College-educated women overtake men in the workforce

For more than three decades, a majority of college students in the U.S. have been women. However, it was not until this year that women made up the majority of the college-educated workforce.

The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that in July there were 29.234 million women workers over the age of 25 with bachelor’s degrees, just slightly greater than the male total: 29.069 million.

Related: Women are working more, at home and on the job

Educated workers have been almost evenly divided by gender for many years, with the gap fluctuating in and out of women’s favor depending on economic conditions. Women already made up 45 percent of the college-educated labor force in 2000 and they made up between 48-49 percent for much of the past decade.

The question is, will the percentage of female workers continue to climb, perhaps one day resembling the gender balance on college campuses, where women make up about 57 percent of students?

In all likelihood, the female share of the workforce will continue to rise gradually, simply because there is still a substantial percentage of women who drop out of the workforce –– permanently or temporarily –– to care for children. An analysis of U.S. Census data by Pew last year found that 28 percent of mothers did not work, compared to only 7 percent of fathers. The percentage of women who stay at home is essentially the same as it was 30 years ago.

Perhaps more important than women’s representation in the overall workforce is their increased presence in management and executive positions, where they remain dramatically underrepresented. From 2015-18, the percentage of women in the C-Suite jumped from 17 percent to 23 percent, while women’s share of managerial positions rose from 37 percent to 39 percent.

As women’s role in the workplace increases, employers are restructuring their benefits packages with female recruitment and retention in mind. Mercer reports that the percentage of private employers offering paid parental leave rose from 24 percent in 2015 to 40 percent in 2018. Similarly, the percentage of very large employers (over 20,000 workers) offering egg freezing grew from 6 percent to 17 percent.

Read more: 

• Financial wellness: Why women have a more difficult path to get there
• Women’s earnings peak 11 years sooner than men’s
• Millennial women returning to labor market in droves