The aim of this Research Planning Grant is to develop a data base on employment by gender and industry in Puerto Rico. The project is part of a larger study on the structural and individual factors that explain gender inequalities in the labor market. It uses Puerto Rico as a case study, since the island represents the oldest experience in export-led industrialization in the developing world. The literature on women's work and development provides insights into the tendency towards feminization of the labor force, and it points out the persistence of occupational segregation and earning differences by gender. However, few studies have addressed the causes of the persistence of gender inequalities in the social division of labor during the course of export-led socioeconomic development. In part, this has been due to methodological limitations and the lack of a consistent data bases for research. Employing two 1990 cross-sectional data sets, this project will attempt to remedy the problem. The data sets include the Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) of the U.S. Bureau of Census, and the U.S. Economic Censuses for manufacture, wholesale trade, retail trade and services. These data will be classified by gender, industry, education, life cycle, household characteristics and migration experience, and combined with comparable data already compiled for 1970 and 1980. At least three purposes will be served: (1) the empirical analysis of changes in employment by gender across industries during the last three decades; (2) the development of electronic data bases for use by other researchers; (3) the availability of detailed data that will enable comparisons between labor market structures and the experiences of Puerto Rican workers in Puerto Rico and the United States, as well as with the experiences of Latinos and other minority groups in the United States.
