The purpose of the proposed project is to achieve a better understanding of the relationship between family and labor market behavior in advanced industrial societies. Since adult roles are highly differentiated by gender, the project will examine the effect of gender-role differentiation on the labor market behavior and rewards of the two sexes. In a society in which, on average, men make relatively greater investments in the labor market and women make relatively greater investments in the family, and in which the tasks performed by women and men in each of these two spheres differ, it is hypothesized that individuals of each sex come to occupy different labor market positions as a result of (1) gender-role socialization leading to the development of (a) gender differences in occupational and career orientation and (b) gender differences in labor market skills and credentials, (2) gender differences in the effects of family experiences on preparation for and involvement in the labor market, and (3) gender differences in treatment by employers, or discrimination in the labor market. Because labor market rewards derive from occupancy of labor market positions, the objective of the proposed project is to understand these mechanisms by which individuals of the two sexes are sorted into positions in the labor market offering different levels of reward. The project will involve a series of model formulations and empirical analyses focusing on three stages of the career cycle: (1) the development of occupational and career aspirations prior to labor market entry, (2) the process of wage attainment at entry into the labor market, and (3) the process of wage change after labor market entry. The analyses will be carried out using two national longitudinal surveys of individuals, the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, as well as measures of occupational and industrial characteristics drawn from other sources. A Grade of Membership (GOM) model will be used to identify and derive measures of substantively meaningful dimensions on which occupational aspirations and occupational and industrial placement can be characterized. Recursive partitioning regression will be used to examine influences on occupational aspirations and to assess the relative importance of various mechanisms by which gender differences in wages are hypothesized to arise.
