Returning to School and Women's Occupational Attainment

Abstract

More and more women are returning to school after a period of employment in the labor force. The study reported here examined the factors that make it likely that white women and black women will leave the labor force to obtain more schooling and whether this increase in education significantly improves their wage levels and job prestige when they return to work. The results of the initial analysis revealed that job rewards are an important influence on black women's and white women's rates of returning to school. In addition, regression analyses demonstrated that women's return to school yields modest wage increases and increased occupational prestige (with certain exceptions) in subsequent jobs. Data in an occupational mobility table show that women who return to school are also more likely to improve the occupational category of their job, although usually they remain employed in gender-typical occupations. In general, the findings show that additional schooling benefits women's occupational attainment, but, perhaps because of structural barriers, there are limitations to these benefits.