女性平权行动
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR WOMEN
Affluent parents understand that the income-generating opportunities facing men and women in this country are very different. These parents tend to have their own form of economic affirmative action. Consider the following facts:
◆ Women account for 46 percent of the workers in this country but represent fewer than 20 percent of the individuals who earn $100,000 or more annually. In 1980, fewer than 40,000 women had annual incomes of $100,000 or more. In 1995, approximately 400,000 women were in this income category. This translates into a ten fold increase. By the year 2000, more than 600,000 women will have incomes in the six-figure-and-higher category. But, again, as in 1995, there will still be five men for every woman in this income category.
◆ Women have made significant progress in regard to the proportion who graduate from professional schools. In 1970, for example, only 8.4 percent of medical school graduates were women. In 1995, nearly 40 percent were women. In 1970, women accounted for about 6 percent of all law school graduates; in 1995, they made up nearly 45 percent. A high-status occupational title does not automatically translate into a high income, however. A recent census headline stated: “Earnings gaps [in 1995] still apparent even for professional degree holders.” In this regard, women employed in professional occupations in 1995 earned only 49.2 percent of what men in professional occupations earned.
◆ How do the salaries of men and women in high-income-producing occupations compare? See the results of our analysis in Table 6-3. In twenty out of twenty of the highest income-producing occupations, women on average earn significantly less than their male counterparts. For example, female physicians earn only 52 percent of what male physicians earn, female dentists earn 57.4 percent of what male dentists earn, female podiatrists earn 55 percent of what male podiatrists earn, and female lawyers earn 57.5 of what male lawyers earn.
◆ In 1980, approximately 45 percent of the women in the six-figure-and-higher income category did not work. Conversely, 55 percent earned $100,000 or more via employment. These percentages have not changed appreciably since 1980, nor are they likely to change through the year 2005. In sharp contrast, nearly 80 percent of the men in this country who earn $100,000 or more are employed. Most of the other 20 percent are over sixty years of age and retired.
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◆ The vast majority of nonworking women who have annual incomes of $100,000 or more inherited their wealth and/or received substantial financial gifts from their parents, grandparents, and/or spouses. Their income is typically generated from interest, dividends, capital gains, net rental income, and such.
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TABLE 6-3 MEAN ANNUAL EARNINGS: MEN VS. WOMEN IN THE TOP TWENTY HIGH-INCOME-PRODUCING OCCUPATIONS
Job Description : Total Year-Round Full-Time ; Male Year-Round Full-Time ; Female Year-Round Full-Time ; Difference Between Sexes ; Female Income As a Percent of Male Income % .
• Physicians : $120,867 ; $132,166 ; $68,749 ; $63,417 ; 52.0% .
• Podiatrists : $90,083 ; $94,180 ; $51,777 ; $42,403 ; 55.0% .
• Lawyers : $ 86,459 ; $ 94,920 ; $54,536 ; $40,384 ; 57.5% .
• Dentists : $85,084 ; $ 88,639 ; $50,919 ; $37,720 ; 57.4% .
• Medical Science Teachers : $82,766 ; $91,236 ; $48,801; $42,435 ; 53.5% .
• Law Teachers : $76,732 ; $85,376;
$51,727; $33,649 ; 60.6% .
• Securities and Financial Services Sales Occupations : $67,313; $78,097 ; $37,695 ; $40,402 ; 48.3% .
• Health Diagnosing Practitioners, n.e.c. :
$66,546; $76,139; $33,718; $42,421; 44.3% .
• Optometists : $62,556; $ 64,988; $42,659; $22,329; 65.6% .
• Actuaries : $61,409; $71,028; $40,219;
$30,809; 56.6% .
• Judges : $60,728; $65,277; $43,452;
$21,825; 66.6% .
• Airplane Pilots and Navigators : $57,383; $58,123; $32,958; $25,165;
56.7% .
• Veterinarians : $56,451; $62,018; $35,959; $26,059; 58.0% .
• Petroleum Engineers: $55,788; $56,653;
$43,663; $12,990; 77.1% .
• Management Analysts : $54,436; $62,588; $36,574; $26,014; 58.4%.
• Economics Teachers : $52,862;
$57,220; $38,884; $18,336; 68.0%.
• Managers & Administrators, n.e.c., salaried : $52,187; $61,152; $30,378
$30774; 49.7%.
• Physicists and Astronomers : $52,159;
$53,970; $38,316; $15,654; 71.0%.
• Managers, Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations : $51,879; $58,668;
$35,227; $23,441; 60.0%.
• Nuclear Engineers :$50,492; $51,313;
$36,513; $14,800; 71.2%.
Source: Affluent Market Institute Database 1996 and 1990 U.S. Census of Occupations
◆ Women own nearly one-third of the small businesses in America. However,
approximately two-of these businesses have annual revenues of under $50,000.
◆ Working women are more than four times more likely to leave the workplace
than are working men.
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The objective data make it quite clear. In America, the odds are against women earning high incomes. Some of this variation in income can certainly be explained by biases in the economic marketplace. But biases alone do not fully explain the fact that there are five men for every one woman in the top 1 percent of the earned income distribution. Could it be that the tendency for affluent parents to subsidize their daughters is helping to perpetuate this inequality?
Daughters of wealthy couples tend not to have careers of their own. Why? In the past twenty years, the affluent population has typically been composed of one type of household: More than 80 percent have been married couples with children in which the wife did not work full time. What message did this send to the daughters of such couples? Simply stated: “Mother did not work (and the marriage survived), so perhaps I should not work.” It is difficult to argue with such logic. The traditional affluent family system does, in fact, function quite well. Affluent couples have a divorce rate that is less than half the norm.
The “father works, the mother mothers and does everything else for her family” system is very often copied by the female products of such marriages. Many affluent parents actually encourage their daughters not to work, not to have their own careers, and not to be economically and psychologically independent. Affluent parents instill this “dependence” characteristic in their daughters over time with subtle cues. Thus, many affluent parents communicate messages such as the following to their daughters:
Don't worry.... If you don’t want to have a career of your own, ... you don’t have to worry about money. We will help you out financially.... If you do have a career, ... if you do become a big success ... and become independent, you will not be receiving any major financial gifts or inheritance from us.
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