The Role of Gender and Education in Early Labor Market Careers: Long-Term Trends in Italy

This chapter describes gender inequalities in early labor market careers and their changes over time with a particular focus on the role of education. Drawing on the Multipurpose Survey of Italian Households (ISTAT 2009), we analyze the different allocation of men and women across occupational sectors together with the gender gap in the prestige of the first job and the exposure to precarious employment. We report modest and substantially stable gender segregation in occupations over time, but no differences in men’s and women’s prestige scores – net of educational attainment. Nonetheless, women’s relative prestige has declined over time, a trend that is probably due to the more rapid educational expansion among women and a more pronounced decrease in their labor market rewards. Moreover, regarding employment insecurity, vertical inequalities persist with women suffering a stronger security gap compared to their male counterparts.