Technological progress, occupational structure and gender gaps in the German labour market

Abstract

Purpose This study examines whether advances in technology and shifts in the occupational structure have enhanced women's position within the labour market. It answers the following research questions: First, how has the occupational employment structure evolved over the last decades, and how is this related to gender gaps? Second, which factors explain the gender gap and its narrowing over time? Design/methodology/approach We use individual-level panel data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for West Germany over the period 1985–2017 and individual-level task data from the BIBB Employment survey. We use the task intensity of an occupation and the task group an occupation belongs to as proxies for technological change. To analyze explanatory factors, we use a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. Findings Women are increasingly engaging in non-routine manual and interactive occupations. The concurrent narrowing of the gender wage gap is attributable to declining gender wage gaps within task groups rather than between them. Observable factors, such as education have grown in importance to the gender wage gap, whereas the importance of unexplained factors has strongly declined. Technological change plays no significant role in the evolution of the gender wage gap. By contrast, part-time employment exerts a substantial influence on the gender wage gap. Originality/value Our analysis includes part-time and high-skilled workers frequently excluded from other studies. The use of individual-level data combined with task information for occupations facilitates the examination of long-run developments such as technological change both between and within task groups.