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Is the Gender Revolution Really Stalled?

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Kim Weeden, Cornell University

Description

Semester:

  • Fall 2025

Speakers:

Kim Weeden: Jan Rock Zubrow ’77 Professor of the Social Sciences, Director of the Center for the Study of Inequality

Lecture Time:

Fri, October 24, 2025 @ 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm

Lecture Location:

R1210, Ross building

Speaker Webpage(s):

https://sociology.cornell.edu/kim-weeden

Introduced By:

Eleanor Lin

Abstract

Progress toward gender equality in the U.S. labor market is often described as a “stalled revolution,” with rapid progress in the 1980s and 1990s followed by slower change thereafter. This characterization emerges from period-based analyses. We introduce a new approach to studying occupational sex segregation, distinguishing cohort and life-cycle changes in men’s, women’s, and labor-market patterns. We find that few cohorts of women stalled in entering male-dominated occupations relative to their predecessors, and indeed the youngest cohorts show faster integration. Men’s cohort change is slower but still substantial. The combined effect is a monotonic inter-cohort decline in occupational segregation, as measured by the index of dissimilarity. Over the life cycle, women’s likelihood of entering male-dominated occupations increases steadily, while men’s follows an inverted U-pattern. Cohort and life-cycle patterns vary by parental status and education. Our findings caution against a broad “stalled revolution” narrative and highlight the need for gender inequality theories to attend to the different “clocks” underpinning social change.

Recording & Additional Notes

No recordings available.

No additional notes available.