Industrialization and employment: Changes in the patterns of women's work in Puerto Rico

The debate on the impact of industrialization on female employment in developing countries has revolved around the issue of whether women are integrated into or marginalized from the labor market by industrialization. This paper presents the results of an empirical study of the changes in the sectoral and occupational distribution of female employment in Puerto Rico during the period 1947–1982. The study divides the process of industrialization into two stages according to the type of industries promoted by the government development agency, Formento, under the various Industrial Incentive Laws enacted during this period. Changes in female employment by economic sector were assessed through a regression analysis, while changes in occupation were assessed through the analysis of descriptive statistics. The study found that, while women's participation in the labor force grew, the type of occupations they filled remained sex segregated, with few exceptions. Integration into the labor force was thus associated with a new sexual division of labor and does not necessarily mean an improvement in the employment situation of women as the integration hypothesis proposes.