The purpose of present study lies in the review of the literature on the economic role of women in different societies, as a preliminary examination on the nature of occupational typicality by gender. This brief exploration will center around these pertinent spheres of women's work roles: (1) women's labor force participation rates, (2) women's occupational distribution, or the type of work that the majority of women perform, (3) the types of professions pursued by women and (4) pay levels of working women, especially as compared to those of males.
Particularly, this cross-cultural review includes studies involving 37 countries, which were selected because they have experienced industrialization, or at least were undergoing industrialization at the time of the investigation, and for which comparative data exist. Relevant data are available for seven African countries, five Arab and Middle Eastern countries, six East Asian countries, five Latin American and Caribbean countries, four Scandinavian countries, five East European countries including the Soviet Union, and five Western countries, representing the United States and West Europe. As such, the countries selected neither comprise the total number of countries in the world, nor are they representative of each region. However, this attempt to place occupational typicality by gender into comparative perspective should provide additional understanding of the issues involved, despite the limitations characteristic of the available data. In reviewing the current economic role of women in different societies, the primary aim is descriptive in nature, rather than analytical.
The results of selected cross-cultural comparisons of studies focusing on female labor force participation, according to four aspects-participation rates, participation distribution, professional representation, and income differentials, are summarized as follows. Whereas women in the East European countries, including the Soviet Union, are the most active labor force participants (average rates were more than 60 percent in the 1960s), women in the Muslim world are the least active (average rates across the region were around 10 percent in the 1960s). In describing these levels of women's economic activity in the other regions, it may be best characterized as falling between the two extremes, or as "intermediate," with rates ranging from 25 to 40 percent.
The indices of "occupational distribution" and "types of professions" of women indicate the structure of the female labor force differs in character from that of the males. First, in terms of the ranges of occupations in which the majority of women work, the cross-cultural pattern suggests that the number of jobs are limited. Numerically, the most common sector is farming. This is especially true for such "Third World" regions as Africa, Arab and Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. In other words, women's economic activities are not taring place evenly across the entire range of occupations; however, some cross-cultural variations do exist. For example, whereas women's jobs in the Muslim world are virtually nonexistent(except in two major professional fields medicine and teaching), women in the European socialist countries and the Northern European societies, as well, show relatively active involvement in such traditionally "male sex-typed" fields as pharmacy, dentistry, engineering, and architecture.
Secondly, the majority of women's jobs have always been an extension of female home making functions: teaching children and adolescents, nursing the sick, and preparing food or clothing. The occupations that women pursue in most societies are highly associated with the traditional female role. Thus, the jobs allowing women to cope with family and professional duties are subject to "feminization." The concentration of women in several "feminine occupations" can be even generalized to both East European countries and to the Scandinavian societi
[닫기]
