Organizational Behavior Area Virtual Research Seminar Series: Sarah Kaplan
Sarah Kaplan
University of Toronto- Rotman School of Management
Occupational Gender Composition and Task Segregation in Professional Work
Date: Friday, April 10, 2026
Time:10:30 AM -12:00 PM
Location: Virtual (ZOOM)
All are cordially invited to attend.
Abstract:
Tasks are a central arena through which inequality is enacted in organizations. Even when men and women hold the same occupational titles, they often perform systematically different kinds of work鈥攁 form of intra-occupational task segregation that shapes both material and symbolic outcomes. We theorize that the extent of task segregation depends on an occupation鈥檚 degree of gender integration. In historically male-dominated occupations, the presence of women can heighten rather than diminish the symbolic boundaries around who performs which kinds of work. Using administrative billing records from over 20,000 physicians in 16 more or less gender-integrated specialties (occupations) in Ontario, Canada鈥檚 universal healthcare system, we analyze more than 700 medical procedures (tasks) over 11 years. Confirming previous research, we find that men disproportionately perform technically complex tasks, while women are concentrated in communicative and relational work. Yet, surprisingly, these divisions are most pronounced in specialties with greater female representation where symbolic boundary activation may reassert distinctions between masculine and feminine forms of expertise. Our findings position tasks as a central mechanism through which demographic composition and symbolic hierarchies interact to reproduce inequality, revealing how gender integration can intensify rather than erode divisions of labor within professional work.
