More Female Grads, but what about pay?
Today, it’s no secret that women are more likely to earn college degrees than men. Since 1996, we’ve been earning more bachelor’s degrees. Now, the 2010 Census shows that more women (10.6 million) hold master’s degrees than men (10.5 million) do. In the academic year 2008-09, the Council of Graduate Schools reports that by a bare majority, women also earned more doctoral degrees, 50.4%.
One would be mistaken, though, to assume equality in education has translated to equality in the workforce. Women still earn less than men, roughly 77 cents for every dollar a man working full-time earns. In some sectors, such as financial services, women earn as little as 65 cents to a man’s dollar.
Even in higher education, equality in the upper ranks of academia is still lacking. Women are more likely to be found among the untenured than the tenured, and in adjunct instead of full-time teaching. Last year, a study by the National Center for Education Statistics showed that even when men and women hold the same academic rank, pay gaps remain. Female college presidents remain a minority (23%) among academic leaders, just as women are far less likely to head Fortune 500 companies, be elected to public office or hold other positions of power in our society.
This is not to say the headway women are making in education won’t one day reshape gender and family dynamics. Women, for example, have had lower jobless rates than men in this recession (in April, the unemployment rate for women was 7.9% vs. 8.8% for men). When women’s degrees lead to higher earnings and more jobs, perhaps we’ll begin to see more stay-at-home dads, too. In the African-American community, women’s higher educational attainment is often associated with lower marriage rates and less childbearing. Will the same become true for other communities?
Indeed, you know the nation has changed when people have even suggested that the continuing gender gap in college admissions —57% women to 43% men, according to the American Council on Education— might necessitate affirmative action for men. But before we declare victory and go there, remember that not all that long ago, the nation was concerned that schoolgirls were lagging far behind boys. So let’s cheer our gains in education while understanding that the problem has not been adequately solved until women receive pay equal to their educational attainment.
By: Dr. Julianne Malveaux
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