ABSTRACT

In the final years of the twentieth century, within virtually every age group, race, educational level, and social class women earned less money than men. Women had entered a great variety of new occupational fields and millions had earned college degrees, yet in 1996 their earnings still averaged only 74 percent of men's. This did represent progress; for nearly 25 years (from 1959 until the early 1980s), the ratio had been stuck at about 60 percent. Nevertheless, the https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203949610/869015b0-77e4-47fa-bc94-91dbdd774f8f/content/fig138_C.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> "gender gap" remained.