ABSTRACT
Even more than education, work exemplifies the contradictions of the paradox of gender equality. Although separate spheres ideology may have faded over time as the primary organizing principle of gender relations, its legacy is very much alive today in how women and men experience work. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it illegal to restrict jobs to one sex or the other based purely on sex or stereotypical assumptions about gender-linked abilities, but gender segregation is pervasive throughout the labor force. The economy is organized into “men’s jobs” and “women’s jobs” that are eerily consistent with the division of labor between the public and private spheres. The four largest occupations for women—secretaries, teachers, nurses, and home health aides—are each at least 80 percent female. Carpentry, one of the largest occupations for men, is 97 percent male. In legislation having to do with technical and vocational training, the federal government defines nontraditional fields as “occupations or fields of work for which individuals of one gender comprise less than 25 percent of individuals employed.” 1 In 2012, nontraditional occupations for women employed only 6 percent of all women but 44 percent of all men; nontraditional occupations for men employed 5 percent of men but 40 percent of women. 2 If all occupations enjoyed the same level of prestige and pay, the concentration of one gender in a few occupations would not disadvantage women, but that is not the case. There are consequences to maintaining a gendered economy.
