EDUCATING WOMEN - GENDER INEQUALITIES AMONG CANADIAN UNIVERSITY GRADUATES

This paper compares male versus female income and unemployment for thr ee cohorts of university graduates between 1978 and 1988. Results show that gender became a weaker predictor of these outcomes, with the fem ale-male earning ratio growing from 84% to 91% over this period. Nonet heless, a notable wage gap remained in later cohorts, and for one coho rt income disparities widened with time in the labour market. Moreover , only a relatively small portion of the earnings gap could be attribu ted to male-female differences in market endowments. The authors inter pret these results as illustrating gender segregation within occupatio ns that result in disparate earning trajectories. Also, it is suggeste d that while the wage gap will likely continue to shrink, future patte rns of inequality among graduates may become increasingly uneven, espe cially since real wages are declining among recent cohorts.