Has Higher Education Among Young Women Substantially Reduced the Gender Gap in Employment and Earnings? - ARCHIVED

Young women have gained considerable ground on young men in terms of educational attainment in the 1990s. The objective of this study is to assess the role of rapidly rising educational attainment among young women in raising their relative position in the labour market. The findings suggest that the educational trends have not contributed towards a decline in the full-time employment gap. Nevertheless, they have contributed towards a decline in the gender earnings gap, especially in the 1990s. However, university-educated women have lost ground to university-educated men. This is likely due to the fact that men and women continued to choose traditional disciplines during the 1990s, but only male-dominated disciplines saw improvements in average earnings.