Closing the Gap

I read an article in the Economist labeled "Closing the gap", written on November 26th, 2011, showing how the gap in labor participation and wage income between men and women has become increasingly narrower since the 1970s. In class, we learned that the invention of birth control--giving women more control over their pregnancy--contributed to an increase in women college graduates. And the article mentions this as well; claiming the addition of birth control, "made it worthwhile to invest more in their education". An interesting addition the article mentioned that I believe we did not discuss in class was the role of the increase of divorces in the 1970s. The article mentions that many women born after 1970s had "..seen their parents get divorced, which made having an income of their own seem like a wise precaution".

The author goes on to write that this addition has been a huge boon to all national economies involved and legislators are trying to equalize the playing field even further to encourage more women to participate.

Andrew Beckerman