Restructuring of economics : automation and gender in the work force.

Abstract

Technology has reached a point where robotics and computerization can do many of the tasks that humans completed in the past. Occupations with the least amount of routine task are less vulnerable to being automated (Frey and Osborne 2017:2018). Automation resistant occupations require social intelligence, creative intelligence, and perception/manipulation; however, these qualities are often constructed to be innately gender specific, and gender constructs have segregated many occupations into female or male-dominated fields. This paper explores the effects of gender segregation on underemployment during the current stage of the fourth economic revolution. To do this, I compare 2017 to four panels through multivariate logistic regression to assess if the odds of underemployment for men and women have changed over time. I found that currently, there is no difference in underemployment for men and women at the gender occupational clustering rangers determined. However, individual level effects, particularly education, are increasing in importance.