Despite the increased education and experience of women workers, federal legislation, and better understanding by employers of the abilities of women, a considerable gap remained between the earnings of men and women in a variety of occupations. Table 29.5—based on work by Claudia Goldin, one of the leading experts in the field-shows the gender gap in six broad occupational classifications in 1890, 1930, 1970, and, although the data are not strictly comparable, 2007 and 2009. The picture is somewhat mixed. All of the categories show significant improvements, in the sense of a movement toward equality, over 1890, although large gaps remain. In certain categories, however, progress seems to have stalled. There is little change in the professional, clerical, and farm sectors since 1970.
The main factors that produced the increase in the relative earnings of women over the long run were the increase in the education of women and the breakdown of discriminatory social norms through persuasion and legislation. The increase in the
TABLE 29.5 THE GENDER GAP-RATIOS OF FEMALE TO MALE EARNINGS
|
OCCUPATION |
1890 |
1930 |
1970 |
2007 |
2009 |
|
Professional |
0.26 |
0.38 |
0.71 |
0.74 |
0.69 |
|
Clerical |
0.49 |
0.71 |
0.69 |
0.69 |
0.74 |
|
Sales |
0.59 |
0.61 |
0.44 |
0.69 |
0.75 |
|
Manual |
0.54 |
0.58 |
0.56 |
0.64 |
0.67 |
|
Service |
0.53 |
0.60 |
0.56 |
0.65 |
0.70 |
|
Farm |
0.53 |
0.60 |
0.59 |
0.62 |
0.57 |
Note: The observations for 2007 and 2009 are based on a different source from the earlier observations, and as a result only rough comparisons can be made with earlier observations.
Source: 1890-1970: Goldin (1990, 64); 2007, 2012: Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2012, Table 650.
Participation rate of women, however, has kept the gender gap from closing even more. Increasing participation means that women’s average years of experience in the labor force remains relatively low because so many have just entered the labor force. Moreover, because discrimination often blocks them from entering or advancing in certain fields, women entering the labor force have crowded into areas open to them, thereby preventing wages in those areas from rising as fast as in the rest of the economy. As the labor force participation rate of women stabilizes and as the entire array of jobs created by the economy are opened to women, the gender gap should decline even further.
World History
