How Does Gender Inequality in Employment and Earnings Vary by Educational Stratum in Sweden and the United States?

Abstract

In this article, we compare how gender inequality in labor force participation and earnings vary by educational level in Sweden and the United States, focusing on "prime age" individuals from twenty-five to fifty-four who have at least one child in their household. We also examine how educational differences in gender inequality vary across the life cycle. We show that in both nations more highly educated women are more likely to be employed than less educated women, and that this tendency dates back at least several decades. As a consequence of their higher labor force participation, we find that highly educated women have higher annual earnings than less educated women. But, of course, so do men. When we assess how these patterns vary across the life cycle, we find that educational differentials in women's labor force participation persist throughout the life cycle but do not increase much with age. In both nations, highly educated women experience larger earnings increases with age, but this is even more true for men, so there is no tendency for any gender equality advantage of the highly educated to increase with age; instead, there is a slight decrease. Overall, the earnings advantages of highly educated over less educated women, absolutely or relative to men, are much greater in the United States than Sweden.