Abstract
Using the National Science Foundation's SESTAT data, we examine the gender wage gap by race among those working in computer science, life sciences, physical sciences, and engineering. We find that in fields with a greater representation of women (the life and physical sciences), the gender wage gap can largely be explained by differences in observed characteristics between men and women working in those fields. In the fields with the lowest concentration of women (computer science and engineering), gender wage gaps persist even after controlling for observed characteristics. In assessing how this gap changes over time, we find evidence of a narrowing for more recent cohorts of college graduates in the life sciences and engineering. The computer sciences and physical sciences, however, show no clear pattern in the gap across cohorts of graduates.
- Copyright © 2016 by Russell Sage Foundation. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Reproduction by the United States Government in whole or in part is permitted for any purpose. This research was supported by Grant no. OSP #68979 from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Katherine Michelmore acknowledges the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, which provided support through Grant no. R305B110001. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Science Foundation. The authors wish to thank Martha Bailey and Thomas DiPrete for helpful comments and suggestions. Any remaining errors are the authors’. Direct correspondence to: Katherine Michelmore at kmichelm{at}umich.edu, 935 S. State St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109; and Sharon Sassler at sharon.sassler{at}cornell.edu, Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, 297 Martha Van Rennselaer Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850.
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