender component.

Project Aim

The primary objective of this project is to study how the ongoing transformations in the occupational distribution affect men and women work differently: Their labor market opportunities, skills requirements, work hours, and wages. Our aim is to be able to unpack important mechanisms leading up to the aggregate patterns; how occupations are affected by the transformations, individual trajectories in adapting to change; the role of gender segregation between high and low productivity firms; and gender differences in skills transferability between occupations and re-skilling opportunities.

We have put together an excellent team of economists that include international partners from Dartmouth College and Wellesley College in the US.