Gender, Inequality, and Wages

Francine D. Blau is also a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and her BS from Cornell University. She has served as President of the Society of Labor Economists and the Labor and Employment Association, as Vice President of the American Economic Association, and as Chair of the American Economic Association Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession. She is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Labor Economics and the Journal of Labor Research. She is the author of Equal Pay in the Office (with L. Kahn), recipient of the Richard A. Lester Prize. In 2001 she was honored with the Carolyn Shaw Bell Award from the American Economic Association Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession. She is the first woman to receive the IZA Prize in Labor Economics.

In all Western societies women earn lower wages on average than men. The gender wage gap has existed for years, although there have been some important changes over time. This collection of revised papers contains extensive research on progress made by women in the labor market and the characteristics and causes of remaining gender inequalities.

Part I: Introduction by the Editors: Equality and Fairness in the Labor Market