Gender Integration of Occupations in the Federal Civil Service: Extent and Effects on Male-Female Earnings

Abstract

Using the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's Central Personnel Data File, the author shows that from 1976 through 1992 gender integration of occupations proceeded more rapidly and steadily in the federal civil service than in the general economy. During that period, increasing numbers of women moved into traditionally male occupations, especially in professional and administrative work. Little of that progress, the author finds, was attributable to changes in women's education or seniority. Although average grades (indicating levels of responsibility) in male-dominated occupations declined as women entered them, gender integration of occupations helped to narrow male-female pay disparities in the federal service more than in the general economy.