Women make gains, but still lag in pay

By Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal
Posted March 1 at 5:44 a.m.

Women are gaining ground educationally and economically, but men still make more money on average and women are more likely to live in poverty, according to a White House report expected to be released Tuesday.

The report compiles data from a half-dozen U.S. government agencies on topics including women’s educational attainment, employment, earnings and experience with crime and abuse.

Many of the figures have been released previously by different parts of the government, but now have been put pulled together into one document, billed by the White House as its most comprehensive report on the state of women in 50 years.

“Women have not only caught up with men in college attendance but younger women are now more likely than younger men to have a college or a master’s degree,” wrote Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, and Christina Tchen, chief of staff to first lady Michele Obama, in a foreword. “Yet, these gains in education and labor force involvement have not yet translated into wage and income equity.”

The report depicts a sea change in women’s roles over the past few decades, away from child-rearing and housekeeping to serving as a pillar of family finances. Still, single-mother households are more common than those with single fathers, a big reason why women are more likely than men to be poor, despite higher unemployment among men. And women continue to lag behind men in science and math-oriented occupations, as well as in earnings.

Perhaps the biggest change for women has been their large gains in education and movement into the work force, which in turn has had significant implications for when — and whether — they start families.

Both women and men are getting married about five years later than in the past. College-educated women get married around age 30, on average, compared with 26 for women with a high school diploma.

This shift is a big reason why the share of women who are married has declined over time, to 62 percent in 2009 from 72 percent in 1970, while the portion of women who haven’t had children has climbed. In 2008, about 46 percent of women between 25 and 29 years old hadn’t had a child, compared with 31 percent in 1976.

By most metrics, women are outpacing men in education. In 2009, about 87 percent of women 19 or older had graduated high school, slightly higher than men. About 28 percent of both men and women had at least a college degree in 2009, but women are on a loftier trajectory: In 1970, only 8 percent of women had a college degree, compared with 14 percent for men. Women between 25 and 34 years old are now more likely to have a college degree than men of the same age, and more women than men go to graduate school.

The labor-force participation rate for women 20 or older doubled over the past half-century, and is holding steady at 61 percent.

Women continue to make up a disproportionate share of administrative jobs, and lag far behind men in higher-paying computer and engineering fields. And men still get paid more to do the same jobs: Across education levels, women made on average 75 percent as much as their male counterparts in 2009.

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One comment:

  1. Rose March 1 at 9:56 a.m.

    “Women have not only caught up with men in college attendance but younger women are now more likely than younger men to have a college or a master’s degree,

    –That’s right, but I (with an Master’s degree) have yet to out-earn a male with his Bachelor’s at any job I’ve worked. And, yes, underpaid women at my last job complained to the EEOC, state agencies, etc, and they wouldn’t do a thing to my former company. Also, when you did complain, you’d then get effectively fired. Illegal? Yes. Do they care? No. Because no one does anything to them. No consequences for them whatsoever.

    “Yet, these gains in education and labor force involvement have not yet translated into wage and income equity.”

    –That’s right. Because every workplace underpays women and no one (EEOC, state agencies) does anything to them. Less talk–more action.