Gender Gap in Employment Quality: Occupational Segregation Matters

Background: Despite progress in workforce participation, a persistent gender gap in employment quality continues to shape women’s economic and occupational experiences. The study examines gender differences in perceived employment quality, including wages, job security, work schedules, job autonomy, and physical and emotional conditions. We contribute to the literature by going beyond the traditional gender wage gap and offering a multidimensional analysis of the gender employment quality gap.

Compensation/preference theory suggests that female-dominated occupations compensate for low wages and limited opportunities by providing better employment conditions in other domains. In contrast, discrimination/devaluation theory implies that occupational segregation reinforces gender disparities across multiple dimensions of job quality. This study tests these opposing arguments by examining the relationship between occupational gender segregation and women's employment quality. Using a unique survey of 5,650 Illinois workers, we ask two research questions:

1. Do women have lower or higher quality across multiple dimensions of employment conditions than men?
2. Does the gender gap in employment quality widen or narrow as the proportion of women in an occupation increases?

Methods: We use data from the Employment Quality in Illinois survey, collected between November 2023 and March 2024 via the Qualtrics platform. Eligible participants were Illinois residents aged 18 or older who had worked within the past four weeks. After excluding responses with missing data on key variables, the final analytic sample included 3,784 respondents.

Occupational segregation is measured as the percentage of women in each occupation. We conduct OLS regressions with industry fixed effects, examining interaction effects between gender and occupational gender composition on overall employment quality and 20 individual job quality indicators. These indicators cover dimensions such as wage, job security, promotion and training opportunities, work-life reconciliation benefits, schedule control and predictability, physical/emotional safety, supervisor and coworker support, and perceptions of meaning, belonging, and societal usefulness.

Results: Overall, occupational segregation does not significantly alter the gender gap in self-reported employment quality. However, disaggregated analyses reveal a mix of effects. As the percentage of women in an occupation increases, women report significantly fewer opportunities for advancement (–0.007 points) and less control over work hours (–0.002 points), consistent with the discrimination/devaluation theory.

Conversely, women in female-dominated occupations report greater coworker support (+0.006 points), higher perceived work meaningfulness (+0.004 points), greater sense of societal usefulness (+0.005 points), and stronger sense of belonging (+0.005 points)—indicators aligned with the compensation/preference perspective. These factors that reflect the social and emotional dimensions of job quality rather than tangible benefits

Conclusions and Implications: Findings provide mixed evidence for both theoretical perspectives. Gender gaps in opportunities for advancement and control over work hour increased in female-dominated occupations, supporting discrimination and devaluation theories. However, social and emotional dimensions of job quality improved in female-dominated occupations, supporting compensation/preference theory. Crucially, these patterns reflect structural inequalities, not the presence of women in certain jobs. Policy and organizational interventions must address the systemic undervaluing of women’s labor by transforming occupational hierarchies, employer practices, and workplace cultures that reinforce gender-based inequities.