ABSTRACT

The earnings differentials, like income inequality, are shown to be an indirect indicator of women’s empowerment in the literature. On this front, women do not fare well around the world, including in the United States. Recent studies have shown that women earn 78 cents for every dollar men earn in the United States. The dynamics of this earnings gap have been a point of contention during the Great Recession, which impacted the US economy from 2008 to 2010. This chapter provides an initial assessment of the earnings differentials for women and men using income inequality during and in the aftermath of the Great Recession. For this purpose, American Community Survey data from 2005 to 2016 is employed to exhibit the impact of the Great Recession on overall income inequality and inequality between women and men. Consequently, the fundamental purpose of the paper is to determine whether women were less empowered, hence suffered from higher income inequality in the United States due to the Great Recession. The results are both timely and relevant since the findings can be used to advocate for public policies such as the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program to increase women’s empowerment, particularly during recessions.