Sociology 1020 Chapter Notes - Chapter 32: Sex Segregation
18 Oct 2016
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Chapter 32-> The Gender Income Gap and the Role of Education
Donna Bobbitt-Zeher
• Women’s progress in education:
o Enrolling in college more than men
o Outpacing men in graduating from high school, attending college, and attaining
college degrees
• Some studies have suggested that women’s educational success has had a direct effect on
narrowing gender gap in earning
• It is important to understand the degree of gender inequality in earning in the early years
of careers because initial income inequalities tend to grow over time
• 4 ways in which women remain disadvantaged on educational measures:
1. choice of college major
2. skills as measured by standardized tests
3. amount of education
4. selectivity of the college attended
• choice of college major
o most persuasive educational explanation of the gender income inequality is that
women major in fields that lead to jobs that are not rewarded with higher income
o given that men are more concentrated in the higher-earning fields and women are
more concentrated in the lower-earning fields, gender segregation in fields of
study appears to contribute to gender differences in income
o roughly explains ¼ to ½ of the gender gap in wages for college graduates
• skills as measured by standardized tests
o gender differences in cognitive skills are thought to affect the gender gap directly
as well as indirectly through the choice of college major and access to jobs
o highest math skills=gender income gap disappears
o gender income differential is a result of differences in highly valued skills which
lead to lower-paying jobs for women
o skills are increasingly predictive of salaries
o strongest educational influences on gender disparities in income are likely gender
segregation in college majors and differences in standardized tests
• amount of education
o vertical dimension of gender segregation/ the level of degree attainment
o gender parity in the highest degrees has not been realized
o men’s advantage in receiving the highest degrees may contribute in a small way
to women’s lower average earnings
• selectivity of the college attended
o college prestige has a positive relationship with earnings later in life
o women’s attendance at less selective postsecondary educational institutions may
be the result of institutional bias favouring men, more selective schools tending
not to offer traditionally female-dominated programs, and /or parental choice to
invest more in sons
• effects of family formation, particularly marriage and parenthood and their impact on
participation in the labour force are implicated in gender income disparities
o women with children make less than women without children
o married women with children make less than unmarried women with children
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