Women have been outperforming men in school for some time. Now the numbers are in and their better performance in schools is paying off in the work place. In terms of pay and employment, women have made big gains at the expense of men. According to an article by M. P. McQueen in the February 12, 2010 “Wall Street Journal”, by 2007, women were earning 35% more bachelor’s degrees and 66% more associate’s degrees than men. While women still make less than men, they are catching up as their pay increased 5.3% last year compared to 3.4% for men. These numbers are even more unbalanced for blacks where women earn 92% more bachelor’s degrees and have a 13.3% unemployment rate compared to 17.6% for black men.
Steady increases among women with college degrees over the past two decades seems to be paying off in the current economy as women for the first time surpassed the number of men holding payroll jobs. “Men have traditionally needed less education, because guys could get good jobs in construction without a master’s in Education and women couldn’t, so education substitutes for that,” said Claudia Goldin, a Harvard University economist.
Women started catching up by the 1960s, and by the 1980s they were earning more bachelor’s degrees than men, and a growing share of graduate and professional degrees. Woman earn more college degrees in all fields except the physical sciences, math, engineering, business and economics. I think the message here is that males can either work harder in school or work harder to find a good woman who can bring home the bacon.
Click here for the McQueen article.
Tags: Gender and Jobs
