Then around 1980, female wages began to rise relative to men's wages, reaching 74 percent in 1997. This gross measure of relative earnings ignores the fact that, on average, men have more work experience, fewer breaks in service, and more work-related education. Women's earnings were also smaller than men's earnings because women were not equally represented in the lucrative professions at the top of the occupational scale. But this has been changing. The female proportion of lawyers, physicians, and engineers has risen substantially over the century.
Women make up even larger shares of young professionals.