The Rising (and then Declining) Significance of Gender / Claudia Goldin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goldin, Claudia.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w8915.

NBER working paper series no. w8915

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Rising

The Rising

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2002.

Summary:

In the past two decades gender pay differences have narrowed considerably and a declining significance of gender has pervaded the labor market in numerous ways. This paper contends that in the first several decades of the twentieth century there was a rising significance of gender. The emergence of gender distinctions accompanied several important changes in the economy including the rise of white-collar work for women and increases in women's educational attainment. Firms adopted policies not to hire women in particular occupations and to exclude men from other occupations. A model of discrimination is developed in which men oppose the hiring of women into certain positions. The assumptions of the model break down when women acquire known and verifiable credentials. The shift from the rising to the declining significance of gender may have involved such a change.

Notes:

Print version record

April 2002.