By Carol Church, Writer, Family Album

Reviewed by Suzanna Smith, PhD, Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences, University of Florida

When I was a little girl in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, I was oddly fascinated by the Viginia Slims cigarette ads that showed glamorous career women smoking (ugh!) with the tagline, “You’ve come a long way, baby.” Since women were just then starting to enter the workforce in record numbers, images like these were intriguing and a bit unusual to me.

Progress, But The Wage Gap Lingers

These days, working women are more the norm than the exception. Still, it’s hard to say that perfect equality has been achieved. Most of us are probably familiar with the “wage gap”—the difference between men’s average pay and women’s. At median wages, in 2012, men earned about 16% more than women.

Of course, the reasons for this gap are hotly debated. Is it because women choose to work in different fields? Do they tend to “opt out” of more intense tracks in favor of spending more time with family? Or are employers discriminating against women–or paying them less for the same work?

Younger Women Doing Better

When we dig deeper, as a 2013 Pew Research report did, we find that the situation is complicated. For instance, consider that in 2012, women between 25 and 34 actually earned 93% of what men did. While this isn’t perfect equality, these young women were at least in the ballpark. And compared to decades past, women have certainly made progress. For example, back in 1980, women in this age group earned a mere 67% of what men did.

Yet there are still big differences in pay between men and women depending on age and stage of life. When we look at the numbers, women past their early 30s aren’t doing nearly as well as young women. Why?

Family Responsibilities and Other Issues Interfere

The answer probably does have to do with something we hinted at above: family and children. This same Pew study also found that at some point, about 40% of all working women take time off or reduce their work hours to care for family members. A quarter quit outright to care for family (at least for a while), compared to only 10% of men. Men also work more hours per week and are more likely to work full time than women. All these differences can affect women’s work experience and the positions they hold—not to mention their pay.

Employers aren’t doing much to help, since the US still has no laws regarding maternity or paternity leave and few programs and policies (like subsidized or employer-supported child care) in place that support the needs of working parents. Outright discrimination against women and mothers remains a troubling concern as well.

So while women today may start off doing almost as well as men, it seems that the complex demands of family and parenting in today’s society may slow them down and reduce their ability to earn along the way. And change often seems slow, with today’s youngest women just as concerned about this as generations past. About 70% of childless women from the so-called Millennial generation—those between 18 and 32—agree that having children will make it harder to have a career.

Women have made a lot of progress in the working world over the past few decades—accomplishments worth taking pride in. But in a world where family and work can pull us in opposite directions, the situation is still complicated. While few women who take time out to care for loved ones express regrets, there’s no question that many feel their options are still limited in one way or another. Cultural expectations about motherhood, a lack of practical, affordable options for childcare (and sometimes elder care), discrimination, and workplaces that make it difficult to balance work and family all contribute. While we may have come a long way, we still have a distance to go.

References:

Pew Research Center. (2013). On pay gap, millennial women near parity – for now. Despite gains, many see roadblocks ahead. Retrieved from http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/12/11/on-pay-gap-millennial-women-near-parity-for-now/

Photo Credits: Fuse/Thinkstock

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