I found an interesting article that relates economics and gender. The article describes how having a college education correlates to higher incomes in the future, but also highlights the differences between incomes of men versus incomes of women. The most interesting thing I found about this article, however, was how race also played into how much gender affected income. For example, African American men make 24% as much as African American females. For Hispanic workers, however, men make 104% more over the span of their career. Why does gender affect how much money individuals make, and how much of that is also impacted by race? Is this trend slowly fading away so that women are earning more equal wages?
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/the-education-bonus-and-the-gender-gap/?scp=2&sq=gender&st=cse
In another economic/gender relationship article, there are theories that suggest education reduces female fertility. Do the theories seem accurate? If so, what does this predict for our future? Will women have less children if they continue going to college?
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2010/07/from_the_cuttin_2.html
Going off the article that Jonathon posted, I think that's very interesting about gender conflicts also being impacted by race. Along with gender, racial prejudices are something the world has been struggling with for a very long time, and its interesting how these two conflicts actually can work hand in hand. In addition, it's crazy how although a man and woman may have the same degree and qualifications for a job, men generally make more money regardless. There is still a stereotype that men are the sole breadwinners in society and are more business savvy, and therefore and the ones qualified for higher job and wage. Yet these things are not true at all anymore, and many woman in fact have earned higher degrees and are more qualified than men. But because she is a woman will be offered a lower salary likely in a similar position.
ReplyDeleteHey Jonathan, great post. Here is something that will help answer some of those questions:
ReplyDelete“Scientists Discover Why More Educated Women Have Fewer Children”
“Many studies have shown that more educated women have fewer children, but researchers have never been able to explain why that is. The new study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences focuses on 26,349 women in Norway who were born in 1964. The researchers compared yearly data on the women's childbearing and educational careers. Joel E. Cohen, who is a professor at Rockefeller University and the Earth Institute of Columbia University, says:
"These results suggest that women with advanced degrees have lower completed fertility on the average principally because women who have one or more children early are more likely to leave or not enter long educational tracks and never attain a high educational level."
According to Time, the women who had children by their mid-20s were far less likely to continue their eduction past the first two years of high school, which are mandatory in Norway. They're also less likely to earn a higher degree later in life compared to women who started having children after they graduated from college.
The researchers suggest that governments should do more to make women aware that they're less likely to attain their educational goals if they have children young. (Apparently, Teen Mom's B-plots about the moms trying to attend school aren't hammering the message home.) Better yet, we could make it easier for mothers to attend college by providing more low-cost child care, and give women more access to family planning services, so unwanted pregnancies won't stand in the way of their education."