price for taking any time out of the full-time workforce (Crittenden, 2001; Rose and
Hartmann, 2004).
The wage gap has been remarkably consistent. In biblical times, female work-
ers were valued at 30 pieces of silver, male workers at 50—a 40 percent difference
(Rhode, 1997). In the United States, since the Civil War women’s wages have ranged
between 50 percent and 66 percent of men’s. In the late nineteenth cen-
tury, one woman thought of a novel way to cope with this inequality:
I was almost at the end of my rope. I had no money and a woman’s wages were
not enough to keep me alive. I looked around and saw men getting more money
and more work, and more money for the same kind of work. I decided to
become a man. It was simple. I just put on men’s clothing and applied for
a man’s job. I got good money for those times, and I stuck to it. (cited in
Mathaei, 1982, p. 192)In recent years, the wage gap has been closing, but women’s wages
still average about 70 percent of men’s. It turns out that this is not because
women’s wages have been rising so much, but rather because men’s wages
have been falling, and falling faster than women’s (Bernhardt, Morris, and
Handcock, 1995). In 2003–2004, real wages for full-time male workers
fell just over 2 percent, versus a 1 percent decline for women (U.S.
Census Bureau, 2005).
Glass Ceilings and the Glass Escalator.Gender inequality also extends to
promotions. Women often hit a “glass ceiling,” a barrier beyond which they cannot
go, despite the fact that they can see others above them. The glass ceiling refers to
“those artificial barriers... that prevent qualified individuals from advancing
GENDER INEQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES 301100908070605040YEARPERCENT1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1992 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2003 2004White men Black men Hispanic men White women Black women Hispanic womenFIGURE 9.5The Wage Gap by Gender and Race
Note:Median annual earnings of Black men and women, Hispanic men and women, and White women as a percentage
of White men’s median annual earnings
Source:U.S. Current Population Survey and the National Committee on Pay Equity.
Every year in early April, the president of
the United States declares “National Pay
Inequity Awareness Day.” Why in early
April? Because the average woman in a
full-time job would need to work for a full
year and then more than three additional
months all the way until April of the next
year to catch up to what a man earned the
year before.Didyouknow