Fifty years ago this week, on June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, amending the earlier Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, to “prohibit discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers.” So, how’s that going?
Topics of Expertise: Economic Inequality / Gender & Sexuality / Labor & Workforce / Race, Ethnicity & Culture / Work & FamilyBy Sheryl Sandberg Chief Operating Officer, Facebook and Founder, www.leanin.org For more information, or to arrange an interview, contact Andrea Saul: press@leanin.org In 1947, Anita Summers, the mother of my longtime mentor Larry Summers, was hired as an economist by the Standard Oil Company. When she accepted the job, her new boss said to her, […]
Topics of Expertise: Labor & Workforce / Work & FamilyBy 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 & FamilyBy Joan C. Williams, Director of the Center for WorkLife Law, Hastings Foundation Chair, University of California, Hastings College of the Law williams@uchastings.edu; (415) 565-4706 Key pieces of legislation passed in the 1960s and 1970s – including the Equal Pay Act, Title VII, and Title IX – have greatly decreased, though not eliminated, direct discrimination […]
Topics of Expertise: Labor & Workforce / Work & Family
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 & Family
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 & FamilyBy Shelley J. Correll Professor of Sociology Director Clayman Institute for Gender Research Stanford University scorrell@stanford.edu; 650-721-1736 Last month, hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones set off a controversy when he remarked that “you will never see as many great women investors or traders as men.” In his experience, Jones claimed, a woman did fine until […]
Topics of Expertise: Labor & Workforce / Work & Family
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
By Ellen Galinsky President Families and Work Institute Phone: 212.465.2044 Email: egalinsky@familiesandwork.org I prefer to think of changes in gender relations and values as an evolution, with ups and downs and uneven progress in different areas. It is not at all clear that changes in men’s attitudes and behaviors have stalled. In 1977, three-quarters (74 percent) […]
Topics of Expertise: Division of Labor in Families / Labor & Workforce / Work & Family
By Rebecca Ray, Research Assistant Center for Economic and Policy Research Janet C. Gornick, Professor of Political Science and Sociology Graduate Center, the City University of New York John Schmitt, Senior Economist Center for Economic and Policy Research When it comes to giving fathers and mothers equal access to time off from work to care […]
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare / Labor & Workforce / Work & Family
Professor of Economics, School of Public Policy UMass Amherst; Williams Institute UCLA
Associate Professor and Faculty Director of the Master of Science in Social Policy program, University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice
