Gendered Mobility Does Not Reduce Horizontal Job Segregation. Renewed Evidence on the “Revolving Door” Effect from a Cohort Sequence Analysis in a Single Organization.

Mathieu Arbogast , CRESPPA-GTM (CNRS) & CEMS (EHESS)

Occupational segregation and the mobility of the workers in the labour market over their life course are linked. First, according to the “revolving door” theory, women working in predominantly male occupations tend to move to more balanced or predominantly female occupations. Second, according to the classical formulation of the Duncan & Duncan dissimilarity index, imbalanced jobs/sectors would become neutral (close to a 50-50 male/female balance) if a certain proportion of the women changed occupations. We test the validity of these theoretical frameworks with empirical data from a large single French organization. Sequence analysis of a cohort of 8251 individuals over 13 years shows that “gendered mobility” increases the occupational segregation within the organization instead of reducing it (at both the 60% and the 80% dominance thresholds). The net balance of the inflow and outflow of workers also contributes to the increase. In conclusion, internal job mobility does not have any mitigating effect on the occupational segregation. For the purpose of this research, “gendered mobility” is defined as the horizontal mobility of men and women, from one type of occupation (predominantly female, neutral, predominantly male) to another. Upward mobility has no significant impact on the observed results.

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 Presented in Session P3. Migration, Economics, Policies, History