Within-firm gender segregation: causes and consequences

Abstract

The paper studies the sources of gender segregation on the within-firm level and its effect on gender wage gap. In compare to numerous of papers devoted to gender segregation, this research is based on unique personnel data from one of Russian industrial firm for the period from 2002 to 2006. It's shown that generation and fastening of segregated employment structures can be explained, firstly, by initial job assignments and, secondly, by gender differences in promotion paths for male and female workers. Estimations of the gender wage gap afford to conclude that it is largely driven by gender segregation between job positions and hierarchical levels rather than by worker's characteristics.