WOMEN AND MINORITY GAINS IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING LOCAL-LABOR MARKET - THE SAN-FRANCISCO BAY AREA IN THE 1980S

The 1980s in the United States were a decade of significant labor mark et gains for women of all races and ethnic groups in the context of in creased wage inequality. This paper shows that in one important Califo rnia labor market higher incomes paid to women (especially Angle women ) came primarily not from sectoral shifts but from broad-based (across all economic sectors) incorporation of women into high-skilled jobs w ithin sectors and from higher incomes paid to women within occupationa l categories. Such changes were part of a more general move by industr ies to hire lower-cost female labor into previously white male-dominat ed professional and managerial jobs. The moves generally favored Angle women over Latinas and women of Asian origin. Copyright (C) 1996 Else vier Science Ltd