Gender inequality and occupational segregation in white-collar jobs in the early “quiet revolution”: new evidence from the wages of Swedish teachers (c. 1890)

The relationship between gender inequality and occupational segregation is a fascinating puzzle. New microdata on all primary school teachers in Sweden in c. 1890 show that the gender wage gap in the profession was 10 percent when holding observable features constant, and occupational segregation was strong. Women worked in minor and junior schools receiving low wages—yet higher than those paid in other occupations, while men mostly taught in regular primary schools that paid competitive wages for men. Gender wage inequality and occupational segregation were the price for the feminization of schooling, i.e., part of the Swedish “quiet revolution.”