Restricted access

Research article

First published online May 29, 2013

Request permissions

The Care Economy? Gender, Economic Restructuring, and Job Polarization in the U.S. Labor Market

Rachel E. DwyerView all authors and affiliations

Volume 78, Issue 3

https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122413487197

Abstract
References
Biographies
Supplementary Material

Abstract

The U.S. job structure became increasingly polarized at the turn of the twenty-first century as high- and low-wage jobs grew strongly and many middle-wage jobs declined. Prior research on the sources of uneven job growth that focuses on technological change and weakening labor market institutions struggles to explain crucial features of job polarization, especially the growth of low-wage jobs and gender and racial differences in job growth. I argue that theories of the rise of care work in the U.S. economy explain key dynamics of job polarization—including robust growth at the bottom of the labor market and gender and racial differences in job growth—better than the alternative theories. By seeing care work as a distinctive form of labor, care work theories highlight different dimensions of economic restructuring than are emphasized in prior research on job polarization. I show that care work jobs contributed significantly and increasingly to job polarization from 1983 to 2007, growing at the top and bottom of the job structure but not at all in the middle. I close by considering whether the care economy will continue to reinforce job polarization, or whether it will provide new opportunities for revived growth in middle-wage jobs.

Get full access to this article

View all access and purchase options for this article.

References

Albelda Randy, Duffy Mignon, Folbre Nancy. 2009. Counting on Care Work: Human Infrastructure in Massachusetts. Amherst: University of Massachusetts.

Antonopoulos Rania, Kim Kijong, Masterson Thomas, Zacharias Ajit. 2010. “Investing in Care: A Strategy for Effective and Equitable Job Creation.” Working Paper No. 610. Annandale-on-Hudson, NY: Levy Economics Institute of Bard College.

Autor David H. 2010. The Polarization of Job Opportunities in the U.S. Labor Market: Implications for Employment and Earnings. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress and The Hamilton Project.

Autor David H., Katz Lawrence F., Kearney Melissa S. 2006. “The Polarization of the U.S. Labor Market.” American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 96:189–94.

Autor David H., Katz Lawrence F., Kearney Melissa S. 2008. “Trends in U.S. Wage Inequality: Revising the Revisionists.” Review of Economics and Statistics 90:300–323.

Autor David H., Levy Frank, Murnane Richard J. 2003. “The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 118:1279–1333.

Baily Martin Neil. 2010. “The Next Economy and the Growth Challenge for the United States.” Brookings Institution, Growth through Innovation Program, Washington, DC.

Bernhardt Annette, Morris Martina, Handcock Mark S. 1995. “Women’s Gains or Men’s Losses? A Closer Look at the Shrinking Gender Gap in Earnings.” American Sociological Review 101:302–328.

Bernhardt Annette, Morris Martina, Handcock Mark S., Scott Marc A. 2001. Divergent Paths: Economic Mobility in the New American Labor Market. New York: Russell Sage.

Blinder Alan. 2007. “How Many U.S. Jobs Might be Offshorable?” Working Paper No. 142. Princeton University Center for Economic Policy Studies, Princeton, NJ.

Braverman Harry. [1974]1998. Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Card David, DiNardo John E. 2002. “Skill-Biased Technological Change and Rising Wage Inequality: Some Problems and Puzzles.” Journal of Labor Economics 20:733–83.

Cohen Philip N., Huffman Matt L. 2003. “Individuals, Jobs, and Labor Markets: The Devaluation of Women’s Work.” American Sociological Review 68:443–63.

Doussard Marc, Peck Jamie, Theodore Nik. 2009. “After Deindustrialization and Economic Inequality in ‘Postindustrial’ Chicago.” Economic Geography 85:183–207.

Duffy Mignon. 2005. “Reproducing Labor Inequalities: Challenges for Feminists Conceptualizing Care at the Intersections of Gender, Race, and Class.” Gender & Society 19:66–82.

Duffy Mignon. 2007. “Doing the Dirty Work: Gender, Race, and Reproductive Labor in Historical Perspective.” Gender & Society 21:313–36.

Duffy Mignon. 2011. Making Care Count: A Century of Gender, Race, and Paid Care Work. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

England Paula. 1992. Comparable Worth: Theories and Evidence. New York: Aldine.

