Women and immigrants: Strangers in a strange land

This paper draws an analogy between the fate of women in the labor market and immigrants in the host country by examining the social processes that affect both categories. Immigrants, and women in traditionally male occupations, are usually regarded and treated as strangers, reflected in stereotyping, exclusion, segregation, and assimilation. By conceptualizing gender-based occupational segregation in terms of territory, borders, and migration we attempt to understand this phenomenon and its persistence in a new way and within a wider framework of social distinctions and inequality. These processes are specifically illustrated by two examples: women in a traditionally male occupational sphere, i.e., faculty women in academia, and immigrant scientists.