By Joya Misra Professor of Sociology & Public Policy University of Massachusetts, Amherst misra@soc.umass.edu; 413-545-5969 Why do women earn less than men? Research points to a number of different explanations, but one of the central factors remains women’s caregiving responsibilities. The wages of childless men and women have been converging steadily over the last three […]
Topics of Expertise: Labor & Workforce / Work & Familywages
The Wrong Route to Equality: Men’s Declining Wages

By Heidi Shierholz Labor Market Economist Economic Policy Institute, Washington, DC hshierholz@epi.org, (202) 775-8810 In the late 1970s, after a long period of holding fairly steady, the gap in wages between men and women began improving. In 1979, the median hourly wage for women was 62.7 percent of the median hourly wage for men; by […]
Topics of Expertise: History & Trends on Gender, Marriage & Family Life / Labor & Workforce / Work & FamilyMen against Women, or the Top 20 Percent against the Bottom 80?

By Leslie McCall Professor of Sociology and Political Science Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research Northwestern University l-mccall@northwestern.edu It used to be that the most economically successful women earned no more than the typical man, even when they had more education and held more highly skilled jobs. In 1970, the average woman in the top […]
Topics of Expertise: History & Trends on Gender, Marriage & Family Life / Labor & Workforce / Work & FamilyFrom the Folks Who Brought you the Weekend: What Unions Do for Women

The Equal Pay Act is often presumed to be an accomplishment of the feminist movement of the 1960s. In fact, it was spearheaded by female trade unionists, who first introduced the bill in 1945 as an amendment to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. The bill was defeated, largely because of staunch opposition from business interests, but a coalition of labor activists reintroduced it every year until it finally passed in 1963.
Topics of Expertise: Feminism & Families / Labor & Workforce / Work & Family