Sex differences in the academic labor market in the affirmative action era

Abstract

To examine the relative pay of women in the academic labor market between about 1965 and about 1985, we analyse data from several national surveys as well as information from individual institutions. We also review extensively the published research on this issue. We find that although the relative pay of women in higher education has improved since the late 1960s, women's salaries still fall short of men's salaries. Many theories imply that labor market discrimination not only lowers the pay of women but also increases the pay of men. We examine this issue using a new technique that generalizes the well-known Oaxaca decomposition. We estimate that discrimination in higher education has had little effect on men's salaries. We also examine trends in employment and the segregation of women and men faculty by field.