In 1963, less than three percent of all attorneys were women, and out of 422 federal judges in the country, just three (0.7 percent) were women (Coontz 2011: 14). By 2010, women held almost a quarter of all federal judgeships and more than a quarter of state judgeships<\/a>.<\/p>\n The law itself was grossly unfair to women 50 years ago<\/em>. Sexual harassment was not forbidden anywhere. In only eight states did a female homemaker have any claim on the income earned by her husband (Mead & Kaplan 1965: 152). It was also perfectly legal for a man to force his wife to have sex against her will. According to the 1962 United States Model Penal Code<\/a>, \u201cA man who has sexual intercourse with a female not his wife<\/em> is guilty of rape if . . . he compels her to submit by force or threat of force or threat of imminent death, serious bodily injury, extreme pain, or kidnapping.\u201d Before the Civil Rights Act it was also legal to exclude women from many occupations, pay them less for doing the same work as men, and give men raises and promotions that were denied to equally qualified women. In the 1960s the Harvard Business Review<\/em> was forced to cancel a report on female managers because \u201cIn the case of women the barriers are so great that there is scarcely anything to study\u201d (Collins 2009: 22). Today, women occupy the majority<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span> (51.5 percent) of managerial, professional, and related positions. <\/em>In 1963, not a single woman had served as CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Today, women run 23 of the Fortune 500<\/a> (4.6 percent) and almost 20 percent of Financial Post 500 Senior\/Corporate officers<\/a> are women.<\/p>\n In 1960, women constituted less than one percent of all engineers in the country. Only six percent of physicians were women (Collins 2009: 20). By 2007, women held 27 percent of science and engineering jobs<\/a>, and by 2012, more than a third of physicians and surgeons<\/span><\/a> were women<\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n All this occupational upward mobility has improved women\u2019s financial status relative to men. In 1963, full-time working women earned only 59 cents for every dollar men earned. In 2012, such women earned 77 cents on the dollar<\/a>, a 30 percent increase. When we count part-time workers and control for hours worked, the progress looks even better. According to a recent Pew report<\/em><\/a> on all working men and women ages 16 and older, women\u2019s hourly wages are now 84 percent of men\u2019s.<\/em> The gains have been especially dramatic for younger women. Among workers aged 25 to 34, women\u2019s hourly earnings are 93 percent of men\u2019s<\/a>.<\/p>\n A majority of wives now earn income of their own, something that has been shown to increase equality of decision-making in the family<\/em> (Coontz 2011: 132). And growing numbers of women make as much or more than their male partners. In 1960, only 3.5 percent of all households with children had a mother who earned more than her husband. By 2011, over four times as many households (15 percent)<\/a> belonged to this group. And as of 2009, more than 20 percent of all wives\u2014and nearly 40 percent of working wives\u2014earned more than their husbands.<\/a><\/p>\n If educational trends continue, we can expect to see more breadwinner wives in the future. In 1962, only 42 percent of female high school graduates went on to college, compared to 58 percent of male graduates, and a larger percentage of female than male college students dropped out before completing their degrees (Mead & Kaplan: 1965). Today, not only do women enroll in college <\/em>at a higher rate than men<\/em><\/a>, but once enrolled they are less likely to drop out<\/em>.<\/p>\n A 1970 survey of women under 45 who had been or were currently married found that 80 percent felt \u201cit is much better for everyone involved if the man is the achiever outside the home and the woman takes care of the home and family\u201d (Collins 2009: 17). As late as 1977, two-thirds of all Americans<\/a> believed that it was the woman\u2019s job to take care of the home. Today, that opinion has reversed: a 2007 study found that 62 percent of Americans<\/a> believe sharing household chores is \u201cvery important\u201d to marital success.<\/p>\n Among the recommendations of the 1963 President\u2019s Commission were access to continuing education, better employment opportunities, and \u201cequal pay for comparable work\u201d (Mead & Kaplan 1965: 212). The gains made in each of these spheres have been tremendous. But there is, as ever, still work to be done.<\/p>\n Women have now outpaced men in educational attainment<\/a>, and today\u2014unlike 50 years ago\u2014a woman with a college degree earns more than a man without one. Yet at every educational level, <\/em>women still earn less than men<\/em><\/a> with the same credentials<\/em>.