The Gender Revolution:

Uneven and Stalled

Paula England

New York University

Examine trends with an eye to

• Whether women change more than men

• Whether change is continuous or stalling

• What the trends mean

Asymmetric Gender Change

• Women enter “men’s” domains more than men enter “women’s” domains

– Both $ rewards and cultural approval discourage men’s change (men’s domains rewarded more)

– $ Rewards encourage women to change (although there is some cultural backlash)

% of Men and Women Employed, 1962-2007

Source: Cotter et al. http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/endofgr/default.html using CPS data, age 25-54

% of Men and Women Who Majored in Business, 1971-2006

Source: Author’s calculations from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Denominator is all men or all women getting Bachelors degrees in the year.

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006

Women

Men

Pe

rce

nt o

f M

en

or

Wo

me

n

% of Men and Women Who Majored in English, 1971-2006

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006

Men

Women

Pe

rce

nt o

f M

en

or

Wo

me

n

Source: Author’s calculations from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Denominator is all men or all women getting Bachelors degrees in the year.

% of Men and Women Who Majored in Elementary Education, 1971-2006

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006

Women

Men

Pe

rce

nt o

f M

en

or

Wo

me

n

Source: Author’s calculations from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Denominator is all men or all women getting Bachelors degrees in the year.

Is Change Stalling? (Yes)

• On many indicators, change has slowed down

% of Men and Women Employed, 1962-2007

Source: Cotter et al. http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/endofgr/default.html using CPS data, age 25-54

Women’s Share of Degrees, 1950-2007

Source: Author’s calculations from Digest of Education Statistics, 2008. Table 268.--Earned degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, by level of degree and sex of student: 1869-70 to 2017-18, Digest of Education Statistics, 2001. Table 247.--Earned degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, by level of degree and sex of student: 1869-70 to 2010-11. First professional degrees include M.D., J.D., M.B.A., DD.S.

Pe

rce

nt F

em

ale

0%

50%

100%

1950 1965 1971 1977 1983 1989 1995 2001 2007

Bachelors

Masters

1st Professional

Doctorate

Perc

ent of degre

es g

oin

g to w

om

en

Segregation of Fields of Bachelor’s Degrees, 1971 - 2006

Ind

ex o

f D

issi

mila

rity

(D

)

Source: Author’s calculations from National Center for Education Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov/). D (index of dissimilarity) calculated on >400 fields.

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5

0.55

1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006

Segregation of Fields of Doctoral Degrees, 1971 - 2006

Ind

ex o

f D

issi

mila

rity

(D

)

Source: Author’s calculations from National Center for Education Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov/). D (index of dissimilarity) calculated on >400 fields.

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5

0.55

1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006

% of All Doctoral Degree Recipients Who Were Women in Selected Large Fields, 1971-2006

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006

Perc

ent

Fem

ale

Psychology

Education

Sociology

Biology

All fields combined

History

Pol. Science

Economics

Math

Physics

Elec. Engineering

Occupational Segregation, 1972-2009

Source: IWPR Briefing Paper #C377, 2010. Civilian labor force.

0.40

0.45

0.50

0.55

0.60

0.65

0.70

0.75

1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008

Ind

ex o

f D

issi

mila

rity

(D

)

Source: IWPR Fact Sheet #C350, April 2011. Data for full-year workers.

Gender Earnings Gap, 1955-2009

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

1955 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Wo

men

's /

Men

's M

edia

n A

nn

ual

Ear

nin

gs

1960 1970 2009

Source: IWPR Fact Sheet #C350, April 2011. Data for full-year workers.

Gender Earnings Gap, 1955-2009

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

1955 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Wo

men

's /

Men

's M

edia

n A

nn

ual

Ear

nin

gs

1960 1970 2009

Egalitarian Gender Attitudes, 1974-2006

Source: Cotter et al. http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/endofgr/default.html, using General Social Survey, age 16+

What does it all mean?

More Change in Some Things Than Others

• More women employed and in “men’s” jobs

• Few men moved to homemaking or “women’s” jobs

• Little change in the relatively low pay of female jobs; that’s not why pay gap changed

• Less change in gendering of heterosexual matters (e.g. who proposes, changes name)

• Parts of the gender system somewhat “loosely coupled”

Nothing inexorable about change

• Women’s employment plateaued ~1990

• Integration of college majors stopped ~1985

• Desegregation of occupations and closing of sex gap in pay have slowed

• Egalitarian attitudes go up and down

• Trends don’t follow who is in political power

• Low hanging fruit has been picked

Thanks for your attention

-2.00

-1.80

-1.60

-1.40

-1.20

-1.00

-0.80

-0.601

96

8

197

1

197

4

197

7

198

0

198

3

198

6

198

9

199

2

199

5

199

8

200

1

200

4

200

7

Employment

Labor Force Participation

Fulltime Employment

Source: Cotter et al. http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/endofgr/default.html using CPS, married parents age 25-54

Gender Gaps in Employment-Related Measures for Married Parents, 1968-2007

Gender

diffe

rence

in log o

dds

% of Women in Labor Force, as a % of % of Men in Labor Force, by Education, 1950-2000

Wo

me

n’s

% /

Me

n’s

%

Source: Cotter et al. http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/endofgr/default.html using 2000 Census PUMS 5%, ages 25-54.

-1.75

-1.50

-1.25

-1.00

-0.75

-0.50

-0.25

0.00

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

College Grad

Some College

HS grad

HS dropout

Gender Gap in Employment by Education, 1964-2007

Source: Cotter et al. http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/endofgr/default.html using CPS, age 25-54

Diffe

ren

ce

in

lo

g o

dd

s o

f e

mp

loym

en

t

-2.25

-2.00

-1.75

-1.50

-1.25

-1.00

-0.75

-0.50

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

College Grad

Some College

HS grad

HS dropout

Gender Gap in Employment by Education for Married Parents, 1968-2007

Source: Cotter et al. http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/endofgr/default.html using CPS, married parents age 25-54

Diffe

ren

ce

in

lo

g o

dd

s o

f e

mp

loym

en

t

Gender Gap in Employment, 1962-2007

-1.4

-1.2

-1.0

-0.8

-0.6

-0.4

-0.2

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Diffe

ren

ce in log

od

ds o

f em

plo

ym

en

t

Source: Cotter et al. http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/endofgr/default.html using CPS, age 25-54