SEGREGATION CURVES, LORENZ CURVES, AND INEQUALITY IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF PEOPLE ACROSS OCCUPATIONS

This paper takes the analytic framework developed to measure inequality in the distribution of income and extends it to the problem of measuring inequality in the distribution of people across population groups (e.g. inequality in the distribution of women across occupations). The paper discusses 'segregation curves' and shows that, like Lorenz curves, they are related to value judgments about the nature of inequality. It also derives several new numerical measures of inequality in people across groups. The paper closes with an application: an analysis of U.S. occupational segregation by race and gender between 1958 and 1978.