TY  - JOUR
AU  - Goldin,Claudia
TI  - The Rising (and then Declining) Significance of Gender
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8915
PY  - 2002
Y2  - April 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8915
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8915.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Claudia Goldin
National Bureau of Economic Research
1050 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/613-1200
Fax: 617/613-1245
E-Mail: cgoldin@harvard.edu
AB  - In the past two decades gender pay differences have narrowed considerably and a declining significance of gender has pervaded the labor market in numerous ways.  This paper contends that in the first several decades of the twentieth century there was a rising significance of gender.  The emergence of gender distinctions accompanied several important changes in the economy including the rise of white-collar work for women and increases in women's educational attainment.  Firms adopted policies not to hire women in particular occupations and to exclude men from other occupations.  A model of discrimination is developed in which men oppose the hiring of women into certain positions.  The assumptions of the model break down when women acquire known and verifiable credentials.  The shift from the rising to the declining significance of gender may have involved such a change.
ER  -