Gender and ethnic differences in occupational positions and earnings among nurses and engineers in Norway: identical educational choices, unequal outcomes

Abstract

Research shows that men who pursue an education in a female-traditional occupation are more likely to be employed outside their occupation, in management positions and in better paid positions than their female colleagues. It is not clear whether this holds for men with an immigrant background and whether differences in employment positions and earnings between men of different ethnic origins are more or less pronounced in female-traditional occupations than in male-traditional professions. This article compares individuals educated in nursing and engineering (i.e. archetypical examples of female-and male-traditional professions, respectively). Results show that findings based on men with a majority ethnic background cannot be generalized to male immigrants. Differences in the likelihood of being employed outside professional nursing and engineering are pronounced between native-born Norwegian men and men with a nonwestern immigrant background. Nursing seems, however, to offer greater career prospects for ethnic minorities than does engineering.

The Presence of Ethnic Minority and Disabled men in Feminised Work: Intersectionality, Vertical Segregation and the Glass Escalator

“…This derives from the general pattern of vertical segregation around minority ethnicity and disability in the UK labour market, which indicates that such men are less likely to progress in occupations and organisations anyway (Berthoud, 2008;EHRC, 2010;Platt, 2011). More specifically it draws on recent work that suggests that this differential progression may apply to men in female-dominated work areas (Harvey Wingfield, 2009;Smith, 2012), though we note that other studies have not found support for this (Karlsen, 2012;Price-Glynn and Rakowski, 2012).…”

“…The evidence, such as it is, is supportive (Williams & Villemez, 1993 in the US; Lupton, 2006 in the UK). More recently, Harvey Wingfield (2009) andSmith (2012) have shown in the US context that, when in femaledominated occupations, not all men are able to ride the glass escalator equally well (with men from ethnic minorities being less able to realise their gender advantages in female-dominated work), though support was not found for this in recent studies by Karlsen (2012) in Norway, or Price-Glynn & Rakowski (2012) in the US.…”

Simply a Matter of Being Male? Nurses’ Employment Outcomes in the Norwegian Labour Market

“…Several studies from Norway (Abrahamsen, 2004;Karlsen, 2012;Kvande, ABSTRACT The gendered segregation of the labour market is well documented: men tend to be employed in more prestigious and powerful jobs compared with women, even within female-dominated occupations. The research that describes the male privilege in nursing rarely problematizes, however, that these men belong to the majority ethnic population.…”

“…However, the "ethnic penalty" varies across work contexts (see e.g. Drange, 2014;Karlsen, 2012), which illustrates the importance of conducting studies embedded in particular work settings.…”

Stratification in the Medical profession: Non-Western Physicians in Norway

“…Although the underemployment of academically trained non-Western immigrants in Norway is commonplace (Henriksen, 2008;Villund, 2008;Støren & Wiers-Jenssen, 2010), research has revealed that nonWestern immigrant health professionals have a reduced risk for unemployment (Brekke, 2007;Støren, 2004) and overqualification (Villund, 2008). Moreover, both immigrant nurses (Karlsen, 2012) and immigrant physicians (Drange, 2013) have equal or higher earnings compared to majority colleagues.…”