9.4: Structural Forces

Millions of women in the United States are more likely to live in poverty than men and still face significant structural barriers to economic security and stability, including: occupational segregation; barriers to moving into higher-level positions; low wages and unequal pay; inadequate workplace flexibility; and pregnancy and sex discrimination. Author and historian Stephanie Coontz described some structural impediments influencing and maintaining the barriers in place including the gender wage gap, the relative absence of family-friendly workplace policies, and the lack of high-quality affordable and accessible childcare.²⁷⁵

The Pay Gap

Women continue to earn less than men, and almost twice as many women as men earn minimum wage or less each year. In 2021, the uncontrolled gender pay gap was $0.82 for every $1 that men made. The uncontrolled gender pay gap measures the median salary for all men and women regardless of job type or worker seniority. The controlled gender pay gap was $0.99 for every $1 men make, which is one cent closer to equal but still not equal. "The controlled gender pay gap tells us what women earn compared to men when all compensable factors are accounted for — such as job title, education, experience, industry, job level, and hours worked. This is equal pay for equal work. The gap should be zero. It’s not zero."²⁷⁶

Both the uncontrolled gender pay gap and the controlled gender pay gap measurements are important for understanding how society values women and women's work. The uncontrolled gender pay gap is an indication of what types of jobs — and the associated earnings and value of that work — are occupied by women overall versus men overall. Remember the list of jobs dominated by women discussed earlier in the chapter? We will discuss occupational segregation later in the chapter, but jobs and careers where women are overrepresented tend to pay less are less likely to include benefits, like employer-provided health insurance and retirement plans compared to jobs held by men. The differences in valuing of work in measurable occupational segregation allows us to explore how wealth and power is gendered and the value that women have compared to men within our society.

The wage gap results in significant lost wages that continue to add up over a woman’s lifetime. This number has narrowed in the last few decades, because women’s wages have risen, but also because men’s wages have fallen. Women of color, who are already disproportionately affected by the gender gap also experienced unemployment at higher rates in recent years, affecting the data around the gender pay gap:

"Due to the economic turmoil of COVID-19, women — especially women of color — have disproportionately faced unemployment at higher rates than in typical years. When women with lower wages leave the workplace, it moves the median pay for women up — slightly closing the gap between men and women’s pay overall. When unemployed women return to work, they could face a disproportionate wage penalty from being unemployed compared to men, suggesting that the gender pay gap could widen again in subsequent years. However, this depends on the market and the pay women receive after unemployment."²⁷⁷

When broken down in different ways—by race, age, education, physical ability, migration status, sexual orientation and so on—the wage gap varies dramatically. But in each group, women earn less money than their male counterparts. Intersecting racial, ethnic, and gender biases reflect a disproportionate outcome in the pursuit of economic stability, as the gender pay gap is wider for women of color. In 2020 for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men working full-time year around: Asian American women were paid 87 cents; white, non-Hispanic women 79 cents; Black women 63 cents; Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women 63 cents; Native American women 60 cents; and Latina/Hispanic women 55 cents.²⁷⁸

Education

The higher a person’s educational attainment, the more likely they will be a labor force participant (working or looking for work) and the less likely they will be unemployed.279 For people age 25 and over with less than a high school diploma, 46.2 percent were labor force participants; high school diploma, no college, 56.1 percent; some college, or associate degree, 62.6 percent; and bachelor’s degree or higher, 73 percent. So, education pays off! But, it is important to remember not all educational opportunities or access to adequate education are equal.

Census Bureau figures show that the typical worker (ages 25 and older) earned $59,371 in 2020, but a worker with at least a bachelor’s degree earned $71,283 and worker with a high school diploma but no college earned $42,417.280 In the Gender and Education chapter, we discussed women's advancements in college education, surpassing men in enrollment and completion. While women have been a majority of college-educated adults for more than a decade, they are only recently matching men in the college-educated workforce participation. Women’s growing representation among the college-educated labor force has important economic implications for individual workers and the economy.

One study found that the average earnings of transgender women workers fall by nearly one- third after transition. "While transgender people have the same human capital after their transitions, their workplace experiences often change radically. We estimate that average earnings for female-to-male transgender workers increase slightly following their gender transitions, while average earnings for male-to-female transgender workers fall by nearly 1/3."²⁸¹ The findings in this study align with other gender trends in the workplace pertaining to differences in power, authority, and value.

Family/Work/Home Balance

The U.S. workforce is still largely structured on the presumption that men are the breadwinners in a family unit, despite the rising number of single-parent families and women entering the workforce in higher numbers than ever before. Trying to balance (or more appropriately “juggle”) home and work life, can be a huge challenge for women especially. While the workforce is still largely structured and fashioned through a patriarchal design, home maintenance and care are still often thought to be "women’s responsibilities". Social and policy structures send strong reinforcing messages about the responsibility for home and childcare as women’s work.

