The Women’s Room — For Women ONLY!

Posted by ERUDIO in Inspiration on Feb 21st, 2011

Women continue to play a larger and larger role in the work force, both in rising employment numbers, in rising salaries, and especially in rising numbers of college graduates.

One prime example— more than half of all pre-Med students are female. This, in a profession once totally dominated by males. The same trend is seen in many other professions once thought the exclusive territory of males. All the way to the White House Cabinet.

Women are getting their degrees! But how does this fact relate to the work force itself?

The male labor force is projected to grow by 8.0 percent from 2006 to 2016, compared with 8.9 percent for women, down from 12.7 and 13.4 percent, respectively, from 1996 to 2006. As a result, men’s share of the labor force is expected to decrease from 53.7 to 53.4 percent, while women’s share is expected to increase from 46.3 to 46.6 percent. 
Among men, high school dropouts had earnings of $421 a week, compared with $1,089 for college graduates.

Although both women and men with less than a high school diploma have experienced a decline in inflation-adjusted earnings since way back in 1979, women’s earnings have fallen significantly less—from $348 to $323 (down 7.2 percent), compared with a 27.2 percent drop from $578 to $421 for men.

Earnings for women with college degrees have increased by one-third from $605 to $809 since 1979 on an inflation-adjusted basis, while those of male college graduates have risen by only one-fifth from $908 to $1,089.

At all levels of education, women have fared better than men with respect to earnings growth. This is likely because women earned less than men for similar work, but now are catching up, due to advances in women’s rights.

And more, because an increasing number of women are investing themselves in the wealth-potential of higher education.

Percent of All College Degrees Conferred Female vs. Male, 1971-2017

Their incomes reflect this huge shift. Women with less than a high school diploma earned $323 per week in 2002, compared with $809 for those with a college degree, according to the Bureau of Labor.

The numbers have increased since then, and the difference will continue to increase. Higher education has that direct effect on income.

And what about the numbers of women workers and professionals?

The numbers of both men and women in the labor force will grow, but the number of women will grow at a slightly faster rate than the number of men.

Obviously, women are creating more demand, and we can see why. They are improving their competitive chances, through higher education.

For centuries, males have had a societal advantage, in the workplace assumption of male superiority, for most professions. Women traditionally provided domestic labor, dependent upon the productivity of males outside the home.

This specialized division of labor is rapidly becoming obsolete, as more single mothers struggle to put bread on the table, and look to ways to improve the chances of family success, and a brighter future for themselves and their children.

Today, more and more women are the breadwinners, and no longer rely upon males, who may or may not be successful earners. The fact that women have had to dig themselves out of this cultural hole, has become a momentum for women.

It is sheer employment Darwinism. Women, oppressed for millenia, know they have to try harder.

And the impact is seen today, in the classrooms of every university, and the boardrooms of every corporation, and in every government.

Will it taper or level off? Projections show that this strong trend will be seen in increasing numbers of women in high leadership positions— as well as executive soldiers of the system, and rising entrepreneurs—throughout the next century.

Is higher education a secret that men increasingly cannot seem to grasp?

Women are getting their degrees!