Part of the reason that there is a wage gap between men and women is that women tend to choose lower paying service jobs. The table below shows the percentages of women that choose different types of jobs. Women constitute 45.7% of the workforce, yet as you can see below, the percentage of women in higher paying jobs, like physicians, is a lot lower than the percentage of women in lower paying service jobs, like secretaries.
- In 1992 women were:
- 98.8% of all pre-school and kindergarten teachers
- 93.5% of all registered nurses
- 90.0% of all secretaries
- 89.0% of all telephone operators
- 86.6% of all data entry keyers
- 73.2% of all teachers excluding college university
- 30.3% of all lawyers and judges
- 26.2% of all physicians
- 15.1% of all police and detectives
- 8.7% of all engineers
- 8.2% of all precision, production, craft, & repair workers
This chart is self-explanatory. It shows the wage gap differences between white men and minority men, white women, and minority women over a number of years. The largest gap is among minority women, however, overall the wage gap is decreasing.
Changes in the Wage Gap, 1970-1995 Median annual earnings of Black, Hispanic, and White women and men as a percentage of White men's median annual earnings
| Year | White Men | Black Men | Hipspanic Men | White Women | Black Women | Hipsanic Women |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 100% | 69.0% | N/A | 58.7% | 48.2% | N/A |
| 1975 | 100% | 74.3% | 72.1% | 57.5% | 55.4% | 49.3% |
| 1980 | 100% | 70.7% | 70.8% | 58.9% | 55.7% | 50.5% |
| 1985 | 100% | 69.7% | 68.0% | 63.0% | 57.1% | 52.1% |
| 1990 | 100% | 73.1% | 66.3% | 69.4% | 62.5% | 54.3% |
| 1992 | 100% | 72.6% | 63.3% | 70.0% | 64.0% | 55.4% |
| 1994 | 100% | 75.1% | 64.3% | 71.6% | 63.0% | 55.6% |
| 1995 | 100% | 75.9% | 63.3% | 71.2% | 64.2% | 53.4% |
LINKS
Womens Bureau: Womens Bureau is an organization that is a part of the Department of Labor. It was founded in 1920 to win better wages, hours, and working conditions for working women. The Womens Bureau's mission statement says "It shall be the duty of said bureau to formulate standards and policies which shall promote the welfare of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, increase their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employment." This website is very informational, containing statistics and data. This website is a wonderful site for women to find actual statistics and data on discrimination and the wage gap. This site also has many important links that give statistics and also a checklist for employees and employers to see if they are discriminating or being discriminated against.
UN's Women Watch: Women Watch provides information on women's issues. It was created to monitor the results of the Fourth World Confrence on Women. Women Watch works to ensure women and men around the world can participate in on-line confrences to gather input and assess women's progress. Womens Watch was created in 1995 by the UN. It is founded by three founding partners, Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement fo Women (INSTRAW). These organizations all pay to be a part of Women Watch. This site has many good links showing statistics on women worldwide and links about many different women's issues.
National Committe on Pay Equity. 1999. "The Wage Gap: Myths and Facts." In Kesselman et al. Women: Images and Realities: A Multicultural Anthology. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield. Pp 193-200.