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Progress toward gender equality in the United States has slowed or stalled

Author

Listed:
  • Paula England

    (Department of Sociology, New York University, New York, NY 10012)

  • Andrew Levine

    (Department of Sociology, New York University, New York, NY 10012)

  • Emma Mishel

    (Department of Sociology, New York University, New York, NY 10012)

Abstract

We examine change in multiple indicators of gender inequality for the period of 1970 to 2018. The percentage of women (age 25 to 54) who are employed rose continuously until ∼2000 when it reached its highest point to date of 75%; it was slightly lower at 73% in 2018. Women have surpassed men in receipt of baccalaureate and doctoral degrees. The degree of segregation of fields of study declined dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s, but little since then. The desegregation of occupations continues but has slowed its pace. Examining the hourly pay of those aged 25 to 54 who are employed full-time, we found that the ratio of women’s to men’s pay increased from 0.61 to 0.83 between 1970 and 2018, rising especially fast in the 1980s, but much slower since 1990. In sum, there has been dramatic progress in movement toward gender equality, but, in recent decades, change has slowed and on some indicators stalled entirely.

Suggested Citation

  • Paula England & Andrew Levine & Emma Mishel, 2020. "Progress toward gender equality in the United States has slowed or stalled," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(13), pages 6990-6997, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:nas:journl:v:117:y:2020:p:6990-6997
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Demirović, Melisa & Rogers, Jonathan & Robbins, Blaine G, 2022. "Gender and Gender Role Attitudes in Wage Negotiations: Evidence from an Online Experiment," SocArXiv 7esb9, Center for Open Science.
    2. Zuazu-Bermejo, Izaskun, 2022. "Robots and women in manufacturing employment," ifso working paper series 19, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute for Socioeconomics (ifso).
    3. Jennifer L. Hook & Eunjeong Paek, 2020. "A Stalled Revolution? Change in Women's Labor Force Participation during Child‐Rearing Years, Europe and the United States 1996–2016," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 46(4), pages 677-708, December.
    4. Buhai, I. Sebastian & van der Leij, Marco J., 2023. "A Social Network Analysis of Occupational Segregation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    5. Mensah, Aziz & Toivanen, Susanna & Diewald, Martin & Ul Hassan, Mahmood & Nyberg, Anna, 2022. "Workplace gender harassment, illegitimate tasks, and poor mental health: Hypothesized associations in a Swedish cohort," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    6. Zhang, Qi-nan & Zhang, Fan-fan & Mai, Qiang, 2023. "Robot adoption and labor demand: A new interpretation from external competition," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. Daniela Grunow & Torsten Lietzmann, 2021. "Women's employment transitions: The influence of her, his, and joint gender ideologies," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(3), pages 55-86.
    8. Charvonne N. Holliday & Kristin Bevilacqua & Karen Trister Grace & Langan Denhard & Arshdeep Kaur & Janice Miller & Michele R. Decker, 2021. "Examining the Neighborhood Attributes of Recently Housed Partner Violence Survivors in Rapid Rehousing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-22, April.
    9. Guangye He & Xiaogang Wu, 2021. "Family status and women’s career mobility during urban China’s economic transition," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(8), pages 189-224.
    10. Alexandra Mislin & Ece Tuncel & Lucie Prewitt, 2024. "When Women Ask, Does Curiosity Help?," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-24, March.
    11. Yue Qian & Yang Hu, 2021. "Couples' changing work patterns in the United Kingdom and the United States during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(S2), pages 535-553, July.
    12. Friedrich, Teresa Sophie & Laible, Marie-Christine & Pollak, Reinhard & Schongen, Sebastian & Schulz, Benjamin & Vicari, Basha, 2021. "Grasping Digitalization in the Working World: An Example From the German National Educational Panel Study [Die Erfassung von Digitalisierung in der Arbeitswelt: Ein Beispiel aus dem Nationalen Bild," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 72(4), pages 415-452.
    13. Livia Sz. Oláh & Rudolf Richter & Irena Kotowska, 2023. "Introduction to the Special Collection on The new roles of women and men and implications for families and societies," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 48(29), pages 849-866.

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