The Integration of Women into Professional Personnel and Labor Relations Work

The author analyzes the employment share and relative earnings of women in personnel and labor relations (PLR) occupations. Using data from three government sources, he finds that women's employment share in PLR work, which remained at about 30% from 1950 to 1970, grew swiftly thereafter, reaching 58% in 1989, and was highest in industries with a high proportion of women in their total work force. Women's earnings relative to men's in the "specialist" PLR occupation grew between 1983 and 1989, but did not reach equality, and in the "managerial" PLR occupation they remained about two-thirds of men's between 1986 and 1989. At least two-thirds of the 1979 earnings differential between men and women reflected gender differences in earnings for identical age, education, and extent of work.