The presence of ethnic minority and disabled men in feminised work: intersectionality, vertical segregation and the glass escalator

Abstract

This article examines whether men in female-dominated areas of work are disproportionately drawn from disadvantaged groups – specifically in relation to minority ethnicity and disability. Whilst there is a developing literature on the experiences of men in female-dominated work much less is known about who they are. Using intersectionality as a framework, it is theorised that men with disadvantaged identities may be less able to realise their gender advantage and avoid – or move out of – low-level and part-time feminised work. These expectations are tested with a quantitative analysis of personnel records for a large organisation with a workforce across the UK (n=1,114,308). Analysis is based in consecutive years of data collection in the decade to 2006. Statistical analysis based on chi square tests show that not only are men with disadvantaged identities disproportionally more likely than other men to be found in female-dominated low-status work, but that they are relatively more likely to be so than are their female counterparts. Men from ethnic minorities, but not those with a disability, are also disproportionately more likely to be found in feminised part-time work. Both men from ethnic minorities and men with disabilities are disproportionally less likely than other men to ride the glass escalator to higher-level work. The article concludes that the intersectional effects of gender, ethnicity and disability sort disadvantaged men into lower-level and part-time work alongside women, and considers the implications for the study of men in female-dominated occupations, and of intersectionalities.