The greater presence of women in certain jobs is not solely due to their choosing traditionally female-dominated fields of study. Many women perform these feminized jobs despite having completed degrees that are more gender-balanced or even traditionally male-dominated. Therefore, reducing educational segregation does not appear sufficient to combat occupational segregation; it is also necessary to guarantee that men and women enjoy equal opportunities in the labor market by eliminating discriminatory practices and ensuring that neither workers nor employers make decisions based on expectations or stereotypes of gender roles.
Those are the conclusions of published study in the magazine Applied Economics by Juan Acosta, Pilar Osorno y Olga Rodríguez, From the Department of Economics, Accounting, and Finance at the University of La Laguna. Occupational segregation by gender—that is, the unequal distribution of men and women in occupations—is a significant and persistent economic problem in Spain and other developed countries. It is a fundamental cause of the gender pay gap, as women are often concentrated in low-paying jobs with poor career advancement prospects. Therefore, understanding the causes of this segregation is crucial, which is why this study was conducted.
The aim of the study was to measure the importance of boys and girls choosing different university studies to explain subsequent occupational segregation and to check whether young people who studied the same (or very similar) university degrees work in the same jobs.
The method used, which is one of the article's key contributions, was an econometric analysis that identified and quantified the contribution of these two aspects after considering other factors that also influence the type of employment people hold: family situation, continuing education, self-employment or salaried work, and type of contract, among others. The study used individual data from the Labour Force Survey between 2011 and 2017, limited to people under 35 years of age to eliminate, as far as possible, the influence of old stereotypes and gender roles on both educational decisions and the occupations they pursue.
Next, all jobs were grouped into three categories: those with a very high male presence, those with a balanced gender distribution, and those with a female dominance. The probability gap between young men and women working in each of these three types of jobs was then calculated, leading to a number of interesting conclusions.
Thus, there is a relationship between the proportion of boys and girls pursuing university degrees and the proportion of men and women in their subsequent occupations. Notably, in quantitative terms, 671% of the effect of education on the gender gap in access to male-dominated employment stems from gender differences in educational specialization.
Thus, women are underrepresented in some jobs, primarily because very few women choose university degrees suited to them, such as technical fields (engineering, computer science). However, this figure drops to 401% for occupations with a female predominance, and almost reaches zero in the case of occupations where both sexes have a similar presence.
In these cases, the high presence of women in certain jobs is only partially explained by the specializations they choose (which are also feminized, such as careers related to education or caregiving). However, other factors play a significant role, leading them to work in these jobs more frequently than men with the same qualifications. In fact, women who studied gender-balanced fields or even some traditionally male-dominated ones are also more likely than their male counterparts to work in female-dominated jobs.
Furthermore, the research team found significant gender differences in the jobs held by those who completed certain educational specializations. The most significant differences correspond to careers dominated by women within the fields of Arts and Humanities, Education, and Social Sciences.
But the most worrying gender gap is probably the one related to disciplines in new technologies, given their importance in the current economic context and the likelihood that this importance will increase in the future. 62.97% of men with degrees in Information and Communication Technologies work in jobs appropriate for these qualifications, but the percentage of women with the same training is 11 points lower. Only 51% of these graduates work in jobs dominated by women, a figure that rises to 18.2% for women.
Thus, in addition to the fact that boys and girls study different university degrees, discriminatory practices, stereotypes, and gender roles also play a significant role in explaining the jobs they hold. Therefore, public policies aimed at combating occupational segregation cannot be limited to encouraging more women to train in certain fields; they must also seek to eliminate gender stereotypes among both workers and employers; eradicate the sexism that excludes women from certain professions; achieve greater work-life balance so that women can pursue careers in any type of occupation; and inform society about women's capabilities in any job.
Spanish 
English 
French