WOMEN AND MEN IN THE UNITED STATES

(the material below is excerpted from,
We the People: Women and Men in the United States . Census 2000
Special Reports by Renee Spraggins, January 2005)

1. Although the majority of the total population in 2000 was female (51 percent), gender composition varied by race.

(Excerpted from We the People , Figure 2.)

2. The marital status of women reflected the current trend toward remaining single.

TABLE 2
Percent Never-Married Women by Selected Age Groups: 1970-2000

(Excerpted from We the People, Figure 4.)

3. Both the proportions of married men and women decreased between 1970-2000.

TABLE 3
Percent Marital Status Men and Women 15 and Older: 1970-2000

(Excerpted from We the People , Figure 5.)

4. The educational attainment of women continued to rise and the college education gap with men narrowed. As Table 4 below shows, since 1970, women narrowed the college education gap. In 2000, 23 percent of women and 26 percent of men had graduated from college, a gap of 3 percentage points compared to a gap in 1970 of 5 percentage points.

TABLE 4
Percent Marital Status Men and Women 15 and Older: 1970-2000

5. Married couple-households declined from 69 percent of all households in 1970 to 53 percent in 2000. Female house-holds with no spouse present increased during this time from 8.7 percent to 11.8 percent. Also, both the percentages of men and women who were living alone climbed significantly from 11.2 percent in 1970 to 14.8 percent in 2000 for women and from 6.2 percent to 11 percent during this same period for men.

TABLE 5
Percent of Households by Family Type: 1970-2000

(Excerpted from We the People, Figure 7)

6. In 2000, nearly half of the employed civilian labor force was composed of women, having grown from 38 percent in 1970 to 47 percent in 2000. Women represented over half the work force in: sales and office (64 percent); service (57 percent); and professional and related occupations (56 percent).

Women also increased from 16.6 percent of managers and administrators, except farm in 1970 to 41.9 percent in 2000.

7. Although median earnings of women and men varied by race and Hispanic origin, over-all women's median income in 1999 was about $10,000 less than that of men.

TABLE 6
Median Earnings by Race and Hispanic Origin: 1999

(Excerpted from We the People, Figure 11.)
*Note: Generally, the higher the male median earnings the greater the gap between male and female earnings.

8. Families headed by a woman with no husband present had the lowest income.

TABLE 7
Median Family Income Family Type: 1969-1999¹

(Excerpted from We the People , Figure 12)
1. Income in 1999 inflation adjusted dollars
*From 1969 to 1999, the median income of female householders compared to married couples widened from $20,449 to $31,887.

9. Women 18 years old and older were more likely than men to live in poverty.

TABLE 8
Percent in Poverty by Age Group:1999

Excerpted from We the People , Figure 13.)

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