By Sara Witt

Since the Women’s Rights Movement in the 1970s, women have come a long way in their pursuit of equal rights. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 1975, 39.6% of the employed population were women; by 2011, that number had risen to 47.2 percent. The rate of women working has also grown since the 70s. In the 1970s, 43.3 percent of American women participated in the workforce and in 2010 that number had increased to 59.7 percent.

Not only are more women participated more in the U.S. workforce, more women are also becoming more educated. Due to sexism and social expectations in previous decades, women were less likely to seek higher education degrees than men. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, however, starting at the beginning of the 1980s, more women than men began earning higher education degrees. Since the early 1990s, substantially more women than men have been earning undergraduate as well as graduate and other professional degrees than men. In 1991, there were almost 100,000 more women than men earning an undergraduate degree; by 2005, there were more than 200,000 more women than men earning an undergraduate degree. In 1991, there were almost 30,000 more women than men earning a graduate degree; by 2005, there were more than 100,000 more women than men earning a graduate degree.

Despite this growth, women are still not treated equally in the workforce. While societal expectations for women to participate in the workforce have certainly increased, women are not paid equally or given the same career advancement opportunities as men.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2003, the average woman makes 77.5 cents for every dollar the average man grosses. In 1997 the BLS reported that women earned less than men in 99 percent of all occupations. Since then, not much seems to have changed; see below for 2009 Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data on individual occupations and the differences between male and female earnings.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2003, the average woman makes 77.5 cents for every dollar the average man grosses. In 1997 the BLS reported that women earned less than men in 99 percent of all occupations. Since then, not much seems to have changed; see below for 2009 Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data on individual occupations and the differences between male and female earnings.

Employment and median usual weekly earnings of women and women’s earnings as percent of men’s, 2009

And it’s not just earnings where the sexes differ. According to the International Business Report, 40 percent of businesses in the world do not have a single woman in their senior management departments. And according to Catalyst, less than 16 percent of Fortune 500 companies have women as corporate officer; Catalyst projected that it will take 40 more years for women and men to equally share corporate officer positions in Fortune 500 companies.

Several reasons have been considered to explain the discrepancies between men and women in the workforce. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that women tend to have less experience, work fewer hours annually, are less likely to work full-time, and tend to take leave for longer periods of time than men. In 2003, the GAO found that despite taking these factors into account when analyzing the pay differences between men and women, there was still a discrepancy in both sexes’ earnings.
So the question is: With more and more women seeking employment and higher education, is it only a matter of time before we begin to be treated and paid equally to men, or do discriminatory work practices need to be better defined and enforced by the government to close these workplace gaps?

Sara Witt is a writer bringing an update on gender differences in the workplace.