Gender and Ethnicity at Work: Occupational Segregation and Disadvantage in the 1991 British Census

Abstract

This article uses detailed occupational data from the 1991 Census to investigate patterns of occupational segregation for women and men in the different ethnic groups. Gini index values suggest that the Black minority ethnic groups identified in the Census were less gender segregated than White people.There was less ethnic variation in women’s employment than in men’s. Chinese and Bangladeshi men were heavily concentrated within catering occupations. The association between women’s part-time work, gender segregation and occupational disadvantage does not hold for all ethnic groups. Some minority ethnic groups were occupationally advantaged relative to White people and, among Bangladeshi people, women were more occupationally advantaged than men.The data suggest that gender and ethnicity do not combine to create double disadvantage for minority women in the labour force; patterns of occupational advantage and disadvantage are more complex. However, lack of detail on ‘women’s jobs’ and the invisibility of hierarchies within occupational groups mean that some inequality is obscured.

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