Fact Sheet 2004-1

Professional Women:  Vital Statistics
 

General Statistics

<         The number of working women has risen from 5.1 million in 1900, to 18.4 million in 1950, to nearly 65 million in 2003.  The number of working women is projected to exceed 77 million by 2012.¹

<         Women accounted for 18% of the labor force in 1900, and 47% in 2003.  In 2012, women will account for 48% of the labor force.²

<         The number of women in the labor force is expected to increase by more than 14% between 2002 and 2012, while a 10% increase is projected for men.³

<         While in 1900 only 20.4% of all women worked, in 2003, more than 60% worked.  Sixty-two percent of women are expected to be in the paid labor force by 2012.⁴

<         Almost 73% of working women had white collar occupations in 2003, a percentage that is expected to increase.  Women employed in professional and related occupations accounted for 24.5% of all working women in 2003.⁵

<         Women are the majority of workers in the occupational category expected to grow most rapidly:  the professional and related occupations, which are expected to increase by more than 23% from 2002–2012.⁶

<         Labor force participation has increased most dramatically among married women.⁷

<         Today most mothers—even those with the youngest children—participate in the labor force.⁸

<         Half of all multiple job-holders in 2003 were women, up from 20% in 1973.⁹  Women are the majority of temporary and part-time workers.¹⁰ 

Occupational Distribution

<         While women are the majority of professional employees, their occupational distribution remains different from men.

–        92% of registered nurses, 82% of all elementary and middle school teachers, and 98% of all preschool and kindergarten teachers employed in 2003 were women, compared with less than 9% of all civil engineers, 7% of electrical and electronics engineers, and 3% of all aircraft pilots and flight engineers.¹¹

<         Still, the different distribution of men and women among specific professional occupations was less pronounced in 2003 than in 1985.

–        The percentage of technical writers who were female increased from 36% to 66% between 1985 and 2003.¹²

–        Women pharmacists increased from 30% in 1985 to 52% in 2003.¹³

–        The percentage of female chemists increased from 11% in 1985 to 36% in 2003.¹⁴

<         In 2003, women accounted for 28% of all lawyers, 30% of all physicians and surgeons, and 66% of all psychologists.¹⁵ 

The Wage Gap Persists

<         In 2002, women earned 77% as much as men.  For women of color, the gap was wider.  African American women earned 67%, and Latina women 55%, of men’s weekly earnings.  While Asian Pacific American women do better, they still earn only 83.5% as much as men.¹⁶

<         The gap between the wages of men and women is larger in the U.S. than in Germany, Britain, France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and New Zealand.¹⁷

<         America’s working families lose $200 billion of income annually to the wage gap—an average loss of more than $4,000 each for a working women’s families every year because of unequal pay.¹⁸

<         Equal pay is a problem in every occupational category:

–        In 2003, professional and technical women earned almost 27% less than their male counterparts;¹⁹

–        Women in office and administrative support occupations earned over 12% less than those who were men;²⁰

–        Women in sales occupations earned 38% less than similarly employed men, while women in service occupations earned almost 16% less than men in these occupations.²¹

<         More specifically, in 2003:

–        female physicians and surgeons earned a whopping 41% less than their male counterparts;²²

–        female college and university teachers earned 21% less than those who were male;²³

–        female lawyers earned 13% less than male lawyers;²⁴ and

–        female computer scientists and systems analysts earned 19% less than similarly employed men, as did female computer programmers.²⁵

<         The wage gap exists even in occupations where women considerably outnumber men.  In 2003:

–        female elementary and middle school teachers earned more than 10% less than similarly employed men, while female secondary school teachers earned 9% less than male;²⁶

–        female registered nurses earned 12% less than their male colleagues;²⁷ and

–        female word processors and typists earned 8% less than male.²⁸

<         For full-time workers aged 25 and older in 2001:

–        the median income of a female high school graduate was more than 27% less than that of her male counterpart;²⁹

–        the median income of a women with a bachelor’s degree was 25% (or $13,290) less than that of a similarly qualified man;³⁰

–        a women with a master’s degree earned 28% (or $18,658) less than a man with a master’s degree;³¹

–        the median annual income of a women with a professional degree was 40% (or $39,907) less than that of her male counterpart;³² and

–        a women with a doctoral degree earned more than 25% (or $20,652) less than a similarly qualified man.³³

<         Because women are paid less when they work, they receive smaller pensions (and Social Security checks) when they retire.  Less than half of all wage and salaried women in the U.S. participate in a pension plan.  Half of all older women with income from a private pension receive less than $5,600 a year, compared with $10,340 for older men.³⁴ 

