SOC 100

Prof. Davis

COMPUTER PROJECT 3: GENDER IN AMERICA

Due in class: Wednesday October 23

1. Limit your sample to people ages 25-64 (the prime working ages) and to those who are in the labor force; exclude other people from your sample. Print a StudentChip graph that shows the changes between 1950 and 1990 in the percent of the labor force that is female (CenTrend/Emp5090). Hint: The YEAR variable goes along the x axis of your graph; you will have only one line on your graph that represents the percent female. Summarize the changes between 1950 and 1990. What percent of the labor force is female in 1990?

2. What percentage of women and what percentage of men age 25-64 were in the labor force in the following years? (CenTrend/Emp5090). Hint: EMP is one of your variables; you will need to use a control variable in addition to the two crosstab variables.

% of women in the lf % of men in the lf

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

3. Examining your results in questions 1-2, what implications do the labor force trends have for women? For men? Think about what the normative (most common) experience was for women and men in 1950 versus for women and men in the 1990s. What aspects of life are likely to be affected?

4. In 1990, what age group of women (WkAge) has the highest rate of labor force participation? ______________. What percent of women is this?___________ Why do you think this is? (Cen1990/EmpEd9). Hint: Either omit men from your sample or use GENDER as a control variable; you will need to use the EMP variable to find the labor force participation rate (% in the labor force).

5. Examine labor force participation rates for women by educational level. (Cen1990/EmpEd9). Include the StudentChip table that shows this relationship. What kind of relationship exists between education and female labor force participation--inverse, positive, curvilinear, or no relationship? Why do you think this is the case?

6. Physicians and attorneys are high-status, high-earning occupations in the U.S. They require considerable education and training. Answer questions 4-8 for the occupation and race/ethnicity that is circled. If you are analyzing physicians, use the file CEN90C/DOCTORS9; if you are examining attorneys, use CEN90C/LAWYERS.

Physicians American Indians

Asian-Americans

Attorneys Blacks

Latinos

Whites (NHWhite)

4. In the race/ethnicity assigned to you, what percent of people in your occupation are women?____________.

5. How does this compare to the percent of the overall labor force 25-64 that is female in the race/ethnicity you have? ______________________________________________. (Use the file CEN90C/EMPLOY9; remember that "in the labor force" is a combination of EmpCiv, EmpAF, and Unempled.)

6. Does your race/ethnicity have a higher or lower representation of women in this occupation (physician or attorney) compared to the American population in general? ______________________

7. Is there any indication that the gender composition of your occupation has been changing? (Again this question refers only to people of the race/ethnicity that you've been assigned). Include a Student CHIP table that shows this and summarize the table's results on another page (use the file CEN90C/LAWYERS9 or CEN90C/DOCTORS9).

8. Is there a gender gap in what people in your occupation earn? (Again, this refers to the race/ethnicity you've been assigned.) Include the relevant Student CHIP table and summarize briefly its findings. Use the file CEN90C/LAWYERS9 or CEN90C/DOCTORS9 and categorize the earnings variable as:

<$40K (<$40,000)

40-70

70-100

>$100K

The remaining questions refer to people of all races/ethnicities.

9. Is there any indication that gender differences in earnings are changing for people in your occupation? Compare, for example, 25-34 year olds in your occupation with 55-64 year olds. Include the relevant Student CHIP tables and summarize your results. (The file you will use is LAWYERS9 or DOCTORS9).

10. Examine young workers ages 25-34 and compare gender differences in full-time versus part-time employment. Use the file CEN90C/EMPED925 and the HOUR variable; omit the category "NA"). 4). Include the relevant Student CHIP table and briefly summarize your results. Why do you think these results exist? What implications are they likely to have for women?

11. Are women getting all the jobs? Examine young workers ages 25-34; exclude those not in the labor force (the NILF category of EMP). Do young women have lower rates of unemployment? (Use the file CEN90C/EMPED925.)

12. Examine full-time, year-round workers 45-54 years of age who are college graduates. (Use the file CEN90C/WORK9-45) to fill in the table below. You will need to collapse the income variable.) Does having a college degree and being in the peak earning ages eliminate gender differences in earnings for these workers?

