Skip to main content
Log in

Industrial shifts, occupational recomposition, and the changing sexual division of labor in the five largest U.S. cities: 1910–1930

  • Notes And Insights
  • Published:
Sociological Forum

Abstract

Using data from the 1910 and 1930 Censuses of Population, this paper examines how patterns of industrial change in American's five largest cities conditioned occupational opportunities for men and women. Theoretically, cities are conceptualized as independent dimensions of the nation's stratification system. Men and women in the early part of this century, then, confronted widely varying sets of occupational possibilities depending upon where they were located with respect to the spatial division of labor in the country. Results from a shift-share analysis show that the sexual division of labor in the United States was a function of, among other things, the territorial division of labor in the country.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abrahamson, Mark andLee Sigelman 1987 “Occupational sex segregation in metropolitan areas.” American Sociological Review 52:588–597.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blalock, Hubert H., Jr. 1967 Toward a Theory of Minority Group Relations. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowen, William G. andT. Aldrich Finegan 1969 The Economics of Labor Force Participation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conk, Margo 1980 The United States Census and Labor Force Change: A History of Occupation Statistics, 1870–1940. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, Beverly andStanley Lieberson 1970 Metropolis and Region in Transition. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, Alba M. 1943 Comparative Occupation Statistics for the United States, 1870 to 1940. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, Richard C. 1979 Contested Terrain. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • England, Paula 1981 “Assessing trends in occupational sex segregation, 1900–1976.” In Ivar Berg (ed.), Sociological Perspectives on Labor Markets: 273–96. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • England, Paula andGeorge Farkas 1986 Households, Employment and Gender. New York: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falk, William W. andThomas A. Lyson 1988 High Tech, Low Tech, No Tech: Recent Industrial and Occupational Changes in the South. Albany, NY: SUNY-Albany Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, D. L. andClaire M. Casey 1958 Occupational Trends in the United States, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Working Paper No. 5. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oppenheimer, Valerie K. 1970 The Female Labor Force in the United States. Population Monograph Series No. 5. Berkeley, CA: Institute of International Studies, University of California.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perloff, Harvey, Edgar S. Dunn, Eric E. Lampard, andRichard F. Muth 1960 Regions, Resources and Economic Growth. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reskin, Barbara F. andHeidi I. Hartmann 1986 Women's Work, Men's Work. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Semyonov, Moshe 1988 “Bi-ethnic labor markets, mono-ethnic labor markets, and socioeconomic inequality.” American Sociological Review 53:256–266.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singelmann, Joachim andHarley Browning 1980 “Industrial transformation and occupational change in the U.S., 1960–1970.” Social Forces 59:246–264.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1979 “Changes in industry structure and female employment in Latin America: 1950–1970.” Sociology and Social Research 63:745–769.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1985 “The process of occupational change in a service society: The case of the United States, 1960–1980.” In B. Roberts, R. Finnegan, and D. Gallie (eds.), New Approaches to Economic Life: 48–67. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tentler, Leslie W. 1979 Wage Earning Women: Industrial Work and Family Life in the United States, 1900–1930. New York: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, Erik O. andBill Martin 1987 “The transformation of the American class structure, 1960–1980.” American Journal of Sociology 93:1–29.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lyson, T.A. Industrial shifts, occupational recomposition, and the changing sexual division of labor in the five largest U.S. cities: 1910–1930. Sociol Forum 6, 157–177 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01112732

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01112732

Key words

Navigation