European Commission. Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. Unit G1
Abstract
The aim of this report is to analyse employment segregation for women and men in the European labour market
at both the sectoral and occupational levels. It provides a
comparative analysis of trends in segregation across the
27 EU Member States, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein,
and examines the root causes of the phenomenon, the consequences, and current and desirable policy responses.
Gender-based employment segregation is so pervasive
that distinctions have multiplied in order to facilitate
analysis: occupational versus sectoral segregation, overall or horizontal versus vertical segregation, vertical versus hierarchical segregation. Horizontal segregation is
understood as under- (over-) representation of a given
group in occupations or sectors, not ordered by any criterion, and is often referred to as segregation tout court.
Vertical segregation denotes the under- (over-) representation of the group in occupations or sectors at the top
of an ordering based on ‘desirable’ attributes — income,
prestige, job stability, etc. Finally, hierarchical segregation stands for under- (over-) representation of the group
at the top of occupation-specific ladders. All forms of
gender-based segregation are considered in this report,
although overall and vertical segregation in occupations
receive closest attention.
The first part of the report examines levels and change
in overall segregation in European countries (Chapter 1).
It goes on to review the most important factors that impinge on segregation (Chapter 2) and to assess three
main implications, namely undervaluation of women’s
work, confinement in ‘low quality’ jobs, and skill shortages (Chapter 3). Policies are reviewed and assessed in
Chapter 4. The second part of the report summarises
the highlights from case-study research conducted at
national level on 10 occupational groups, the evidence
from this research being used as a reference throughout
the report.peer-reviewe