College-Educated Women Are the Workplace Majority, but Still Don’t Get Their Share

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/02/us/american-workers-women-college.html

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“We educate women because it is smart. We educate women because it changes the world.”

— Drew Gilpin Faust, a historian and the first woman to be president of Harvard

We’ve reached a tipping point in the United States: For the first time, there are more college-educated women in the work force than college-educated men.

That’s according to a new study from Pew Research, which analyzed data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It found that women 25 and older now make up 50.2 percent of the college-educated work force — up about 11 percent since 2000.

In some ways, the increase is a natural progression.

Women have been earning the majority of bachelor’s degrees, and more advanced degrees, in the United States since the early 1980s, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Of those who earned a bachelor’s degree last year, 57.5 percent were women.

And yet historically, women have been less likely to enter the work force at all after graduation — 36 percent less likely, according to Bloomberg. It wasn’t until this year that they edged out men with similar degrees to become the majority.

While that milestone is significant, women are still earning far less money than men. They have been more likely to enter fields with lower income potential like nursing, education and administration. But even those doing the same work as men earn less.

White women must work 16 months to earn what their white male colleagues earned in 12, based on analysis of United States census data. Women of color must work even longer.

[MORE: Minority Women Are Winning the Jobs Race in a Record Economic Expansion]

The 2018 report “Women Can’t Win,” published by Georgetown University, found that men with bachelor’s degrees make on average $26,000 more per year than women with the same credentials.

Women are also severely underrepresented in certain fields with higher earning potential, namely STEM fields — science, technology, math and engineering — where they account for only about 25 percent of graduates and less than 30 percent of college-educated employees.

According to a study released last month, the gender gap in computer science won’t close for 100 years, if current trends continue.

And just because women now make up the majority of the work force, it doesn’t mean they’re running it. In the latest Fortune 500 list, published in May, 33 of the highest-grossing companies were led by female C.E.O.s. That’s the most ever, by the way, even though it’s still less than 7 percent of the total.

So what can women who are trying to find a way up in their organization do? Katherine W. Phillips, a professor of organizational management at Columbia University, suggested some solutions this year for The New York Times Magazine’s Future of Work issue. One is to find a champion, even if that’s a man.

“You need to get your circle of support around you, and in finding people to support you, sometimes you need to take a risk,” Phillips said. “I guarantee you that in a big workplace, there is a man who can support you. You have to find him. You have to make those connections and build those relationships, as hard as it might be.”

[New from our Working Woman’s Handbook: What to Do When You’re the Only Woman in the Room]

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Here are five articles from The Times you might have missed.

“She’s been an inspiration for many people.” Cori Gauff, the youngest woman to qualify for Wimbledon, upset her 39-year-old idol, Venus Williams, in a changing-of-the-guard match. [Read the story]

“This is a big deal for Singapore. It really opens a dialogue.” A #MeToo-themed play, “This Is What Happens to Pretty Girls,” in Singapore was based on the testimonies of hundreds of women who were victims of abuse and harassment. [Read the story]

“In France, you can’t be yourself, you have to hide.” The United States women’s team has been a source of inspiration to L.G.B.T. soccer players in France, who say they do not enjoy the same freedom to be themselves. [Read the story]

“Men did interrupt and seize the floor more often than the women did.” Mansplaining, manterrupting and intrusive interrupting — why male candidates butted in during last week’s Democratic debates. [Read the story]

“We did not think she would live this long.” The phenomenon some experts call “aging together” — people in their 60s and 70s, usually women, helping much older relatives — can take a financial toll. [Read the story]

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In New York in 1904, during the days of what The New York Times called “the get-rich-quick author,” an educated woman interested in earning “a comfortable living” might find work helping him (yes, they were all men, according to the article) by doing the research for his books.

The new position was called “author’s assistant,” and sometimes these authors would hire up to a dozen women for the job.

“Who would’ve thought, a score or more years ago, that a writer of novels could develop into such a captain of industry that he could relegate to the shoulders of a quarter of the helpers the drudgery of delving for his materials?” The Times asked. Drudgery, you say? What fun.

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