Employment and Occupational Segregation

Employment and Occupational Segregation The female share of employment in Ireland increased from 34 per cent in 1991 to 37 per cent in 1996 and then to 41 per cent in 2001. The strong growth in women's employment resulted in significant increases in the female share of employment in most intermediate occupational sub-groups between 1991-96 and 1996-2001. Some of the biggest changes in female shares occurred in occupations in which women's representation was relatively low at the beginning of the 1990s: managers and executives, business and commerce occupations, the Garda S¡och na (the police). Significant increases in female shares of employment were also recorded for occupational groups in which women were over represented at the beginning of the period relative to their representation in the labour force: clerical and office workers, social workers and related occupations, personal service and childcare workers, teachers. Existing occupational segregation was, therefore, reinforced in some occupations while it was reduced in others by women successfully competing with men. Nevertheless, two-thirds of female employment remained concentrated in the same small number of intermediate occupational groups in 1991, 1996, and 2001: clerical and office jobs, sales, health, personal services, and teaching. Estimates of the index of dissimilarity for the occupations in which men and women are employed show that there was some decline in occupational segregation between 1991 and 1996 and probably also between 1996 and 2001. However, occupations in which one sex dominates to such an extent that the other sex does not have an equal opportunity of getting a job in these occupations still account for more than half of Ireland's 217 non-agricultural occupations (excluding the armed forces). In 2001 there were more than four times as many male-dominated as female-dominated occupations. This means that a majority of men in Ireland do not face much competition for jobs from women and it has the advantage for men that female-dominated occupations tend to have lower pay, lower status, and less opportunities for advancement than male-dominated occupations. While the increased participation of women in the Irish labour force in recent years appears to be associated with some reduction in the sex stereotyping of occupations, occupational segregation has proved remarkably persistent despite the existence of anti-discrimination, equal pay, and equal employment opportunities policies designed to eliminate sex segregation in employment. Some development of such policies may be needed if that goal is to be achieved. One possibility might be to apply the Council of Europe's gender equality principal to equal opportunities programmes for access to occupational labour markets and to education and training programmes. The Council of Europe's approach to mainstreaming equality between men and women has been adopted as a requirement by the Irish National Development Plan 2000 to 2006 for all policies and programmes to be implemented under the plan. This means that a gender equality perspective must be incorporated in all of the plan's policies and programmes by the actors involved in policy-making at all levels and at all stages. Mainstreaming equality as a requirement for all employment action plans in Ireland could provide a useful means of reducing occupational segregation in the future.