FULL-TIME WORKERS WITH COLLEGE DEGREES, AGE 45-54

% earning <$35,000 % earning $35,000+ Total

Women 100%

Men 100%

13. What about for young workers (ages 25-34) who are college grads and working full-time, year-round, do gender differences in earnings exist? Use the file CEN90C/WORK9-25 to fill in the table below.

FULL-TIME WORKERS WITH COLLEGE DEGREES, AGE 25-34

% earning <$35,000 % earning $35,000+ Total

Women 100%

Men 100%

14. For 25-34 year old college graduates who are working full-time, plot a graph with the variable gender along the "x" (horizontal) axis and the earning category >$35K as a line on the graph. (Use the file CEN90C/WORK9-25.) Make the same graph for 45-54 year old college grads who are working full-time. (For this, use the file CEN90C/

WORK-45.) Include your two graphs and describe the differences between the two age groups in the effect of gender on earnings. Why do you think this difference exists?

15. What factors might explain the gender differences in earnings that you found among college graduates of the same age who work full-time, year-round?

16. Plot a graph with education on the "x" (horizontal axis and a line for >$35K earnings for men 25-34 years old who are working full-time, year-round. Do this also for women who are 25-34 and working full-time, year-round. (Use the file CEN90C/

WORK9-25.) Include your graphs. Does it pay (in terms of earning a high income) for a young man to invest in education? Does it pay for a young woman to do so?

17. Assume that young women working full-time earn 80% of what their young male counterparts do while older women working full-time earn only 60% of what their male counterparts do. Is it possible that when these young women workers reach older ages that their earnings will be only 60% of men their age? How could this happen?

SOC 100 N. Davis

LAB 5: CONSTRUCTING GRAPHS ON GENDER AND THE LABOR FORCE

Some Terminology and StudentChip Operations:

The Labor Force: This includes both the employed (empd on the EMP variable) and the unemployed who are looking for work (Unempd on the EMP variable). Thus, if you are asked a question about the percent of the labor force that is female, you will need to use the MODIFY function to combine employed and unemployed people into one category (the labor force). The labor force includes both full-time and part-time workers. Everyone else (students without jobs, full-time homemakers, retired people, and others who do not have jobs and are not looking for work) are considered "not in the labor force" (NILF on the EMP variable).

Earnings: Earnings are shown in 1000s of dollars, indicated by the letter "K". The category "<15K" thus means people earning less than $15,000 per year.

Plotting Graphs using the PLOT function on StudentChip: To plot a graph, you must first specify a CROSSTAB using the COMMAND option. The first variable that you select will appear along the "x" (horizontal) axis of your graph. Each category of the second variable chosen will appear as a line on your graph. The plot function, in effect, is percentaging across so that the base is the categories of the first variable and the categories of the second variable sum to 100%. If you selected the variable YEAR first, its categories (1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1990) will run across the bottom of your graph (the horizontal axis). If you selected GENDER as your second variable, then you would see a line for women and a line for men on your graph. The point on the line for women indicating the year 1950 would be read: In 1950 (the base), x % of the sample was female. The dots indicating the percent female in 1950 and the percent male in 1950 will sum to 100 percent. One thing that is confusing with the StudentChip PLOT option is that often you do not select the independent variable first when specifying your crosstab variables. Select the variable first whose categories you want to run along the horizontal axis of your graph.

Plotting all or only some categories of a variable: After you have specified your crosstab table and selected the PLOT option, you will be asked if you want to plot all categories or particular ones of the second variable you selected. In the example above, if you wanted lines for both men and women, you would highlight ALL. If you just wanted one line that showed the percent female in each of the five years, then you would highlight FEMALE. After you have decided on all or one category to plot, you will be asked if you want to specify a range other than 0-100 for your graph; hit the ENTER key twice to indicate that 0-100 is the range you want (it's the default option).

Using the CONTROL option to Plot Graphs for Different Sub-Populations: If you want to plot the percent of the elderly population that is female from 1950 to 1990 and do this separately for black and non-black Americans, first omit those under age 65 to get a sample of the elderly (use MODIFY and then OMIT; select the WKAGE variable and skip every category except 65+). Then, specify your crosstab (COMMAND and then CROSSTAB). Next, specify RACE as the control variable (OPTION and then CONTROL). Finally, plot the graph (OPTION and then PLOT, specifying FEMALE as the category of gender that you want on your graph. You will see one graph for African Americans and another one for Americans of other races. Do this using the directory CenTrend and the file EMP5090.