England Paula. 2005. “Emerging Theories of Care Work.” Annual Review of Sociology 31:381–99.

England Paula. 2010. “The Gender Revolution: Uneven and Stalled.” Gender & Society 24:149–66.

England Paula, Budig Michelle, Folbre Nancy. 2002. “Wages of Virtue: The Relative Pay of Care Work.” Social Problems 49:455–73.

England Paula, Reid Lori L., Kilbourne Barbara Stanek. 1996. “The Effect of the Sex Composition of Jobs on Starting Wages in an Organization: Findings from the NLSY.” Demography 33:511–21.

Esping-Anderson Gosta. 2009. The Incomplete Revolution: Adapting Welfare States to Women’s New Roles. Cambridge, UK: Polity.

Fernandez Robert. 2001. “Skill-Biased Technological Change and Wage Inequality: Evidence from a Plant Retooling.” American Journal of Sociology 107:273–320.

Fernández-Macías Enrique. 2012. “Job Polarization in Europe? Changes in the Employment Structure and Job Quality, 1995–2007.” Work and Occupations 39:157–82.

Fernández-Macías Enrique, Storrie Donald, Hurley John, eds. 2012. Transformation of the Employment Structures in the EU and USA. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Folbre Nancy. 2002. The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values. New York: New Press.

Folbre Nancy. 2006. “Demanding Quality: Worker/Consumer Coalitions and ‘High Road’ Strategies in the Care Sector.” Politics and Society 34:11–31.

Gatta Mary, Boushey Heather, Appelbaum Eileen. 2009. “High-Touch and Here-to-Stay: Future Skills Demands in US Low Wage Service Occupations.” Sociology 43:968–89.

Glenn Evelyn Nakano. 1992. “From Servitude to Service Work: Historical Continuities in the Racial Division of Paid Reproductive Labor.” Signs 18:1–43.

Goos Marten, Manning Alan. 2007. “Lousy and Lovely Jobs: The Rising Polarization of Work in Britain.” Review of Economics and Statistics 89:118–33.

Goos Marten, Manning Alan, Salomons Anna. 2009. “Job Polarization in Europe.” American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 99:58–63.

Handel Michael. 2007. “Computers and the Wage Structure.” Research in Labor Economics 26:155–96.

Harrison Bennett, Bluestone Barry. 1988. The Great U-Turn: Corporate Restructuring and the Polarizing of America. New York: Basic Books.

Heckman James J., Masterov Dimitriy V. 2007. “The Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children.” Review of Agricultural Economics 29:446–93.

Hipple Steven F. 2010. “Multiple Jobholding during the 2000s.” Monthly Labor Review July:21–32.

Hirsch Barry T., Schumacher Edward J. 2004. “Match Bias in Wage Gap Estimates Due to Earnings Imputation.” Journal of Labor Economics 22:689–722.

Hodson Randy, Kaufman Robert L. 1982. “Economic Dualism: A Critical Review.” American Sociological Review 47:727–39.

Kalleberg Arne L. 2011. Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious Employment Systems in the United States, 1970s to 2000s. New York: Russell Sage.

Kalleberg Arne L., Reskin Barbara F., Hudson Ken. 2000. “Bad Jobs in America: Standard and Nonstandard Employment Relations and Job Quality in the United States.” American Sociological Review 65:256–78.

Kalleberg Arne L., Wallace Michael, Althauser Robert P. 1981. “Economic Segmentation, Worker Power, and Income Inequality.” American Journal of Sociology 87:651–83.

Kenworthy Lane. 2007. “Inequality and Sociology.” American Behavioral Scientist 50:584–602.

Kenworthy Lane. 2008. Jobs with Equality. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Kessler-Harris Alice. 2001. In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in 20th Century America. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Kim ChangHwan, Sakamoto Arthur. 2008. “The Rise of Intra-Occupational Wage Inequality in the United States, 1983 to 2002.” American Sociological Review 73:129–57.

Lemieux Thomas. 2008. “The Changing Nature of Wage Inequality.” Journal of Population Economics 21:21–48.

Lopez Steven. 2004. Reorganizing the Rust Belt: An Inside Study of the American Labor Movement. Berkeley: University of California Press.

McCall Leslie. 2001. Complex Inequality: Gender, Class, and Race in the New Economy. New York: Routledge.

