Date of Award

Fall 2014

Project Type

Thesis

College or School

COLA

Department

Sociology

Program or Major

Sociology

Degree Name

Master of Arts

First Advisor

Rebecca Glauber

Second Advisor

Sharyn Potter

Third Advisor

Thomas Safford

Abstract

While the presence of information technology (IT) work is ubiquitous in libraries, an increase in the number of male-dominated IT jobs has not increased the percentage of men (37%) working in female-dominated research libraries. Instead, the introduction of IT work may have resulted in a reorganization of librarians into gendered areas of specialization, changing the nature and degree of gender segregation within the occupation and potentially widening the overall pay gap between male and female librarians. Using data from the ARL Salary Survey, gender compositions and salary gaps of library positions between 1985 and 2010 were compared. Twelve of 17 library positions lost male workers, balancing the gain of men in library IT positions and contributing to a reordering of workers by gender into specializations. At the same time, gender segregation based on vertical hierarchy decreased, as did gender salary gaps. While library IT positions are disproportionately male, women are paid slightly more than men. When compared to similar occupations from the Current Population Survey, library IT positions have a higher percentages of female workers and smaller wage gaps.

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