Inequality in the workforce is more significant for mothers than for fathers. Often, women who leave the workforce for maternity leave are looked over for promotional opportunities, affecting retirement, hours, income, and pensions. In addition, mothers who work full-time, year-round typically have lower earnings than fathers ($42,000 compared to $60,000): mothers are paid about 70 cents for every dollar paid to fathers.²⁸² Mothers of every race are typically paid less than white, non-Hispanic fathers.²⁸³

Employers’ negative stereotypes about mothers can also have negative effects on mothers’ job and salary prospects. In comparing equally qualified women candidates, one sociological study revealed that mothers were recommended for significantly lower starting salaries, were perceived as less competent, and were less likely to be recommended for hire than nonmothers in what they called the "motherhood penalty". The study also revealed the effects for fathers were just the opposite — fathers were recommended for significantly higher pay and were perceived as more committed to their jobs than men without children.²⁸⁴

Some mothers look for jobs compatible with children’s school hours (for those with kids who are school-age), as the rising cost of childcare has affected the cost of parents working outside of the home. Childcare is the fourth highest cost for a family after housing, food, and taxes. That means for some women who want to work, the cost of childcare can be prohibitive, as childcare is still seen predominantly as women’s responsibilities. The high cost of child care and a lack of paid leave make it less likely that women with caregiving responsibilities are able to stay in the workforce.²⁸⁵ Relatedly, increased access to contraception is one reason the gender wage gap began to shrink in the last few decades. This access allowed women more opportunities to control their fertility, another social responsibility assigned to women.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in March and April of 2020, when large segments ofeconomy were shut down, many people were laid off or permanently lost their jobs. However, many other women, mostly married, heterosexual women in two-earner households, "voluntarily" left the labor force because the responsibilities for virtual schooling and childcare fell disproportionately on them.²⁸⁶ The pandemic shed a harsh light on the outdated (but maintained) gender gap in unpaid household and care work in the United States.

In addition, many have suggested reimagining and redefining how we value and pay "productive" and "unproductive" work, as they heavily influence not only likelihood of remining in the workforce, but also can have effects on salary and income. Women perform unpaid household and care work amounting, on average, to 5.7 hours per day compared with 3.6 hours for men. This means that on an average day, women in the United States spend 37 percent more time on unpaid household and care work than men.²⁸⁷

²⁷⁵ Coontz, Stephanie. “Why Gender Equality Stalled.” New York Times, 16 February 2013.
²⁷⁶ Payscale.2022 State of the Gender Pay Gap Report. https://www.payscale.com/research-an...ender-pay-gap/
²⁷⁷ Ibid
²⁷⁸ U.S. Census Bureau. (2021). Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement: Table PINC-05: Work Experience in 2020 – People 15 Years Old and Over by Total Money Earnings in 2020, Age, Race, Hispanic Origin, Sex, and Disability Status. Retrieved 14 August 2022, from https://www.census.gov/data/tables/t...c/pinc-05.html
²⁷⁹ U.S. Department of Labor. (2022) Employment status of the civilian population 25 years and over by educational attainment. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 10 August 2022. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t04.htm
²⁸⁰ U.S. Census Bureau. (2021). Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement: Table PINC-05: Work Experience in 2020 – People 15 Years Old and Over by Total Money Earnings in 2020, Age, Race, Hispanic Origin, Sex, and Disability Status. Retrieved 14 August 2022, from https://www.census.gov/data/tables/t...c/pinc-05.html
²⁸¹ Schilt, K., & Wiswall, M. (2008). Before and after: Gender transitions, human capital, and workplace experiences. B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, 8(1), [39].
²⁸² NWLC. (2020). Motherhood Wage gap for mothers overall. https://nwlc.org/resources/motherhood-wage-gap- for-mothers-overall/.
²⁸³ NWLC. (2020). The wage gap for mothers by race, state by state. https://nwlc.org/resources/the-wage-gap-for- mothers-state-by-state-2017/.
²⁸⁴ Shelley J. Correll, Stephan Benard, & In Paik. (2007). Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty. American Journal of Sociology.
²⁸⁵ Schochet, L. (2019).Child Care Crisis Is Keeping Women Out of the Workforce. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/iss...88/child-care- crisis-keeping-women-workforce/
²⁸⁶ Ewing-Nelson, Claire. “Nearly 2.2 Million Women Have Left the Labor Force Since February.” National Women’s Law Center Fact Sheet. https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/...r-Jobs-Day.pdf.
²⁸⁷ Hess, C., Tanima Ahmed, and Jeff Hayes. (2021). “Providing Unpaid Household and Care Work in the United States: Uncovering Inequality.” Institute for Women’s Policy Research Briefing Paper.