David Leonhardt in the New York Times today writes about how well women (without children) are doing in the workforce. We have had three women (without children) nominated to the Supreme Court in recent years. The feminist movement was very successful in getting women (without children) to achieve equal pay as men (until they have children) and in breaking barriers to have them reach top positions in business and politics (until they have children).

The problem is in the parenthesis, of course. Women find it hard to work full time and balance a family life. If they take time off, they never catch up to the men. There are few opportunities to work part time or flexibility, so women are increasingly dropping out of the workforce entirely after they have children.

Leonhardt discusses a recent study of business school graduates from the University of Chicago.

A recent study of business school graduates from the University of Chicago
found that in the early years after graduating, men and women had
“nearly identical labor incomes and weekly hours worked.” Men and women
also paid a similar career price for taking off or working part time.
Women, however, were vastly more likely to do so.

As a result, 15 years after graduation, the men were making about 75
percent more than the women. The study — done by Marianne Bertrand,
Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz — did find one subgroup of women whose
careers resembled those of men: women who had no children and never
took time off.

This is hardly an original column. We've been talking about this problem for ages on this blog. Leonhardt should have interviewed other experts and referred to some key books. Whatever. Just glad it's being discussed.