Research

Women in Male-Dominated Industries and Occupations: Quick Take

Feb 05, 2020
Male-Dominated Occupations Are Those That Comprise 25% or Fewer Women1

Male-dominated industries and occupations are particularly vulnerable to reinforcing masculine stereotypes that make it even more difficult for women to excel.2

In the United States, only 7.2% of women worked full-time in male-dominated occupations in 2018.3

  • Women’s job growth is driven by employment in male-dominated fields. Between 2016 and 2018, women’s employment increased by 5.0% in industries consisting of two-thirds men.4
Women Face Challenges Working in Male-Dominated Workplace Cultures5

Women working in male-dominated industries face a variety of challenges, including:

  • Societal expectations and beliefs about women’s leadership abilities.6
  • Pervasive stereotypes, such as that of the “caring mother”7 or office housekeeper.8
  • Higher stress and anxiety compared to women working in other fields.9
  • Lack of mentoring and career development opportunities.10
  • Sexual harassment.11

Women use various mechanisms to cope with working in male-dominated work environments, such as:12

  • Distancing themselves from colleagues, especially other women.
  • Accepting masculine cultural norms and acting like “one of the boys,” which exacerbates the problem by contributing to the normalization of this culture.
  • Leaving the industry.
Reports of Sexual Harassment Are More Prevalent in Male-Dominated Industries13

In a 2017 survey, 28% of women working in male-dominated industries stated they had personally experienced sexual harassment, compared to 20% of women in female-dominated industries.14

This heightened level of harassment is a problem even before women enter the workforce. One study found that women pursuing male-dominated university majors experience higher levels of harassment than women earning other degrees15

Occupational Segregation Contributes to the Gender Pay Gap16

Women and men remain concentrated in different jobs and fields, a trend known as occupational segregation.17

  • In Europe, occupational segregation has improved very little since 2005.18

In the United States, male-dominated occupations generally pay more than female-dominated occupations.19

  • 26 out of the 30 highest-paying jobs in the US are male-dominated. In comparison, 23 out of the 30 lowest-paying jobs in the US are female-dominated.20

One study examining United States Census research from 1950 to 2000 showed that as large numbers of women entered male-dominated fields, the overall pay rate declined.21

  • Some jobs, such as electricians and automotive service technicians and mechanics, have too few women employed to even compare earnings.22
  • Millennials in the US are less segregated by sex in occupations compared to previous generations.23

In Canada, women who participate in apprenticeship programs in male-dominated fields earn 14% less than men in median hourly wages and are less likely than men to attain a job related to their field after the program.24

SELECTED INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS

Canada25
Industry Total Employed—Percent Women (2019)
Construction 12.1%
Manufacturing, Durables 21.6%
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction 17.7%
Transportation and Warehousing 23.5%
Utilities 24.5%
Europe26
Total Employed—Percent Women by Industry (2019) EU-28 France Germany Netherlands Sweden Switzerland UK
Construction 10.2% 10.2% 15.4% 9.7% 8.2% 11.4% 12.5%
Manufacturing 29.6% 29.9% 27.1% 22.7% 24.2% 29.7% 26.1%
Transportation and Storage 21.7% 25.4% 25.2% 24.4% 22.3% 24.5% 17.7%
United States—Occupations27
Total Employed—Percent Women (2019) All Women White Women Black Women Asian Women Latinas
Civil Engineers 13.9% 10.7% 0.8% 2.3% 1.3%
Computer Programmers 20.3% 13.9% 2.2% 4.2% 1.3%
Construction Managers 10.0% 7.8% 0.5% 0.7% 1.7%
Driver/Sales Workers and Truck Drivers 6.7% 4.9% 1.3% 0.1% 1.0%
Mechanical Engineers 6.6% 4.8% 0.6% 1.1% 0.3%
Software Developers, Applications and Systems Software 18.7% 7.5% 1.5% 9.4% 0.8%
United States—Industries28
Total Employed—Percent Women (2018) All Women White Women Black Women Asian Women Latinas
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction 15.7% 12.7% 1.2% 1.2% 2.7%
Construction 10.3% 9.0% 0.5% 0.4% 1.9%
Transportation and Utilities 24.1% 16.0% 5.9% 1.3% 4.2%

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Full list of Quick Takes.

Catalyst, Ask Catalyst Express: STEM.

Catalyst, Quick Take: Women in the Automotive Industry.

Catalyst, Quick Take: Women in Energy—Gas, Mining, & Oil.

Catalyst, Quick Take: Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

Sian Beilock, “Research-Based Advice for Women Working in Male-Dominated Fields,” Harvard Business Review, February 13, 2019.

Elliot Bentley and Soo Oh, “What ‘Women’s Work’ Looks Like Now,” The Wall Street Journal, October 14, 2019.

Harvard Business Review, “When You Work in a Male-Dominated Industry” (December 9, 2019).

 

How to cite this product: Catalyst, Quick Take: Women in Male-Dominated Industries and Occupations (February 5, 2020).

