Concealable Stigma and Occupational Segregation: Toward a Theory of Gay and Lesbian Occupations

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Tilcsik, Andras; Anteby, Michel; Knight, Carly R.
• 署名单位: University of Toronto; University of Toronto; Boston University; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE QUARTERLY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-8392
• DOI: 10.1177/0001839215576401
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 446-481
• 关键词: SEXUAL ORIENTATION; MENTAL-HEALTH; labor-market; WAGE PENALTY; DISCRIMINATION; work; WORKPLACE; career; job; CONSEQUENCES

摘要

Numerous scholars have noted the disproportionately high number of gay and lesbian workers in certain occupations, but systematic explanations for this type of occupational segregation remain elusive. Drawing on the literatures on concealable stigma and stigma management, we develop a theoretical framework predicting that gay men and lesbians will concentrate in occupations that provide a high degree of task independence or require a high level of social perceptiveness, or both. Using several distinct measures of sexual orientation, and controlling for potential confounds, such as education, urban location, and regional and demographic differences, we find support for these predictions across two nationally representative surveys in the United States for the period 2008-2010. Gay men are more likely to be in female-majority occupations than are heterosexual men, and lesbians are more represented in male-majority occupations than are heterosexual women, but even after accounting for this tendency, common to both gay men and lesbians is a propensity to concentrate in occupations that provide task independence or require social perceptiveness, or both. This study offers a theory of occupational segregation on the basis of minority sexual orientation and holds implications for the literatures on stigma, occupations, and labor markets.