University Study Finds Great Progress for Women, But Earnings Still Lag Those of Men

A new study by researchers at the University of Maryland and Michigan State University finds that over the course of a generation, women have made tremendous strides in educational attainment and occupational status but these gains have done little to overcome the gender wage gap.

The study looks at data on more than 180,000 people across two generations in 1980 and 2005. In 1980 men led women in educational attainment, occupational status, and earnings. By 2005, women outpaced men in both educational attainment and job status but there was still a $11,428 gap in earnings.

Stephanie J. Nawyn, an associate professor of sociology at Michigan State University and a co-author of the study said that “women have increased their mobility across generations better than men have. In this sense, there has been a gender revolution. But it’s problematic when you realize that women have still not completely closed the earnings gap.”

Dr. Nawyn joined the faculty at Michigan State University in 2006. She is a graduate of Elmhurst College in Illinois, where she majored in psychology. Dr. Nawyn earned a master’s degree at Loyola University in Chicago and a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

The study, “Feminized Intergenerational Mobility Without Assimilation? Post-1965 U.S. Immigrants and the Gender Revolution,” appears in the October 2015 issue of the journal Demography. It may be accessed here.