The occupational status of partnered lesbians, compared to married women and heterosexual cohabiting women

This thesis utilizes a regression model and three different occupational status scores, namely, Duncan?s SEI, Nam-Powers-Boyd Occupational Status Score and Prestige Score of Nakao and Treas, to examine the impact of sexual orientation. Previous studies have found that lesbian women have an advantageous wage effect, compared to their heterosexual counterparts irrespective of marital status. A special focus of comparing the occupational status of cohabiting lesbians with married women and cohabiting heterosexual women has not been studied in the past. Using 2006 ACS sample data from IPUMS-USA, the results of this analysis suggested that compared to married women, lesbians obtain a significant advantage in occupational status only with the Nam-Powers-Boyd metric. Compared to cohabiting heterosexual women, lesbians were shown to have an occupational status advantage with regard to each of the three occupational status metrics. In conclusion, using the most appropriate occupational status score such as the Nam-Powers-Boyd Score, lesbians have more occupational status points compared to their heterosexual peers and human capital theory provides a powerful explanation for the lesbians? advantageous occupational status.