TY - JOUR
T1 - Rethinking the Two-Body Problem
T2 - The Segregation of Women Into Geographically Dispersed Occupations
AU - Benson, Alan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, Population Association of America.
PY - 2014/10/23
Y1 - 2014/10/23
N2 - Empirical research on the family cites the tendency for couples to relocate for husbands’ careers as evidence against the gender neutrality of household economic decisions. For these studies, occupational segregation is a concern because occupations are not random by sex and mobility is not random by occupation. I find that the tendency for households to relocate for husbands’ careers is better explained by the segregation of women into geographically dispersed occupations rather than by the direct prioritization of men’s careers. Among never-married workers, women relocate for work less often than men, and the gender effect disappears after occupational segregation is accounted for. Although most two-earner families feature husbands in geographically clustered jobs involving frequent relocation for work, families are no less likely to relocate for work when it belongs to the wife. I conclude that future research in household mobility should treat occupational segregation occurring prior to marriage rather than gender bias within married couples as the primary explanation for the prioritization of husbands’ careers in household mobility decisions.
AB - Empirical research on the family cites the tendency for couples to relocate for husbands’ careers as evidence against the gender neutrality of household economic decisions. For these studies, occupational segregation is a concern because occupations are not random by sex and mobility is not random by occupation. I find that the tendency for households to relocate for husbands’ careers is better explained by the segregation of women into geographically dispersed occupations rather than by the direct prioritization of men’s careers. Among never-married workers, women relocate for work less often than men, and the gender effect disappears after occupational segregation is accounted for. Although most two-earner families feature husbands in geographically clustered jobs involving frequent relocation for work, families are no less likely to relocate for work when it belongs to the wife. I conclude that future research in household mobility should treat occupational segregation occurring prior to marriage rather than gender bias within married couples as the primary explanation for the prioritization of husbands’ careers in household mobility decisions.
KW - Family
KW - Household mobility
KW - Occupational segregation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84910022567&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84910022567&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s13524-014-0324-7
DO - 10.1007/s13524-014-0324-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 25189156
AN - SCOPUS:84910022567
SN - 0070-3370
VL - 51
SP - 1619
EP - 1639
JO - Demography
JF - Demography
IS - 5
ER -