McCall Leslie. 2007. “Increasing Class Disparities among Women and the Politics of Gender Equity.” Pp. 15–34 in The Sex of Class, edited by Cobble D. S. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

McCall Leslie. 2008. “What Does Class Inequality among Women Look Like? A Comparison with Men and Families.” Pp. 293–323 in Social Class: How Does it Work?, edited by Lareau A., Conley D. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

McCall Leslie. 2011. “Women and Men as Class and Race Actors: Comment on England.” Gender & Society 25:94–100.

Meyer Peter B., Osborne Anastasiya M. 2005. “Proposed Category System for 1960–2000 Census Occupations.” BLS Working Paper no. 383. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Milkman Ruth, Dwyer Rachel E. 2002. “Growing Apart: The ‘New Economy’ and Job Polarization in California, 1992–2000.” The State of California Labor pp. 3–35.

Milkman Ruth, Reese Ellen, Roth Benita. 1998. “The Macrosociology of Paid Domestic Labor.” Work and Occupations 25:483–510.

Mishel Lawrence, Schmitt John, Shierholz Heidi. 2013. “Assessing the Job Polarization Explanation of Growing Wage Inequality.” Working Paper. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.

Moller Stephanie, Rubin Beth A. 2008. “The Contours of Stratification in Service-Oriented Economies.” Social Science Research 37:1039–1060.

Morris Martina, Western Bruce. 1999. “Inequality in Earnings at the Close of the Twentieth Century.” Annual Review of Sociology 25:623–57.

Mouw Ted, Kalleberg Arne L. 2010. “Occupations and Wage Inequality in the United States.” American Sociological Review 75:402–431.

Oesch Daniel, Menes Jorge Rodriguez. 2011. “Upgrading or Polarization? Occupational Change in Britain, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland, 1990–2008.” Socio-Economic Review 9:503–531.

Osterman Paul. 2008. “Improving the Quality of Low-Wage Work: The Current American Experience.” International Labor Review 147:115–34.

Osterman Paul, Shulman Beth. 2011. Good Jobs America: Making Work Better for Everyone. New York: Russell Sage.

Ravitch Diane. 1974. The Great School Wars: New York City, 1805–1973. New York: Basic Books.

Rolnick Arthur, Grunewald Rob. 2003. “Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return.” The Region: Banking and Policy Issues Magazine December:6–12.

Sassen Saskia. 2001. The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Secombe Wally. 1974. “The Housewife and Her Labour Under Capitalism.” New Left Review 83:3–24.

Sherman Rachel. 2007. Class Acts: Service and Inequality in Luxury Hotels. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Starr Paul. 1982. The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The Rise of a Sovereign Profession and the Making of a Vast Industry. New York: Basic Books.

Steinberg Ronnie J. 1990. “Social Construction of Skill: Gender, Power, and Comparable Worth.” Work and Occupations 17:449–82.

Tam Tony. 1997. “Sex Segregation and Occupational Gender Inequality in the United States: Devaluation of Specialized Training?” American Journal of Sociology 102:1652–92.

Tomaskovic-Devey Donald, Skaggs Sheryl. 2002. “Sex Segregation, Labor Process Organization, and Gender Earnings Inequality.” American Journal of Sociology 108:102–128.

Weeden Kim. 2002. “Why Do Some Occupations Pay More than Others? Social Closure and Earnings Inequality in the United States.” American Journal of Sociology 108:55–101.

Western Bruce, Bloome Deirdre, Percheski Christine. 2008. “Inequality among American Families with Children, 1975 to 2005.” American Sociological Review 73:903–920.

Wright Erik Olin, Dwyer Rachel E. 2003. “The Patterns of Job Expansions in the United States: A Comparison of the 1960s and 1990s.” Socio-Economic Review 1:289–325.

Biographies

Rachel E. Dwyer is Associate Professor of Sociology at The Ohio State University. She studies the causes and consequences of rising economic inequality in the United States in diverse social contexts. Current projects include studies of labor market inequality, neighborhood disparities, and the growing importance of debt and debt-holding in U.S. society. Her articles on these issues have appeared in Social Forces, Social Problems, City & Community, and Social Science Research.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

dwyer_media_abstract.pdf
9.80 KB

dwyer_spanish_abstract.pdf
12.15 KB

View full text|Download PDF

You currently have no access to this content. Visit the access options page to authenticate.