Moving up down in the mine: Sex segregation in underground coal mining

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:7272434

Tallichet, S E

This study employs both individualist theories of human capital and sex-role spillover and structuralist theories from the socialist feminist perspective, emphasizing the formal and informal organizational factors operating within a patriarchal capitalist society to explain job-level sex segregation among underground coal miners. Both quantitative and qualitative data on women in coal mining are used to evaluate these theories. A logistic regression analysis performed on data obtained in 1986 by the US Bureau of Mines demonstrates that while human capital variables are predictive of a miner's job rank, variation in job rank attributed to gender is even greater. For men, training and experience in mining combine to increase the probability of being in a more skilled job in a coal mine. Age and seniority are curvilinearly related to the variation in men's job rank. For women, only age accounts for their advancement such that younger, not older women who have slightly more mining experience, occupy the more skilled positions in the work place. These findings suggest that, in terms of job advancement, men enjoy a greater return on their human capital investments than women, and that factors other than those representing a miner's human capital are affecting women's positions underground more than men's.

• Research Organization: Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7272434
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
012030 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Underground Mining-- (1987-)
015000* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Economic
Industrial
& Business Aspects
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
294001 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Coal
AGE GROUPS
COAL MINING
DATA ANALYSIS
ECONOMIC IMPACT
EMPLOYMENT
HUMAN POPULATIONS
MINING
MINORITY GROUPS
POPULATIONS
US AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PROGRAM