Evolution of Female Labor Force & Women's Rights

• The evolution of the female labor force has included several changes to labor force participation (LFP) rates, with four phases marking evolution and revolution.
• These phases also have a corresponding gender gap in earnings.
• Women have always worked, but not always in the "market".
• Adjusted employment shares by industry from 1880-2019 reveal shifts in women's work, showing that
  • Unpaid family work in manufacturing and services
  • Unpaid agriculture plays a huge part

Changes in Women’s Rights (Doepke et al, 2012)

• 1769: English common law stated a woman's legal existence is suspended during marriage.
• 1785: Pennsylvania was the first state allowing both men and women to file for divorce under certain circumstances.
• 1838: Kentucky gave school suffrage to widows with school-age children.
• 1839: Mississippi was the first state that gave married women limited property rights.
• 1844: Maine passed a sole trader law granting married women the ability to engage in business without the need for her husband's consent.
• 1857: Maine passed an earnings law granting married women the rights to their own earnings.
• 1861: Kansas gave school suffrage to all women.
• 1869: Wyoming was the first state that gave women the same voting rights as men.
• 1886: Most states allowed divorce on the grounds of cruelty.
• 1895: Almost all states had passed some form of sole trader laws, property laws, and earnings laws.
• 1920: The Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was passed, granting all women the right to vote.
• 1965: In the Weeks v. Southern Bell ruling, many restrictive labor laws were lifted, opening previously male-only jobs to women.
• 1970: The Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act promoted the equitable distribution of property.
• 1973: Roe v. Wade legalized abortion.
• 1974: Credit discrimination against women was outlawed by the US Congress.
• 1975: States were denied the right to exclude women from juries.
• 1981: The Supreme Court ruled that excluding women from the draft is unconstitutional.

From Evolution to Revolution?

• Labor force participation rates for females and males by age and marital status from 1890 to 2004.
• Labor Force Participation Rates of Married Women showed various rates from 1866 - 1980.

LFP of College Educated Women

• Data showing the labor force participation of college-educated women across various age ranges.

Why Did (Married) Women Enter the Workforce?

• Long-term factors
• Episodic factors

The Four Phases in Female LFP

• The first three phases are evolutionary and represent shifts due to exogenous changes.
• Phase I (late XIX - 1920s): Independent female worker
• Phase II (1930 - 1950): Transition
• Phase III (1950 – mid 1970s): Roots to revolution.
• The last phase was a quiet revolution.
  • Employment: Expectation of strong attachment to work life.
  • Education: Investment rather than consumption.
  • Family: Delayed age at first marriage.
• Changes in employment, education, and family structure occurred around mid-1970s.

Changing Expectations About Paid Work

• During the 1970s, the fraction of young women who expected to be working for pay at age 35 rose sharply, climbing to between 70 and 80 percent.
• By 1979, the shift was in place, with virtually no further change during the 1980s.

Extensive Margin Education

• The data shows the female minus male college attendance and graduation rates among birth cohorts from 1877 to 1974.
• Women are choosing majors more similar to men.

Women in Math & Science Courses

• Male-to-Female Ratio of High School Courses in Math and Science, 1957 to 2000
  • Math
  • Science
  • Chemistry

Rise in Professional Programs

• Data showing share of women among first-year students in selected professional programs

Family: Increasing Age at First Marriage

• Median age at first marriage for birth cohorts of female college graduates and attendees from 1931 to 1968.

Consequences of the Revolution

• Includes increase (convergence) in earnings relative to men:
  • Increase in job experience
  • attachment to the labor force
  • Women accumulated market relevant skills
• Changes in occupation:
  • Educational training of women more similar to men
  • Less discrimination in workforce; less stigma

Changes in Occupation

• Fraction of working college-graduate women, 30 to 34 years old, in occupation type
  • Non-traditional = doctors, lawyers, scientists, professors, managers
  • Traditional = teachers, nurses, librarians, secretaries, and social/religious workers.

FLP in High-Skilled, High-Paying Occupations

• Female labor force participation for selected high-skilled occupations
  • Labor Force
  • Lawyers and Judges
  • Doctors
  • Engineers

Gender Inequality in Earnings

• College educated men and women start their careers with similar wages, but gap widens during child-bearing years, and does not converge afterwards.

The Impact of Having a Child on Women's Careers

• For college women, participation rates at first child are very high, but do not return to those levels a decade after first birth.

Gender Earnings Gaps by Occupation 2009-2011

• Data showing full-time, full-year workers in occupations with male earnings >$60,000 a year.

Children and Gender Inequality—The “Child Penalty”

Children and Gender Inequality—Denmark

• Women and men evolved in parallel until the birth of their first child and diverged sharply after childbirth but do not converge.

Business Leaders vs. Other Occupations

Evolution of Gender Gap in Leadership

• Average share of women among top-10 executives
• Average share of women among board members
• Public vs. Private Firms
• Family Firms vs. Non-Family Firms
• Small vs. Medium vs. Large Firms

Gender Gap in Top Positions

• Shows if there is a woman in the following roles:
  • Any of the firm's VPs
  • Top finance executive
  • Top executive (CEO, pres)
  • Board chairman

Gender Specialization of Corporate Leaders

• A look at the distribution by function for male and female executives.

Conclusion

• Significant improvement in women's participation in the labor force since 1890s, leading to substantial convergence in female/male earnings.
• Advances happened in stages and women started to invest in human capital for the long run and plan for careers from roughly 1970s onwards.
  • Glass ceiling for high powered professionals
  • Remaining gender gap partly due to flexibility in work organization, "greedy jobs,” self-ownership