Occupations and earnings of women workers.

Abstract

Despite the great influx of women into the labor force Blau and Ferber find little change in the female occupational distribution and earnings. They attribute this to occupational segregation be sex on all levels including the professions. Although women did succeed in integrating predominantly male professions during the 1970s they made little progress in the blue-collar occupations. Women need to have more education to achieve the same earnings as men. Young women earn nearly as much money as men their same age in the same occupation. Older womens earnings continue to show a wide gap in relations to mens. This will change as data indicate that young women are likely to retain their improvements in relative earnings as they age. 2 explanations for the sex differences in occupations and earnings of men and women include 1) the human capital explanation that suggests that people are rewarded for investing in education and job training and 2) the labor market discrimination explanation that assumes that employers customers and coworkers are discriminatory. If the human capital theory is correct women will choose which occupations to enter and there is no need for concern. If womens choices reflect socialization change will be slow and public policy should focus on education. If there is labor market discrimination equal opportunity is the primary issue. Studies suggest that both theories are in operation in American society.