Gender Differences in Sectors of Employment

In the United States, gender differences persist across industries. An industry sector encompasses all employees of a firm or organization, whether they work as a janitor, secretary, accountant, or information technology specialist. Employment in services such as health care, nongovernmental education, leisure, and other services account for more than four in ten women’s jobs (nationally 43.2 percent), but only one in four men’s jobs (24.8 percent; Table 2.6). The construction industry (1.3 percent of women and 11.1 percent of men), manufacturing (6.6 percent of women and 14.4 percent of men), and transportation and communications (3.0 percent of women and 7.8 percent of men) together account for the jobs held by only one in nine employed women but almost one-third of those held by employed men (Table 2.6).

The different industries in which women and men work affect their economic status. During the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, for example, job losses were particularly high in construction and manufacturing while jobs in the health and education sector grew, resulting in differences in the size and timing of job losses and gains experienced by women and men (Hartmann and English 2010). In the five years after the official end of the Great Recession in June 2009, jobs in health care and education grew by almost two million, benefitting mainly women, while jobs in construction grew by only 7,000 (with net growth only for men; Hartmann, Shaw, and O’Connor 2014).

Table 2.6. Distribution of Women and Men Across Industries and Gender Earnings Ratio, United States, 2013

Insert Table 2.6

Note: For employed women and men aged 16 and older; earnings data are for full-time, year-round workers. All public sector workers are in “government”; other workers are private sector employees.

Source: IWPR analysis of American Community Survey microdata (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Version 5.0).

Median annual earnings and the gender earnings ratio for full-time, year-round work differ substantially across industries. Women in government (which includes federal government as well as state and local services such as police and education) have the highest median earnings ($45,000) and a narrower gender earnings ratio than the one for all women and men (83.3 compared with 79.2 percent; Table 2.6). Among the industries shown in Table 2.6, the gender earnings ratio is widest in finance, insurance, and real estate (61.8 percent) and narrowest in mining and construction (95.2 percent), an industry that employs proportionately far fewer women than men. Manufacturing provides middle income jobs to women, with median annual earnings of $37,000, but median earnings for men in these jobs are substantially higher at $50,000 (resulting in a gender wage ratio of 74.0 percent).

The share of employed women who work in government, the best paying industry for women, is highest in Wyoming (29.2 percent) and lowest in Pennsylvania (11.9 percent; Table B2.7).

Employed women are the most likely to work in finance, insurance, and real estate—the industry with the widest gender earnings ratio—in Delaware (11.5 percent), and least likely to work in this industry in Alaska (4.0 percent).

In four states—Indiana and Wisconsin (11.4 percent each), Iowa (10.4 percent), and Michigan (10.1 percent)—at least one in ten employed women work in manufacturing (Table B2.7).

Gender Differences Across Occupations

Nationally, 39.9 percent of employed women and 33.0 percent of employed men work in professional or managerial occupations (Table B2.1). This category encompasses a range of occupations—from management, lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers, and accountants to engineers and software developers—that mostly require at least a college degree. The percentage of employed women working in these occupations has increased since the 2004 Status of Women in the States report, when 33.2 of working women held professional or managerial jobs. These jobs offer opportunities for higher earnings for women, although typically even more so for men; women who work in managerial or professional occupations often earn substantially less than men (Table 2.7). The three jurisdictions with the highest shares of women working in professional or managerial occupations—the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Massachusetts—also have the highest median annual earnings for women (Table 2.1).

Women are much more likely than men to work in professional and related occupations (26.2 compared with 17.5 percent, respectively) but slightly less likely than men to work in management, business, and financial occupations (13.7 compared with 15.4 percent; Table 2.7). Women are also much more likely than men to work in service occupations (Table 2.7), which include personal care aides, home health aides, nursing assistants, cooks, and food service staff—occupations that are projected to see high growth in the coming years, but which have median annual earnings for women of less than $25,000 per year (Table 2.7). According to IWPR analysis of 2013 American Community Survey microdata, one-third of employed Hispanic women (32.2 percent) and more than one in four employed black (28.2 percent) and Native American (27.4 percent) women work in service occupations, compared with 20.6 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander women and 18.3 percent of white women.

Nevada has the highest proportion of women working in service occupations (28.8 percent of employed women). In six other states—Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming—one-quarter of employed women work in service occupations (Table B2.8).

Women are least likely to work in service occupations in the District of Columbia (16.2 percent), New Hampshire (18.7 percent), and Utah (19.4 percent).

Table 2.7. Distribution of Women and Men Across Broad Occupational Groups and Gender Earnings Ratio, United States, 2013

Insert Table 2.7

Note: For employed women and men aged 16 and older.

Source: IWPR analysis of American Community Survey microdata (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Version 5.0).

Women in STEM Occupations

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations have experienced much faster growth than other occupations in the last decade and play a key role in the sustained growth and stability of the U.S. economy (U.S. Department of Commerce 2011). These fields are among the higher paid; IWPR analysis of 2013 American Community Survey microdata indicates that in 2013, median annual earnings in STEM occupations requiring a university degree were $64,000 for women and $78,000 for men. Yet, women are less likely to go into STEM fields than men; only 4.6 percent of women work in STEM occupations, compared with 10.3 percent of men (Table B2.9).

The percentage of women working in STEM occupations varies across the largest racial and ethnic groups. IWPR analysis of American Community Survey microdata finds that Asian/Pacific Islander women are the most likely to work in these occupations (11.3 percent of employed Asian/Pacific Islander women), followed by white women (4.9 percent), black women (2.8 percent), and Native American and Hispanic women (2.3 percent each).

Women are most likely to work in STEM occupations in the District of Columbia (10.6 percent), Maryland (7.5 percent), and Massachusetts (7.0 percent; Table B2.9), the three states with the highest median annual earnings for women (Table 2.1).

Women are least likely to work in STEM occupations in South Dakota (2.6 percent), Mississippi (3.1 percent), and Louisiana (3.2 percent).

Nationally, women are 28.8 percent of STEM workers. Women are less likely than men to work in STEM occupations in every state, but their shares of STEM occupations vary considerably (Table B2.9).

Women make up the highest share of STEM workers in the District of Columbia (44.2 percent), followed by Maryland (34.4 percent), Vermont (33.6 percent), and Wyoming (33.0 percent).

Women are less than one-quarter of STEM workers in two states: Utah (23.5 percent) and New Hampshire (24.6 percent).

The differences in occupations in which women and men work are just one factor indicating that much more progress needs to be made before women can achieve equality in the workforce. Occupational segregation continues to be a persistent feature of the U.S. labor force, with the occupations in which women are concentrated paying less than those in which men are concentrated. Women’s participation in the labor force has declined since 2002, and women in all states across the nation continue to earn less than men. In addition, despite signs of progress, the gender wage gap is not expected to close nationally until 2058 if progress continues at the current rate since 1960 (and not until a full century later in Wyoming, the last state expected to close the gap). These findings point to the need for policies and practices that can accelerate the pace of change for women and improve their status in the area of employment and earnings in all states and the nation overall.