Women’s Economic Responsibilities

<         In 2002, 49% of women were not married; 58% of them were in the labor force.³⁵

<         The proportion of families in which the husband, but not the wife, worked outside the home declined from 66% in the 1940’s and ’50s to only 19% in 2001.³⁶

<         The overall labor force participation rate of mothers with children under 18 was 72.2% in 2002.³⁷

<         Whereas in 1970, 12% of all children lived in one parent families, in 2002 almost 31% lived with only one parent.  Seventy-three percent of these children lived with their mothers.³⁸

<         In 2002, more than 14% of all working families were headed by a single mother.³⁹

<         Almost 32% of families where children under 18 lived with their mother (with no father present) were below the poverty level in 2002.⁴⁰

<         By contrast, married couple families had the lowest poverty rate (6%).⁴¹ 

More Degrees

<         Women have been earning more bachelor’s degrees than men since 1982 and they have been earning more master’s degrees than men since 1981.  They are expected to earn 58% of all bachelor’s and master’s degrees conferred in 2004.⁴²

<         Women are expected to earn more than 46% of the first professional degrees conferred in 2004, up from 2.6% in 1961.⁴³

<         Women are expected to earn 44% of all doctoral degrees in 2004, while in 1961 they earned only 10.5% of all doctoral degrees.⁴⁴

<         The proportion of women in law school increased from 3.7% in 1963 to more than 49% in academic year 2002–03.⁴⁵

<         The proportion of women in medical school increased from 5.8% in academic year 1960–61 to 49% in academic year 2001–02.⁴⁶

<         Between academic years 1959–60 and 2000–01, the percentage of degrees in dentistry earned by women increased from 0.8% to 39%.⁴⁷ 

Women and Unions

<         Today more than 6.7 million working women are union members.⁴⁸

<         In 2003, 44% of all union members were women, up from 19% in 1962.⁴⁹

<         Women are forming and joining unions at a faster rate than men.  Fifty-five percent of all newly organized workers are women.⁵⁰ 

The Union Advantage for Women

<         In 2003, union women earned weekly wages that were 25% more than women who were not union members, while union men earned 17% more than nonunion men.⁵¹

<         The differences are even more marked for African American and Latina women:

–        the median weekly earnings of African American union women were more than 26% more than their nonunion counterparts;⁵²

–        Latina women who were union members and median weekly earnings that were almost 34% higher than their nonunion counterparts.⁵³

<         Union women and men are more likely than nonunion workers to have health and pension benefits, and to receive paid holidays and vacations, and life and disability insurance.⁵⁴ 

1–4   U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Perspectives on Working Women:  A Databook, Bulletin 2080, 1980; Employment and Earnings, Vol. 51, No. 1; BLS News, 04–148.

5   Employment and Earnings, op. cit.

6   Hecker, Daniel, “Occupational Employment Projections to 2012,” U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Labor Review, Vol. 127, No. 2, February 2004.\

7&8   U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement, March 2003.

9   U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Multiple Jobholders by Sex, November 2003.

10   Mishel, Lawrence, J. Bernstein and H. Boushey, State of Working America, 2002–2003.

11–15   Employment and Earnings, op. cit.

16   U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey, Series P–36, 2003.

17   Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development; International Labor Organization; Statistics Canada; Employment and Earnings, op. cit.

18   Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Equal Pay for Working Families, 1999.

19–28   Employment and Earnings, op. cit.

29–33   U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics,  Current Population Survey, 2002.

34   U.S. Social Security Administration, Office of Research, Evaluation and Statistics, Income of the Population Aged 55 or Older, 2002.

35–37   Current Population Survey, op. cit.

38–41   U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Children’s Living Arrangements and Characteristics:   2002, June 2003.

42–44   U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics:   2002.

45   American Bar Association, Legal Education Division.

46   American Association of Medical Colleges, Databook, 2003 Edition.

47   American Dental Association, 2000–01 Survey of Pre-Doctoral Dental Education, 2003.

48–49   BLS News, op. cit.

50   Bronfenbrenner, K. “Organizing Women Workers in the Global Economy:  Findings from NLRB Certification Elections — 1998–1999,” 2001.

51–53   BLS News, op. cit.

54   U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS News, USDL:03-489.

For more information about professional women, see “Salaried and Professional Women:   Relevant Statistics” on our Website:   www.dpeaflcio.org 

Source:      DPE Research Department                                                                                           03/29/04

                        815 16th Street, NW, N.W. – 7th Floor               Washington, DC 20006

Contact:    Pamela Wilson, (202) 638-6684; pwilson@dpeaflcio.org