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akhpad
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Source: OG 12 Ed
In the seventeenth-century Florentine textile
industry, women were employed primarily in lowpaying,
low-skill jobs. To explain this segregation
of labor by gender, economists have relied on
the useful theory of human capital. According
to this theory, investment in human capital-the
acquisition of difficult job-related skills-generally
benefits individuals by making them eligible to
engage in well-paid occupations. Women's role as
child bearers, however, results in interruptions in
their participation in the job market (as compared
with men's) and thus reduces their opportunities
to acquire training for highly skilled work. In
addition, the human capital theory explains why
there was a high concentration of women workers
in certain low-skill jobs, such as weaving, but not
in others, such as combing or carding, by positing
that because of their primary responsibility in child
rearing women took occupations that could be
carried out in the home.
There were, however, differences in pay scales
that cannot be explained by the human capital
theory. For example, male construction workers
were paid significantly higher wages than female
taffeta weavers. The wage difference between
these two low-skill occupations stems from the
segregation of labor by gender: because a limited
number of occupations were open to women, there
was a large supply of workers in their fields, and
this "overcrowding" resulted in women receiving
lower wages and men receiving higher wages.
Q
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the explanation provided by the human capital theory for women's concentration in certain occupations in seventeenth-century Florence?
(A) Women were unlikely to work outside the home even in occupations whose hours were flexible enough to allow women to accommodate domestic tasks as well as paid labor.
(B) Parents were less likely to teach occupational skills to their daughters than they were to their sons.
(C) Women's participation in the Florentine paid labor force grew steadily throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
(D) The vast majority of female weavers in the Florentine wool industry had children.
(E) Few women worked as weavers in the Florentine silk industry, which was devoted to making cloths that required a high degree of skill to produce.
I have eliminated B, C and D.
I need explanation for A and E that whether they weaken or strengthen and why.
Q
The author of the passage would be most likely to describe the explanation provided by the human capital theory for the high concentration of women in certain occupations in the seventeenth-century Florentine textile industry as
(A) well founded though incomplete
(B) difficult to articulate
(C) plausible but poorly substantiated
(D) seriously flawed
(E) contrary to recent research
In the seventeenth-century Florentine textile
industry, women were employed primarily in lowpaying,
low-skill jobs. To explain this segregation
of labor by gender, economists have relied on
the useful theory of human capital. According
to this theory, investment in human capital-the
acquisition of difficult job-related skills-generally
benefits individuals by making them eligible to
engage in well-paid occupations. Women's role as
child bearers, however, results in interruptions in
their participation in the job market (as compared
with men's) and thus reduces their opportunities
to acquire training for highly skilled work. In
addition, the human capital theory explains why
there was a high concentration of women workers
in certain low-skill jobs, such as weaving, but not
in others, such as combing or carding, by positing
that because of their primary responsibility in child
rearing women took occupations that could be
carried out in the home.
There were, however, differences in pay scales
that cannot be explained by the human capital
theory. For example, male construction workers
were paid significantly higher wages than female
taffeta weavers. The wage difference between
these two low-skill occupations stems from the
segregation of labor by gender: because a limited
number of occupations were open to women, there
was a large supply of workers in their fields, and
this "overcrowding" resulted in women receiving
lower wages and men receiving higher wages.
Q
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the explanation provided by the human capital theory for women's concentration in certain occupations in seventeenth-century Florence?
(A) Women were unlikely to work outside the home even in occupations whose hours were flexible enough to allow women to accommodate domestic tasks as well as paid labor.
(B) Parents were less likely to teach occupational skills to their daughters than they were to their sons.
(C) Women's participation in the Florentine paid labor force grew steadily throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
(D) The vast majority of female weavers in the Florentine wool industry had children.
(E) Few women worked as weavers in the Florentine silk industry, which was devoted to making cloths that required a high degree of skill to produce.
I have eliminated B, C and D.
I need explanation for A and E that whether they weaken or strengthen and why.
Q
The author of the passage would be most likely to describe the explanation provided by the human capital theory for the high concentration of women in certain occupations in the seventeenth-century Florentine textile industry as
(A) well founded though incomplete
(B) difficult to articulate
(C) plausible but poorly substantiated
(D) seriously flawed
(E) contrary to recent research
