Gender differences in the earnings produced by a middle range education: The case of Canadian 'colleges'

Michael R Smith; Sean Waite; Claire Durand

doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.03.003

Gender differences in the earnings produced by a middle range education: The case of Canadian 'colleges'

Soc Sci Res. 2017 Aug:66:140-153. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.03.003. Epub 2017 Mar 19.

Authors

Michael R Smith¹, Sean Waite², Claire Durand³

Affiliations

¹ McGill University, Canada. Electronic address: michael.smith@mcgill.ca.
² McGill University, Canada.
³ Université de Montréal, Canada.

PMID: 28705352
DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.03.003

Abstract

In this paper we use data on consecutive cohorts of recent graduates from community colleges or community college-like institutions to address the following questions about the gender earnings gap: i) What was the trend in the gender earnings gap for these recent graduates? ii) What role in the observed trends in the gender earnings gap was played by occupational demand? iii) How and to what extent did the domestic division of labour contribute to the gender earnings gap in this young sample? We find that the gap fell then rose, that occupational demand played a role in these shifts, and that the domestic division of labour did indeed contribute to the gap in this young sample. Furthermore, our results point to a process of cumulation of factors that increase the earnings gap which has both substantive and methodological implications.

Keywords: Community colleges; Earnings; Gender.