Theresa Wobbe

• According to gender and labor market research, differentiation of male and female work is not primarily grounded in specific tasks but rather rooted in male and female features attributed to work. In this paper, the effects of classification patterns are related to the categories used in occupational statistics. According to this argument statistical patterns contribute to gradual processes of inclusion into society by categorizing people. Put more precisely, this process of "making up people" (Hacking 1986) is conflated with gendered views of persons. This conceptual conflation is examined in the historical context of emerging occupational statistics, social sciences, and law in Germany around 1900. Inasmuch as statistical observation differentiated between economically productive and non-productive work, gendered distinctions were deeply encoded in its categories. These distinctions were institutionalized by means of the social scientific definition of role models as well as legal codification. In the conclusion, the sociology ofAccording to gender and labor market research, differentiation of male and female work is not primarily grounded in specific tasks but rather rooted in male and female features attributed to work. In this paper, the effects of classification patterns are related to the categories used in occupational statistics. According to this argument statistical patterns contribute to gradual processes of inclusion into society by categorizing people. Put more precisely, this process of "making up people" (Hacking 1986) is conflated with gendered views of persons. This conceptual conflation is examined in the historical context of emerging occupational statistics, social sciences, and law in Germany around 1900. Inasmuch as statistical observation differentiated between economically productive and non-productive work, gendered distinctions were deeply encoded in its categories. These distinctions were institutionalized by means of the social scientific definition of role models as well as legal codification. In the conclusion, the sociology of knowledge approach followed in this paper is extended toward a discussion of broader questions of inclusion and gender inequality. In order to explain the persistence of gendered classifications in the organization of work in society, further gender inequality research needs to account for the enduring social evidence and symbolic relevance of sex classifications at the meso and macro levels.…