Formal task differences between gender-dominated occupations
| dc.contributor.author | Jepp, Timothy Robert | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-08-14T17:56:00Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-08-14T17:56:00Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 1998 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 1998 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of Sociology | |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Arts M.A. | en |
| dc.description.abstract | The assignment of different tasks to men and women, referred to as the gendered division of labour, is a fundamental characteristic of work (Reskin & Padavic, 1994:6). Biological determinism and sociobiology interpret the concentration of men and women into different jobs performing different tasks in terms of their biological suitability for these occupations. Human capital theory explains occupational gender segregation in terms of choices men and women make to optimize their economic returns. Gender-role socialization theory interprets the concentration of men and women into different occupations as the result of cultural and social expectations placed upon them to perform tasks appropriate to their gender. This thesis directly attempts to discover if the formal tasks performed in genderĀ dominated occupations result because of biological differences or because of social and cultural expectations of appropriate masculine and feminme pursuits. Specifically, it examines gender-dominated and gender-neutral occupations in the British Columbia provincial government and the formal occupational tasks performed within them. By using content analysis of formal job descriptions, physical job requirements are contrasted with gender socialized task performance. The data analysis for this study was separated into two analyses . Analysis 1 was the examination of occupational task focus (data/people/things), occupational complexity, physical aspects of occupations, and line/staff function of task bundles by gender-dominated and gender-neutral occupations. Analysis 2 involved a comparison of occupational task focus (data/people/things), occupational complexity, and physical aspects of occupations contained in the provincial government job descriptions to the National Occupational Classification (NOC) unit group descriptions. Analysis 2 did not show any significant differences between provincial government job descriptions and NOC unit group descriptions. This may be interpreted as support for the ability of the NOC to reflect those occupations it describes. The combined findings of Analysis 1 suggest that male and female-dominated occupations are very similar in physical aspects when separately compared to gender-neutral occupations. Also, male and gender-neutral occupations are more likely to work on line tasks compared to female-dominated occupations. Lastly, female and gender-neutral occupations are similar in regards to working with data when compared with maleĀ dominated occupations. The analysis found no support for the assertion that formal tasks performed in gender-dominated occupations result from biological differences between men and women. In fact, only limited support was found for the supposition that socialization and cultural expectations are responsible for the occupational segregation by gender. However, this research does offer further evidence on the debate about why the gendered division of labour has persisted. | |
| dc.format.extent | 161 pages | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/18354 | |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | en_US |
| dc.title | Formal task differences between gender-dominated occupations | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
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