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A Widening Gender Gap

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Percent of Adults with Four-Year College Degree by Age 35. (Third Way report)
Percent of adults with a four-year college degree by age 35. (Third Way report)

Women already outperform men in the country's colleges and universities, but now new research from MIT says that women perform better than men in the workforce as well. The authors argue:

Although a significant minority of males continues to reach the highest echelons of achievement in education and labor markets, the median male is moving in the opposite direction. Over the last three decades, the labor market trajectory of males in the U.S. has turned downward along four dimensions: skills acquisition; employment rates; occupational stature; and real wage levels.

Indeed, the emerging gender gap is one of country's most profound and puzzling trends that's quickly and dramatically reshaping the nation.

Guest

David Autor, MIT professor of economics

Mary Blair-Loy director of graduate studies and founding director of the Center for Research on Gender in the Professions at U.C. San Diego

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New York Times: "The decline of two-parent households may be a significant reason for the divergent fortunes of male workers, whose earnings generally declined in recent decades, and female workers, whose earnings generally increased, a prominent labor economist argues in a new survey of existing research."

This segment aired on March 25, 2013.

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