Race, Gender, and the Labor Market

Book excerpt: Women and minorities have entered higher paying occupations, but their overall earnings still lag behind those of white men. Why? Looking nationwide at workers across all employment levels and occupations, the author examines the unexpected ways that prejudice and workplace discrimination continue to plague the labor market. He probes the mechanisms by which race and sex groups are sorted into "appropriate" jobs, showing how the resulting segregation undercuts earnings. He also uses an innovative integration of race-sex queuing and segmented-market theories to show how economic and social contexts shape these processes. His analysis reveals how race, sex, stereotyping, and devaluation interact to create earnings disparities, shedding new light on a vicious cycle that continues to the leave women and minorities behind.