The Quest for Gender Equity

• Date: 01 January 2011
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2010.02315.x
• Published date: 01 January 2011
• Author: G. L. A. Harris

Book Reviews 123

compendium of the interplay between two crucial

factors: wage disparities and job segregation. Indeed,

the book is part of a resurgence in the discourse that

recognizes a backsliding of women’s employment

gains, primarily in the United States.

 e problem has been an emphasis on equal opportu-

nity, not equal outcomes. Equal outcome campaigns,

the goal of comparable worth, have had inconsistent

ef‌f ects for women. Earnings disparities between men

and women serve as the principal measure of gender

inequity. Hence, wages determine “economic well be-

ing” (38); how fairly and equitably wages are distrib-

uted is a predictable gauge of status and constitutes a

factor in the division of labor decisions that men and

women make. Other factors include less credentialing

by women, discrimination that penalizes women for

pursuing nontraditional roles, and early socialization

choices that force them into gendered roles. Women

experienced signif‌i cant wage convergence with men

during the 1980s because of improved job experi-

ence and skills valued by the labor market; a possible

decrease in discrimination given human capital invest-

ment in skills, education and experience; a change

in societal attitudes about gender roles; the need for

technology; a decline of manufacturing that adversely

af‌f ected men with blue-collar jobs but favored women

with white-collar jobs; and women’s increased creden-

tialing in the labor force.

Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kuhn, in “Mak-

ing Sense of Change and Stability in Gender Inequal-

ity,” see the 1990s as a decade of slower earnings

convergence between men and women that is not

fully explained, but may be attributable to a decline

in the skills of women entering the labor force and an

increase in lower-skilled single women heads of house-

hold. For these authors, the way forward is uncertain.

 e future is instructive of and may take its cues from

the past. Future trends may depend on factors such

as deunionization, which adversely af‌f ects men more

than women, but the pay gap may not necessarily

converge even when women’s human capital invest-

ments increase. Further, statistical discrimination that

disadvantages women by def‌i ning them as a group

rather than as individuals may continue in more sub-

tle forms than in the past. In a historical analysis, the

authors f‌i nd that more white-collar work and women’s

Francine D. Blau, Mary B. Brinton, and David B.

Grusky, eds.,  e Declining Signif‌i cance of Gender?

(New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2009). 296 pp.

$39.99 (cloth), ISBN: 9780871540924; $24.95

(paper), ISBN: 97808715403707.

In 2007, the U.S. Government Accountability

Of‌f‌i ce reported that women accrue less retirement

earnings than men because of their lower labor

force participation and lower lifetime earnings. Even

after controlling for education and experience, women

earn less than men because they are less likely to have

pensions; their Social Security income represents 70

percent that of men’s; they have fewer accumulated

assets and more labor force interruptions; they have

higher poverty rates and higher expenses for long-

term care; they tend to be the primary caretakers for

children and the elderly; and they disproportionately

work part time. Women face a daunting f‌i nancial

future with less lifetime earnings, and because, on

average, women outlive men, they end up lacking the

necessary resources to maintain their standards of liv-

ing.  e Declining Signif‌i cance of Gender? analyzes this

uneven labor force participation and earnings record

and assesses the waxing and waning of the signif‌i cance

of gender as a factor in women’s overall worth in the

labor market from the turn of the twentieth century

through the 1990s.

At f‌i rst glance, the book’s title is misleading, as it sug-

gests that the importance of gender, and in turn the

importance of women, is on the decline. However,

editors Francine D. Blau, Mary C. Brinton, and Dav-

id B. Grusky, in the opening chapter, “ e Declining

Signif‌i cance of Gender?” dispel this myth by establish-

ing the various contexts on which the discussion is

based.  ey explore optimistic and pessimistic visions

of the intransigence of gender inequality, particularly

with regard to earnings disparities between men and

women.  e optimist sees an egalitarian future in

which the changes that have been responsible for

women’s progress will achieve equality for women.

 e pessimistic vision, though, sees entrenched

asymmetric relationships between the sexes given the

division of labor in the allocation of economic and

domestic responsibilities.  is results in gendered

implications even if women work outside the home.

 e Declining Signif‌i cance of Gender? represents a rich

 e Quest for Gender Equity

G. L. A. Harris

Portland State University

G. L. A. Harris is an associate professor in

the Mark O. Hatf‌i eld School of Government

at Portland State University. She received

her Ph.D. in public administration with a

concentration in public management from

Rutgers University. Her research interests

include social justice and civil rights,

management challenges in the military, or-

ganizational commitment and performance

in the public sector and in public–private

partnerships, and unionization. She is also

a commissioned off‌i cer in the U.S. Air Force

Reserve and formerly served on active duty

in the U.S. Air Force.

E-mail: Glah@pdx.edu