The evolution of sex segregation regimes

This article addresses issues of cross-national convergence in patterns of occupational sex segregation in the context of a new typology that distingu ishes between substantive-egalitarian, formal-egalitarian, traditional fami ly-centered, and economy-centered systems. Each of these systems can be cha racterized by distinct underlying gender "logics" and by the context of sta te response to issues of gender equality in the labor market. Using census and labor force survey data from 1960 to 1990 for 14 industrialized countri es, log-linear models are employed to evaluate how levels and patterns of o ccupational sex segregation have evolved over this time period. Analyses re veal that cross-national variation in both the levels and patterns of segre gation is declining over time; but at the same time, the remaining diversit y among countries is increasingly patterned according to one of four segreg ation regimes. It appears that wholly idiosyncratic cross-national differen ces in the contours of occupational sex segregation are withering away as c ountries Come to settle on, with ever-fewer exceptions, one of four possibl e segregation regimes.