THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 AND THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN IN MANUFACTURING (SEX DISCRIMINATION, OCCUPATIONAL SEGREGATION).

摘要

This study examines the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy from 1961 to 1981 in an effort to test the hypothesis that the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII has affected the employment of women in the manner contemplated by the Congress, and has increased their representation in non-traditional jobs. The manufacturing sector was chosen for the study because it is a declining industry relative to the rest of the economy. If Title VII can be shown to have increased the female share of employment in occupations within an industry in which women have not been proportionally represented, this would strongly suggest that discrimination indeed existed over the period of time in question, and that policy measures of the federal government are capable of at least partially rectifying the situation.;Title VII is shown to have been effective in increasing the female share of the professionals and managers occupation, where they had previously been under-represented, and it was not effective in altering their share of clerical and sales jobs, where they had been over-represented. Title VII tended to reduce the share of females in the crafts and operatives category where significant intra-occupational sex segregation existed.;A hypothetical increase in GNP increased total sectoral employment but had no effect on the share of females in any occupation. An assumed narrowing of the earnings gap between females and males was associated with an increased share of females working as professionals and managers, and with a reduced share of the other two specific occupations. An assumed narrowing, by 5 percent, of the gap between females receiving business and engineering degrees and males receiving such degrees had small (less than 1 percent) effect on their share of occupational employment.;The study uses a recursive model of the female share of employment in four occupations in the sector: professionals and managers, clerical and sales, crafts and operatives, and other. A regression equation is estimated for each of ten dependent variables, and the set of regression equations are then dynamically simulated. Each of four policy-oriented independent variables is then given hypothetical values and the model is re-simulated, and each result is compared to the control simulation.