Separate and unequal: gender segregation at work

Gender segregation in sectors, occupations and roles still sees women persistently losing out.

https://www.socialeurope.eu/separate-and-unequal-gender-segregation-at-work

‘Women belong in all the places where decisions are made,’ declared the late United States Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg. These decisions are made everywhere and at every level: in the home and at work, in the boardroom and on the shopfloor. That is why it is of such serious concern that gender segregation is so deeply rooted across Europe. It is not only evident in employment in general but is embedded in particular sectors, occupations, roles and responsibilities.

There had been progress in Europe in the years before the pandemic: women’s employment rates had increased, for instance. Yet more women than men lost their jobs when Covid-19 struck—mostly because women outnumbered men in the sectors, such as hospitality, most severely affected by the consequent lockdowns. This pattern is reproduced across the European labour market, with women concentrated in highly segregated sectors. More men are employed in industry, transport and construction, whereas women still predominate in health and education.

Far larger shares

The occupational structure is no less segregated. Women constitute far larger shares of those working in clerical support, services and sales, with men prevailing among craft workers and plant and machine operators. Despite efforts to promote broader access to sectors and occupations traditionally associated with one gender, data from the 2021 European Working Conditions Telephone Survey (EWCTS) show that more than half the working population in the European Union still work in occupations dominated by their own gender.

Nearly one third of the working population consists of men working in male-dominated occupations—for example, around 95 per cent of drivers and mobile-plant operators, metal and machinery workers, and building workers are men. One quarter of the working population is made up of women working in female-dominated occupations, such as personal-care workers and cleaners and helpers—they constitute over 80 per cent of workers in these occupations. Meanwhile, women and men working in mixed-gender occupations (no more than 60 per cent of one gender) represent less than one quarter of the working population.

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