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Social and economic forces in the post-war era have lead to an increased commitment by women of all ages to the labor force. In contrast, the labor force participation rate for men has declined. With women's continued predominance in the service sector and jobs lost in the traditionally male manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy, men and women are being affected differently by changes in macroeconomic trends. Within and across industries, women are still concentrated in clerical, sales, service, and light manufacturing jobs. Women made minor gains moving into management and the professions, but mostly into predominantly female categories and/or low-paying jobs. Although these gains have been somewhat higher for younger women, the evidence is inconclusive as to whether these advances will continue over their working lives and for succeeding generations. Even where occupational desegregation by sex has occurred, men and women in the same occupation continue to work in different establishments or departments and have different pay scales. Median incomes are inversely related to the percentage of females in an occupation; internal labor markets can be used as a lens to evaluate the extent of sex segregated career tracking and the disproportion of men at the top of the career ladder, even in female-dominated occupations. The wage gap has not declined despite women's increased education, experience, and tenure because women face different opportunity structures than do men. Policy options are recommended. Data are presented on 22 tables and figures. A 47-item list of references is included. (Author/ BJV)

Occupational sex segregation is one of the most obvious facts of economic life. The largest declines in the sex segregation index between 1970 and 1980 were in the managerial and professional specialty and in the service occupations. Changes were greater for white-collar than blue-collar occupations for both white and minority women. White women reduced their entry into a number of traditionally female white-collar occupations that minority women, leaving private household work, continued to enter. It has been easier to pass laws mandating equal opportunity and affirmative action than to eliminate institutional and informal obstacles, such as sexual harassment or coworker hostility, outmoded administrative rules and procedures by employers and unions, and gender-tracked promotional ladders. There has been some growth in the number of women training for and entering higher-status, skilled blue-collar crafts. There are more women apprentices than women currently employed in the occupations. In construction, federally-mandated goals and timetables established in 1978 have led to increases in women employees, although enforcement efforts have been lax since 198l. In 1978, over 150 programs were able to recruit and train women for apprenticeships; only 50 remain after training and enforcement cutbacks. Federal training programs are doing relatively little to recruit and place women into nontraditional jobs; however, funding under the Perkins Vocational Education Act has been crucial to sustaining the successful community-based preapprenticeship training programs. (The paper also includes sections on integration of white-collar work, the impact of technological change, and policy implications and recommendations. Four data tables, a list of organizations contacted, and 115 references are included.) (CML)

Efforts to shift women from welfare into the labor market will not necessarily move women out of poverty because the wages they are likely to earn are so low. According to research tracking Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients over a 2-year period, 43% of AFDC recipients combine welfare with a substantial amount of paid employment. Most earn poverty-level wages. Two labor market reforms could help women: pay equity remedies and a higher minimum wage. Because average earnings in an occupation fall as the proportion of women workers in that occupation rises, pay equity would mean more money for families. If a pay equity policy (such as a federal comparable worth policy) were adopted nationally, the percentage of women earning less than each of the three poverty thresholds would decline. An analysis of the impact of raising the minimum wage on women's poverty that included consideration for wage increases on the "minimum wage contour" established that the impact of a 90-cent increase in the minimum wage on reducing poverty among women would approach but not equal the impact of a pay equity policy. Pay equity would also help reverse the recent increase in earnings inequality and erosion of living standards at the bottom end of the earnings distribution in the United States that have occurred since 1980. (MN)

Estimates of the correlation between wages and number of women in three-digit occupations and assessment of comparable worth effects on wage inequities were conducted. Under the comparable worth scenario, eliminating the wage penalty associated with female-dominated occupations increases women's mean and median earnings. Comparable worth policy would decrease earnings inequalities overall, between women and men, and among women. (SK)