Revisiting gender occupational segregation trends in Canada: 1991-2016

Abstract

Despite continued interest in gender (in)equality at work, Canadian research on gender occupational segregation stopped in the early 2000s. We revisit gender occupational segregation trends using newly developed harmonized occupational categories which resolve temporal changes in occupational classifications. Our analysis of the 1991-2016 Canadian Census Masterfiles finds gender occupational segregation, whether measured by the index of dissimilarity or Gini index, has steadily decreased since the 1990s. Yet the pace of its decline has slowed since 2000. This can be explained by the diminishing changes in vertical segregation, measured by inequality in earnings across occupations. Our results contribute to an ongoing debate about a stalled gender revolution. We also suggest new topics for future study.