Women’s employment

Researchers comparing the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS), the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) and Understanding Society found that while the pay gap between the ‘average woman’ and ‘average man’ has decreased over the past 50 years, the differences in earnings between women from different social classes remain far greater than the differences between men.

Among members of the 1946 cohort who were working full-time at age 43, women were paid on average 48 per cent per hour less than men born in the same year. For full-timers born in 1958, women still earned almost 35 per cent less than men at age 41-42. These pay gaps had widened since the men and women were in their twenties. However, professional women earned nearly three times as much as women of the same age who were in unskilled jobs. In comparison, professional men earned just under one and a half times more than men in unskilled jobs.

Educational opportunities expanded for the post-War generation born in 1946, and the few women who were able to take advantage of this ended up earning far more than their less-educated peers. But education was not the only factor linked to higher earnings for women of this generation. Advantaged family background, good early educational achievement, and having a well-educated mother were among the other predictors of higher wages among women.

Other longitudinal evidence suggests that having a degree is a bigger advantage to women in the workplace than it is to men.  Research using data from the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS) and the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) found that women born in 1958 who had university degrees earned 34 per cent more at age 41-42 than those without. Similarly, women born in 1970 who were university-educated earned 32 per cent more than those who were not. In contrast, men from the 1958 generation earned on average 14 per cent more for having a degree, while those in the 1970 cohort were likely to earn 17 per cent more.

Longitudinal evidence from the 1958 National Child Development Study, the 1970 British Cohort Study and Understanding Society, as well as the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (1946 cohort), shows that women’s employment status is strongly linked to family, marriage and health. Researchers found that, at age 33, the careers of low-educated women were limited by being married, having children who were under the age of 16, or suffering from chronic diseases. Their family duties reduced their labour market participation and likelihood of working full-time. In contrast, the careers of women who reached at least A-Level education were less affected by the number of children they had. Overall, women who postponed having children earned higher

Women’s employment outcomes are linked to their aspirations in earlier life. A study using data from the 1970 British Cohort Study found that women who aspired to higher occupational positions when they were teenagers were both more likely to achieve a higher social status and earn more in adult life. Among men, teenage aspiration was linked to adult social status but not earnings.