Analisi della segregazione occupazionale di genere delle famiglie italiane nell’anno 2008

This paper deals with gender differences in paid work. It contains a review of several statistical techniques that analyse the gender gaps in work and then apply them to the study of the Italian labour market, paying particular attention to the analysis of Italian regional differences. The focus is on occupational segregation. Segregation is the measure of the different distribution of different individuals for some characteristic (sex, race, religious confession, social class) in the occupations, in the productive sectors, in the urban districts, in the schools. Then, we have calculated three Indices of segregation: Duncan and Duncan's Index of Dissimilarity (1995), Moir-Selby Smith index (1979) and Karmel-MacLachalan index (1988). Occupational segregation, simply understood as the different way men and women are distributed in occupations, does not necessarily imply discrimination. Until it is the result of a process of free choice for women, it cannot be considered a completely negative aspect of the employment. It is, in part, the result of an adaptation process of women in the world of work addressed by gender roles, so the need to reconcile work and family involves more or less forced occupational choices.