April 24, 2018
From the archives: How the growing service sector shrank the gender gap
The 2017 American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics study "Gender Gaps and the Rise of the Service Economy" was among the winners of the 2018 AEJ Best Paper Awards announced last week. The video highlight of that paper originally appeared on October 4, 2017.
Women’s role in the US economy has exploded since WWII. In fact, the employment rate for women of prime working age more than doubled in the second half of the 20th century. There are a lot of reasons for this, including increased educational investment and changing attitudes about gender equality. But a paper in the October issue of the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics offers yet another explanation. Researchers Rachel Ngai and Barbara Petrongolo say the rise of the service sector increased demand for women workers.