<\/p>\n Overall, women still earn only 84 cents<\/a> for every dollar a man earns. (This Pew estimate is based on hourly earnings; the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which uses weekly earnings, reports 81 cents<\/a>.) Part of this inequity is due to gendered employment differences: women are more likely to work in lower-paying occupations and to leave the workforce when they have children. But even controlling for these and other factors, women still earn only 91 cents for every dollar earned by men. In other words, <\/em>nine cents are entirely unaccounted for<\/em><\/a>, and likely due to discriminatory pay practices<\/em>.<\/p>\n According to research prepared for The Shriver Report<\/a>, released in January 2014, women remain more likely to be poor than men<\/a>, and much more likely to experience extreme poverty\u2014living on incomes less than 50 percent of the poverty level. And when gender interacts with race, women\u2019s economic disadvantages mount, even though there is a lower gender pay gap among African Americans and Hispanics than among whites. On average, black women earn 90 percent of what black men earn, while Latinas net 88 percent of Latinos\u2019 earnings. But black and Hispanic men earn so much less than white men that the lower gender gap for black woman and Latinas does not produce economic security. African-American women earn just 64 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men. And Hispanic women earn just 55 cents.<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Many of the gains that women have made are not as impressive as they seem at first sight. More than a quarter of women\u2019s progress in catching up with men is a result of men\u2019s wage losses over the past three decades rather than women\u2019s wage gains,\u00a0notes Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute<\/a>.<\/span><\/span> This is especially true for black Americans, as low-income black men in impoverished communities have not only experienced dramatic losses in real wages and job security but tremendous increases in incarceration rates. Between 1970 and 2005 the U.S. prison population rose 700 percent<\/a>, and much of that increase was accounted for by growing disparities in the sentencing of black men.<\/p>\n Gender segregation in employment also continues to be a problem. After lessening in the 1970s and 1980s, some working-class occupations have become more segregated since 1990<\/em>. Segregation has also worsened in STEM fields: in 1985, 37 percent of computer and information science degrees were earned by women, but by 2008, that had dropped to 18 percent<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In government, academia, finances, medicine, law, and many other realms, issues of access and unequal treatment still prevail. And pay inequities increase after women become parents<\/a><\/span><\/span>, largely because the lack of parental-leave policies and affordable child care forces many women to leave jobs or cut back on work hours, even when they want or need to continue working. The Civil Rights Act has helped women make many impressive gains, but further changes in policy and attitudes are needed to address these remaining inequalities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For further information, contact Max Coleman: m.elliott.coleman@gmail.com<\/a>, (925)-787-1191.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Online References:<\/strong><\/p>\n Bls.gov, Catalyst.org, Cawp.rutgers.edu, Census.gov, Contemporaryfamilies.org, Familyinequality.wordpress.com, Gallup.com, Musc.edu, Nber.org, Nsf.gov, Pay-equity.org, Pewresearch.org, Pewsocialtrends.org, Pewtrusts.org, Shriverreport.org, Stanford.edu, Time.com, Trustwomenpac.org, Vanneman.umd.edu, Washingtonpost.com.<\/p>\n Print References:<\/strong> Stephanie Coontz, A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s <\/em><\/a>(New York: Basic Books, 2011).<\/p>\n Margaret Mead and Frances B. Kaplan (Eds.), American Women: The Report of the President\u2019s Commission on the Status of Women and Other Publications of the Commission <\/em><\/a>(New York: Charles Scribner\u2019s Sons, 1963).\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nIncome\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Pew's](\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/files\/2014\/10\/Pew-Gender-Pay-Gap-245x300.png\")
<\/a>Education<\/h3>\n
Gender gaps in more detail<\/h3>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/files\/2014\/10\/Shriver-Report-Womans-nation-227x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Conclusions<\/h3>\n
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\n<\/strong>Gail Collins, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present <\/em><\/a>(New York: Back Bay Books, 2009).<\/p>\n