  1. Examples of male-dominated occupations include electricians, computer network architects, and mechanical engineers. U.S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau, “Occupations with the Smallest Share of Women Workers,” Employment and Earnings in Selected Occupations (2017); Mariela V. Campuzano, “Force and Inertia: A Systematic Review of Women’s Leadership in Male-Dominated Organizational Cultures in the United States,” Human Resource Development Review (2019): p. 8.
  2. Mariela V. Campuzano, “Force and Inertia: A Systematic Review of Women’s Leadership in Male-Dominated Organizational Cultures in the United States,” Human Resource Development Review (2019): p. 2.
  3. Ariane Hegewisch and Adiam Tesfaselassie, Fact Sheet: The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation 2018 and by Race and Ethnicity (Institute for Women’s Policy Research, April 2, 2019).
  4. Jed Kolko and Claire Cain Miller, “As Labor Market Tightens, Women Are Moving Into Male-Dominated Jobs,” The New York Times, December 14, 2018.
  5. Carolina Pía García Johnson and Kathleen Otto, “Better Together: A Model for Women and LGBTQ Equality in the Workplace,” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 10, no. 272 (2019).
  6. Catalyst, Infographic: The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership (Catalyst, August 2, 2018); Mariela V. Campuzano, “Force and Inertia: A Systematic Review of Women’s Leadership in Male-Dominated Organizational Cultures in the United States,” Human Resource Development Review (2019): p. 2.
  7. Dilshani Sarathchandra, Kristin Haltinner, Nicole Lichtenberg, and Hailee Tracy, “‘It’s Broader Than Just My Work Here’: Gender Variations in Accounts of Success Among Engineers in U.S. Academia,” Social Sciences, vol. 7, no. 3 (February 2018).
  8. Jennifer L. Berdahl, Marianne Cooper, Peter Glick, Robert W. Livingston, and Joan C. Williams, “Work as a Masculinity Contest,” Journal of Social Issues, vol. 74, no. 3 (2018): p. 431.
  9. Yue Qian and Wen Fan, “Men and Women at Work: Occupational Gender Composition and Affective Well-Being in the United States,” Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 20 (2019): p. 2077-2099.
  10. Mariela V. Campuzano, “Force and Inertia: A Systematic Review of Women’s Leadership in Male-Dominated Organizational Cultures in the United States,” Human Resource Development Review (2019): p. 6.
  11. Lauren P. Daley, Dnika J. Travis, and Emily S. Shaffer, Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: How Companies Can Prepare, Prevent, Respond, and Transform Their Culture (Catalyst, 2018).
  12. Dilshani Sarathchandra, Kristin Haltinner, Nicole Lichtenberg, and Hailee Tracy, “‘It’s Broader Than Just My Work Here’: Gender Variations in Accounts of Success Among Engineers in U.S. Academia,” Social Sciences, vol. 7, no. 3 (February 2018).
  13. The Women’s Initiative, Center for American Progress, “Gender Matters” (August 6, 2018).
  14. Kim Parker, “Women in Majority-Male Workplaces Report Higher Rates of Gender Discrimination,” Pew Research Center Fact Tank, March 7, 2018.
  15. Brooke E. Dresden, Alexander Y. Dresden, Robert D. Ridge, and Niwako Yamawaki, “No Girls Allowed: Women in Male-Dominated Majors Experience Increased Gender Harassment and Bias,” Psychological Reports, vol. 121 (September 2017).
  16. American Association of University Women, The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap: Fall 2019 Update (2019).
  17. American Association of University Women, The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap: Fall 2019 Update (2019).
  18. European Institute for Gender Equality, Gender Equality Index 2019: Work-Life Balance (2019): p. 29-31.
  19. Anne Hegewisch and Adiam Tesfaselassie, Fact Sheet: The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation 2018 and by Race and Ethnicity (Institute for Women’s Policy Research, April 2, 2019).
  20. The Economist, “Men Still Pick ‘Blue” Jobs and Women ‘Pink’ Jobs,” February 16, 2019.
  21. Asaf Levanon, Paula England, and Paul Allison, “Occupational Feminization and Pay: Assessing Causal Dynamics Using 1950–2000 U.S. Census Data,” Social Forces, vol. 88 (December 2009): p. 865-892; Claire Cain Miller, “As Women Take Over a Male-Dominated Field, the Pay Drops,” The New York Times, March 18, 2016.
  22. Anne Hegewisch and Adiam Tesfaselassie, Fact Sheet: The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation 2018 and by Race and Ethnicity (Institute for Women’s Policy Research, April 2, 2019).
  23. Kim A. Weeden, State of the Union: Occupational Segregation (Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, June 2019).
  24. Statistics Canada, “How Do Women in Male-Dominated Apprenticeships Fare in the Labour Market?” (March 13, 2019).
  25. Statistics Canada, “Labour Force Characteristics by Industry, Annual (x 1,000)” (2019).
  26. Eurostat, “Employment by Sex, Age and Economic Activity (From 2008 Onwards, NACE Rev. 2) – 1 000, 2019Q3,” Eurostat Database (2020).
  27. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Table 11: Employed Persons by Detailed Occupation, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity, 2019,” Current Population Survey, Household Data Annual Averages 2019 (2020); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Table 1: Employed and Experienced Unemployed Persons by Detailed Occupation, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity, Annual Average 2019,” Current Population Survey (unpublished data) (2020).
  28. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Table 14: Employed Persons in Nonagricultural Industries by Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity, 2019,” Current Population Survey, Household Data Annual Averages 2019 (2020).