Hersch: Should we care that women with “elite” education drop out of the workforce?

JONI HERSCH, Vanderbilt University – Law School, Vanderbilt University – Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University – College of Arts and Science – Department of Economics, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

This paper, written for the 2013-2014 Symposium of the Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality, expands on my research showing that women who are graduates of elite institutions have lower labor market activity than their counterparts who are graduates of non-selective institutions. I provide new statistics on the relation between status of undergraduate institution and family background, likelihood of earning a professional or graduate degree, earnings, and trends in opting out. These data show that the gap in labor market activity on the basis of educational status was largely unchanged between 2003 and 2010 and that graduation from an elite post-baccalaureate program does not eliminate the pay gap between graduates of elite and non-selective institutions.

I discuss what the greater opting out of women with elite education implies for social inequality on two dimensions: whether increased workplace flexibility would lead to greater retention of women in high-profile careers and competition for limited slots in elite institutions. […]

[Ed.: See also this Sunday’ viral NYT article on the elite-educated wives of the UES.]