Women’s Participation in Education 

and the Workforce

Council of Economic Advisers

March 12, 2014
1

Over the past forty years, American society has been transformed by an increasing role of women in the 

economy, but in 2014, far more can still be done to expand economic opportunities for women. While female 

labor force participation rose through the 1970s and 1980s, it began to stall in the 1990s. Yet women have 

continued to make gains in earning educational credentials—today young women are more likely than young 

men to be college graduates and equally likely to have many advanced degrees. As a result, women have 

continued to make inroads in traditionally male-dominated occupations and have succeeded in reducing de 

facto occupational segregation.

Despite these improvements, a gender wage gap persists: on average, full-time year-round female workers earn 

77 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. While the wage gap reflects a variety of causes, it is 

clear that there are wage gaps across the income distribution, within occupations, and are seen even when men 

and women are working side-by-side performing similar tasks. Additionally, women are still more likely to work 

in low-wage occupations and are more likely than men to earn the minimum wage. For this reason, the 

President’s proposal to raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation would help shrink the gender wage gap 

by nearly 5%.

Crucially, raising wages for women means raising income for families, as women continue to account for a rising 

share of family income. In 2013, married women’s earnings were on average nearly 45% of total family 

earnings. 

The facts reflected in the following charts and the issues they raise impact our economy and millions of families. 

The questions they pose will be explored as part of the Working Families Summit the White House will host in 

June. 

Executive Summary 
About 75% of Women Ages 25-54 Participate in the Workforce, 

Up From 50% Forty Years Ago 

2

Women’s labor force participation grew quickly for those born from the 1920s to the 1960s, however 

it has plateaued for more recent cohorts.

 About 75% of women ages 25-54 are currently working, compared with 50% in 1970.

 Young women’s workforce participation has fallen in recent decades. One reason is that young 

women are attending college and graduate school more than in the past.

 Older women have increased their participation over the past 15 years.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Female Labor Force Participation by Age Group, 

1970-2014

Women 55+

Women 16-24

Women 25-54

Percent
College Completion Rates Have Risen Among Men and Women; Women Now 

Complete College at Higher Rates Than Men

3

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Women’s college going has caught up with men’s and surpassed it in recent decades. 

Women are both more likely to go to college and more likely to graduate from college 

when they go. 

 In 2013, 25-34 year old women were 21 percent more likely than men to be college graduates.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

People Ages 25-34 With a College Degree, 1970-2013

Percent

Male

Female
Women Are Increasingly Attending Professional 

Degree Programs

4

Women now account for almost half of students in JD, MBA, and MD programs.

Source: American Bar Association; Association of American Medical Colleges; U.S. Department of Education

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1947 1954 1961 1968 1975 1982 1989 1996 2003 2010

Percent of Women Among First-Year Students in 

Selected Professional Programs

JD Programs

MD Programs

MBA Programs

Percent
Occupational Segregation has Fallen: Female College Graduates 

are Increasingly Employed in Traditionally Male-Dominated 

Occupations

Source: Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement. 

Women have increasing entered previously male-dominated occupations. 

 College-educated women ages 30-34 are now as likely to be employed as doctors, dentists, lawyers, 

professors, managers and scientists as traditionally female-dominated occupations such as teachers, 

nurses, librarians, secretaries, or social workers.

5

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1968 1978 1988 1998 2008

Occupations of College Graduate Women, 30-34 

years old

Percent

Teachers, nurses, librarians, social or religious 

workers, secretaries and other clerical workers

Doctors, dentists, lawyers, professors, 

managers, and scientists
Married Women’s Earnings Are an Increasing Share of Total 

Household Earnings

6

Source: Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement. 

Women’s earnings have continued to grow in importance to American families, despite the stall in 

their labor force participation. 

 Employed married women’s earnings are now 44% of their families earnings, up from 37% in the 

1970s.

30

32

34

36

38

40

42

44

46

48

50

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Employed Married Women's Percent Contribution to 

Family Earnings

Percent

Employed 

Married Women

Employed Married 

Women with Children 

Under 18

2013
Men and Women Have Similar Earnings After Completing Professional 

School, but Men’s Earnings Grow Substantially More Thereafter

Source: Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement, 2010-2013.

The gender wage gap is particularly high among those with advanced degrees and it grows throughout women’s 

lifetimes.

 Men and women with professional degrees have similar earnings in their 20s. The earnings gap widens over 

time, so that by their late 30s, men earn more than 50% more than women.

 Among all people who work full-time year-round, women make 77 cents for every dollar men make.

7

$0

$20,000

$40,000

$60,000

$80,000

$100,000

$120,000

$140,000

$160,000

$180,000

26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40

Average Salary of Men and Women Who Receive 

Professional Degrees by Age

Salary

Men

Women

Age
Although Women Are Increasingly Entering High-Wage 

Occupations, They Remain Concentrated in Many Low-Wage 

Industries 

8

Although occupational segregation has fallen, women are still concentrated in low-wage sectors of the labor force

 Women are concentrated in low-wage sectors of the labor force such as health care support and personal care, and are 

underrepresented in occupations with high average wages, such as STEM occupations.

 Within occupations, women’s hourly wages are lower than men’s, on average. This general pattern holds in almost all high- and lowwage occupations. 

 While women account for about half of the workforce, 55 percent of non-tipped workers benefiting from increasing the minimum 

wage to $10.10 an hour are women.

Note: Tipped workers are not included. 

Source: Current Population Survey, 2013, CEA calculations. 

Note: This chart shows average wages within quartiles of the wage distribution for male and 

female workers earning at least $7.25/hour. The bright red bars show the predicted wage 

increase under the Harkin-Miller proposal. All wages are shown in 2013 dollars and the 

Harkin-Miller counterfactual raises the wages of all workers earning below $9.54/hour to 

$9.54/hour ($9.54 is the 2013 dollar equivalent of $10.10 in 2016 dollars, using the CBO 

forecast for inflation). 

Source: Current Population Survey, Monthly Outgoing Rotation Groups, 2013; CEA 

calculations.

$9.65 $8.78

$15.12

$12.78

$22.95

$19.05

$44.69

$37.25

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Men Women

$0.60 $0.93

Average Wage by Quartile for Men and Women 

Dollars per hour

Bottom 

25%

Top

25%

Bottom 

25%

Top

25%

With $10.10 

Minimum 

Wage

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Food

preparation

Building and

grounds

maintenance

Personal care

workers

Sales and

related

occupations

Healthcare

support

Women Men

Percent of workers affected by minimum wage increase

Gender Composition of Workers Affected by Minimum 

Wage Increase, by Sector
More Needs to Be Done To Help Women Overall: The U.S. Now Lags 

Behind Other OECD Countries in Female Labor Force Participation

Note: Workers on leave are considered employed

Source: International Labour Organisation, Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM)

9

Today, the US has lower female participation in the workforce than 17 out of 22 developed countries 

covered by ILO data.

 In 1991, American women had greater labor force participation than women in all but 6 (out of 22) 

developed countries.

 Since 1991, labor force participation among American women has remained flat, while it has risen 

in much of continental Europe and Canada.

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011

Netherlands

Sweden

Percent

Labor Force Participation Rate of Women Aged 25-54

Germany United States

France

Canada

2013