Gender segregation in the labour market. Could the stall come to an end?

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

PhD Thesis defence by Mena Lüsse

Gender segregation in the labour market is one of the drivers of the gender pay gap and thereby gender inequality more generally. However, gender segregation is not stable but changes over time. Following a phase of increased gender integration, especially since the 1970s, the long-lasting stall in gender integration since the 1990s remains a puzzle. Many studies have investigated potential causes of this stall. This thesis broadens this field of research by examining what might contribute to an increase in gender integration again. First, the skilled labour shortage seems to contribute to gender integration in the German labour market. Second, occupational closure, measured with the concentration of educational certificates, excludes men from female-dominated occupations, but includes women in male-dominated occupations. Due to the skilled labour shortage, occupations seem to reduce occupational closure, which leads to an integration of men but a segregation of women. Third, specific types of intergenerational (im)mobility are associated with gender integration at the societal level. Generally, all three empirical chapters show that it is essential to consider both the roles of women and men to understand gender integration in the labour market. After in particular women advanced gender integration in the previous decades, men now seem to contribute to an increase in gender integration. 

Mena Franziska Lüsse is a PhD researcher at the European University Institute (EUI). Before joining the EUI, Mena obtained an MSc in Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and an MA in Social Science from Humboldt University Berlin. In her PhD project, she examines the impact of changing contexts on gender segregation in the labour market using quantitative methods. In January 2026, Mena will join the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Lausanne as a postdoc, where she will continue her research on gender and labour market inequalities.