Journal Articles

Making Gender Fit and “Correcting” Gender Misfits: Sex Segregated Employment and the Nonsearch Process

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This article highlights the extent to which finding a job without actively searching (“nonsearching”) sustains workplace sex segregation. We suspect that unsolicited information from job informants that prompts fortuitous job changes is susceptible to bias about gender “fit” and segregates workers. Results from analyses of 1,119 respondents to the 1996 and 1998 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are generally consistent with this expectation. Gender “misfits”—individuals employed in gender-atypical work groups— are more likely to move into gender-typical work groups than neutral ones. Women misfits are more likely to move into male-dominated than neutral work groups without a job search, but they join mostly desegregated occupations and receive lower job rewards than men misfits who change jobs without searching. We conclude that the nonsearch process serves as an important mechanism that sustains sex segregation and workplace inequality.

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Detail Information

Series Title

Gender & Society

Call Number

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Publisher

: sage publisher., 2010

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

08912432

Classification

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Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Vol. 24 no. 2, April 2010.pp. 213-236

Subject(s)

Economy
Organizations
Work/occupations

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

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