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Written by leading experts in their fields and with over 100 subjects to explore Oxford University Press's acclaimed What Everyone Needs to Know® series offers authoritative discussions of complex contemporary issues from gender to sustainability to robots in a lively question-and-answer format.
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Women in the Workforce: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Laura M. Argys and Susan L. Averett
The transformation of women’s lives (and hence the lives of their families) has upended society as we once thought we knew it. This book takes a holistic view of the economic lives of women in the workforce from the viewpoint of an economist. As women acquire more education, marry later, and have fewer children, they have changed their allocation of time from household production to market work. Women have entered the workforce in increasing numbers, making inroads as entrepreneurs and leaders. Yet women remain the primary caregivers of children, and so issues such as work/life balance and the glass ceiling remain at the forefront of policy discussions in the United States and around the world. In addition, despite inroads into male-dominated jobs, many occupations remain stubbornly segregated by gender and a gender wage gap persists that has not changed appreciably in the past twenty years. As economists, the authors recognize that many outcomes that lead to gender disparities are the result of choices women make, but they also reflect constraints faced by women based on social norms, practices, and laws. One of the themes that emerges in nearly every chapter is that societal expectations of women as responsible for caretaking hold women back in the workplace. Overall, this volume uses an economic framework to highlight the importance of women in the economy, the challenges they face in claiming equal status with men, and policies that can further improve gender equity.
