The Impact of the Vocational Education System on Occupational Gender Segregation in Austria

Occupational segregation is an expression of the still existing and hardly changing division of labour within and outside the labour market, which is since a long time subject of equality policies but resists to bigger changes. Austria shows a relatively high and stable level of occupational segregation by gender (measured by the index of Dissimilarity). Horizontal segregation in occupations and in educational fields has negative effects on labor market experience of women, especially in terms of income.

The paper starts with empirical data on the development of occupational segregation in Austria und its relationship with income and educational fields. Using micro data from the Austrian Labor Force Survey we want to explore this contribution of horizontal segregation on the income level, and the development of occupational segregation in Austria since the mid 1990ies. Our first assumption is a negative relationship: the higher the share of women the lower the level of income. Because of decreasing gender differences in labor market participation and in educational levels during the last 20 years we would secondly expect that the negative relationship between horizontal segregation and income was much higher in the mid 1990ies.

In the second part of the paper we discuss the impact of the vocational education system in Austria on gender segregation. Our third assumption is that the parallel structure of “dual” and “school-based” vocational routes enforces gender segregation and its negative consequences on income. Dual vocational education on the one hand is characterized by standardized skills and a close linkage to professions. The school-based vocational training system is less standardized with heterogeneous curricula and training providers. Based on the empirical findings of part one, we will analyze the educational routes for specific female and male occupations.