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The "End of Men" and Rise of Women in the High-Skilled Labor Market

Author

Listed:
  • Guido Matias Cortes
  • Nir Jaimovich
  • Henry E. Siu

Abstract

We document a new finding regarding changes in labor market outcomes for high-skilled men and women in the US. Since 1980, conditional on being a college-educated man, the probability of working in a cognitive/high-wage occupation has fallen. This contrasts starkly with the experience for college-educated women: their probability of working in these occupations rose, despite a much larger increase in the supply of educated women relative to men. We show that one key channel capable of rationalizing these findings is a greater increase in the demand for female-oriented skills in cognitive/high-wage occupations relative to other occupations. Using occupation-level data, we find evidence that this relative increase in the demand for female skills is due to an increasing importance of social skills within such occupations. Evidence from both male and female wages is also indicative of an increase in the demand for social skills. Finally, we document how these patterns change across the early and latter portions of the period.

Suggested Citation

  • Guido Matias Cortes & Nir Jaimovich & Henry E. Siu, 2018. "The "End of Men" and Rise of Women in the High-Skilled Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 24274, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24274
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    Cited by:

    1. Bonfiglioli, Alessandra & De Pace, Federica, 2021. "Export, Female Comparative Advantage and the Gender Wage Gap," CEPR Discussion Papers 15801, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Anna Matysiak & Wojciech Hardy & Lucas van der Velde, 2025. "Structural Labour Market Change and Gender Inequality in Earnings," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 39(2), pages 426-448, April.
    3. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/4igrl22i129kl9t3bjsriribbs is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Jaimovich, Nir & Saporta-Eksten, Itay & Siu, Henry & Yedid-Levi, Yaniv, 2021. "The macroeconomics of automation: Data, theory, and policy analysis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 1-16.
    5. Alonzo, Davide & Gallipoli, Giovanni, 2023. "The Changing Value of Employment and Its Implications," CEPR Discussion Papers 17943, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Kovalenko, Tim & Töpfer, Marina, 2021. "Cyclical dynamics and the gender pay gap: A structural VAR approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    7. Sonia Bhalotra & Martin Karlsson & Therese Nilsson & Nina Schwarz, 2022. "Infant Health, Cognitive Performance, and Earnings: Evidence from Inception of the Welfare State in Sweden," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(6), pages 1138-1156, November.
    8. Verdugo, Gregory & Allègre, Guillaume, 2020. "Labour force participation and job polarization: Evidence from Europe during the Great Recession," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    9. Hie Joo Ahn & Yunjong Eo, 2025. "Hysteresis and the Role of Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity: Evidence from U.S. States," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2025-062r1, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), revised 16 Dec 2025.
    10. Atalay, Enghin & Phongthiengtham, Phai & Sotelo, Sebastian & Tannenbaum, Daniel, 2018. "New technologies and the labor market," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 48-67.
    11. Zhang, Su & Xia, Yan & Wang, Huijuan & Pan, Jiaofeng, 2025. "The good, the bad: How digital technology shapes welfare for formal and flexible workers?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 2007-2029.
    12. Devereux, Kevin, 2018. "Identifying the value of teamwork: Application to professional tennis," CLEF Working Paper Series 14, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.
    13. Marcin Chlebus & Artur Nowak, 2023. "From Alchemy to Analytics: Unleashing the Potential of Technical Analysis in Predicting Noble Metal Price Movement," Working Papers 2023-13, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    14. WU, Yunxia & LI, Lei & Zheng, Yanyan, 2024. "The impact of digitization in manufacturing on female employment and gender wage gap," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    15. Giovanni Gallipoli & Khalil Esmkhani & Michael Böhm, 2019. "Skill-Biased Firms and the Distribution of Labor Market Returns," 2019 Meeting Papers 1199, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    16. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Fernandez Sierra, Manuel, 2018. "The Distribution of the Gender Wage Gap," IZA Discussion Papers 11640, IZA Network @ LISER.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand

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