Women in Masculinized Occupations, Men in Feminized Occupations: Experiences of Gender Occupational Minorities and Their Roles within the Occupational Group

Abstract

Horizontal gender segregation divides the labor market into ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ occupations. However, some individuals choose occupational paths which are not consistent with the expectations for their gender, thereby becoming a minority in their occupational group. We propose the joint term ‘gender occupational minorities’ to describe their situation. We aim to supplement previous research with a combined analysis of the two gender groups, enabling a more general perspective on the meaning of gender in the labor market as well as a comparison of how similar mechanisms work in opposite gender contexts. Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s practical principles of gender occupational segregation, women working in IT/new technologies and men working in childcare/education were chosen as the project’s target groups. In this paper, we focus on the experience of being a gender occupational minority on the Polish labor market as well as on the role of gender occupational minorities within the occupational group.