Is the Gender Revolution Really Stalled?

Progress toward gender equality in the U.S. labor market is often described as a “stalled revolution,” with rapid progress in the 1980s and 1990s followed by slower change thereafter. This characterization emerges from period-based analyses. We introduce a new approach to studying occupational sex segregation, distinguishing cohort and life-cycle changes in men’s, women’s, and labor-market patterns. We find that few cohorts of women stalled in entering male-dominated occupations relative to their predecessors, and indeed the youngest cohorts show faster integration. Men’s cohort change is slower but still substantial. The combined effect is a monotonic inter-cohort decline in occupational segregation, as measured by the index of dissimilarity. Over the life cycle, women’s likelihood of entering male-dominated occupations increases steadily, while men’s follows an inverted U-pattern. Cohort and life-cycle patterns vary by parental status and education. Our findings caution against a broad “stalled revolution” narrative and highlight the need for gender inequality theories to attend to the different “clocks” underpinning social change.