this is especially important since data indicate wage gaps are closing very slowly in large part due to women s exclusion from highpaid jobs a good deal of research shows that once employed gender and racial inequality is largely attributable to job segregation even in rapidly growing middleincome countries which are experiencing industrial upgrading we observe evidence of defeminization of manufacturing employment tejani and milberg i as a result of the higher consumption rates of lowincome groups higher minimum wages also stimulate aggregate demand and job growth reducing womens unemployment and offsetting negative effects of higher female wages on female unemployment evidence from latin america s decade of inequality reduction indicates that the gender employment gap was narrowed in the s in part due to higher minimum wages in a number of countries braunstein and seguino because the employment data are broad they do not allow us to assess the quality of employment