Sex Segregation in the Paid Workforce: The New Zealand Case

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Abstract
Using New Zealand census data from 1971, 1976, and 1981, this research assesses three research questions concerning occupational sex segregation in New Zealand. The findings reveal: 1) high but moderately declining indexes of segregation, contemporaneous with 2) marked increases in the proportion of the female labour force in highly sex-segregated occupations (e.g., 52 per cent of women work ers employed in occupations comprised of two-thirds or more female in 1981, compared to 26 per cent in 1971); plus 3) both increasing proportions of young women in sex-typical occupations and succes sive movement of female cohorts into sex-typical occupations as they age. The results are compared to those previously documented in several other industrialised countries; some parallels are found with Australia and the United States. The conclusions discuss the results in terms of changes in the social organisation of work, and call for greater cross-national research on longitudinal change in occupa tional segregation as a means for assessing competing explanations of occupational sex segregation.