{"id":10713,"date":"2019-06-20T10:01:59","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T15:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/u-s-women-near-milestone-in-the-college-educated-labor-force\/"},"modified":"2024-04-13T23:46:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T04:46:34","slug":"u-s-women-near-milestone-in-the-college-educated-labor-force","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2019\/06\/20\/u-s-women-near-milestone-in-the-college-educated-labor-force\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. women near milestone in the college-educated labor force"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
(10’000 Hours via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Note: For the latest data on\u00a0women in the college-educated labor force<\/em>, read\u00a0our 2022 post<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women are approaching a milestone in gender parity. 2019 will likely be the first year in which they are a majority of the college-educated labor force. As of the first quarter of 2019, 29.5 million women in the labor force had at least a bachelor\u2019s degree, effectively matching the number of college-educated men in the workforce (29.3 million), according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Women<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This milestone matters for women because educational attainment is highly correlated with income. Women now comprise 50.2% of the college-educated labor force, up from 45.1% in 2000. They remain less than half<\/a> (46.7%) of the overall workforce ages 25 and older.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While women have only recently reached parity with men in the college-educated workforce, they have been a majority of college-educated adults for more than a decade. Women first received more than half of the bachelor\u2019s degrees<\/a><\/u> awarded in the 1981-82 academic year; today they earn about 57% of bachelor\u2019s degrees. The number of college-educated women<\/a> in the adult population (ages 25 and older) surpassed the number of college-educated men in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Since there are more college-educated women than men, why has it taken more than 10 years for women to reach parity in the college-educated workforce? One important factor is that college-educated women are less likely than their male counterparts to be in the labor force. In 2018, 69.9% of college-educated women were in the labor force, compared with 78.1% of college-educated men. The number of women with at least a bachelor\u2019s degree would have had to significantly outstrip the number of college-educated men to offset this labor force participation difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though women are at parity with men in the overall college-educated labor force, they lag significantly behind in many specific occupations<\/a>. For example, women account for only 25% of college-educated workers in computer occupations and 15% of college-educated workers in engineering occupations. In some other occupations, such as office and administrative support and health care practitioners and technicians, women represent the majority of college-educated workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women\u2019s growing representation among the college-educated labor force has important economic implications for individual workers and the economy. Census Bureau figures<\/a> show that the typical worker (ages 25 and older) earned $41,900 in 2017, but a worker with at least a bachelor\u2019s degree earned $61,300. (The earnings bump associated with a bachelor\u2019s degree is larger for men than women. The median earnings of college-educated men is $74,900, compared with $50,200 for men overall. The typical college-educated woman earns $51,600, versus $36,000 for women overall.) About a third (35%) of U.S. adults 25 and older are college educated, but these individuals generate 57% of the economy\u2019s earnings \u2013 $4.7 trillion out of $8.4 trillion total labor market earnings in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. women may be far from parity in many facets of society \u2013 particularly in top positions<\/a> in business and government \u2013 but they are making inroads in the upper echelon of the labor market. The growing number of college-educated women in the labor force translates into greater earning potential for women overall and could eventually contribute to the narrowing of the gender wage gap<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year will likely be the first year in which women are a majority of the U.S. college-educated labor force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":386,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-09-26T18:01:32Z","apple_news_api_id":"afded0f5-aa2e-4c49-bc99-3e9a6b83efa8","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-09-26T18:01:32Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Ar97Q9aouTEm8mT6aa4PvqA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[234,210,361,213,394,255,30,247],"bylines":[984],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[519],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-10713","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-business-workplace","category-economics-work-gender","category-education","category-education-gender","category-educational-attainment","category-gender-demographics","category-gender-lgbtq","category-gender-work","bylines-richard-fry","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-social-trends"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":521,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2019\/06\/20\/u-s-women-near-milestone-in-the-college-educated-labor-force\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":20895,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/06\/FT_19.06.19_CollegeEducatedWorkforce_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/06\/FT_19.06.19_CollegeEducatedWorkforce_feature-jpg.webp?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":20895,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/06\/FT_19.06.19_CollegeEducatedWorkforce_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/06\/FT_19.06.19_CollegeEducatedWorkforce_feature-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":20895,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/06\/FT_19.06.19_CollegeEducatedWorkforce_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/06\/FT_19.06.19_CollegeEducatedWorkforce_feature-jpg.webp?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":20895,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/06\/FT_19.06.19_CollegeEducatedWorkforce_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/06\/FT_19.06.19_CollegeEducatedWorkforce_feature-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":20895,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/06\/FT_19.06.19_CollegeEducatedWorkforce_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/06\/FT_19.06.19_CollegeEducatedWorkforce_feature-jpg.webp?w=720&h=405&crop=1","width":720,"height":405,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":20895,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/06\/FT_19.06.19_CollegeEducatedWorkforce_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/06\/FT_19.06.19_CollegeEducatedWorkforce_feature-jpg.webp?w=1200&h=628&crop=1","width":1200,"height":628,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Women near majority of college-educated workforce in U.S.","description":"This year will likely be the first year in which women are a majority of the U.S. college-educated labor force.","og_title":"U.S. women near milestone in the college-educated labor force","og_description":"This year will likely be the first year in which women are a majority of the U.S. college-educated labor force.","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":{"research-teams":10818967},"custom_schema":[],"twitter_title":"U.S. women near milestone in the college-educated labor force","twitter_description":"This year will likely be the first year in which women are a majority of the U.S. college-educated labor force.","og_image":20895,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[{"key":"7dbc0c349750cfe688dcdafeafc777f3","termId":984}],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/10713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/short-read"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/386"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/10713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31071,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/10713\/revisions\/31071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10713"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=10713"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=10713"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=10713"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=10713"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=10713"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=10713"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=10713"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=10713"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=10713"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=10713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}