Census Study Shows Women Veterans Earn More and Work Longer Hours

Release by the U.S. Census Bureau

Women veterans had higher salaries than nonveterans in 2005, but they also worked more hours in a week and more weeks out of the year, according to a new analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Women veterans earned $32,217 in 2005, compared with the $27,272 for women civilians with no military experience.

“Veteran status seems to offer an earnings advantage for women; however, female veterans are also more likely to work full-time hours,” says Census Bureau demographer Kelly Holder in the working paper, Exploring the Veteran-Nonveteran Earnings Differential in the 2005 American Community Survey. “Military education and work experience may translate into higher paying civilian jobs than women with a high school degree would normally expect.”

Male veterans also had higher salaries in 2005, averaging $42,128, compared with $39,880 for nonveterans. Holder says that even though the average may be higher, this gap can be deceiving. Unlike their female counterparts, when male veterans and nonveterans with comparable demographic characteristics (age, race, marital status, education) were compared side-by-side, the earnings advantage disappeared, and when male veterans and nonveterans who worked the same number of hours per week and weeks per year were also compared, the male veterans actually earned less than their nonveteran counterparts.

“Male veterans may have less job experience, and thus lower earnings, than similar nonveterans for their age because they enter the civilian labor force later,” Holder says in the report.

The report looked at veterans and nonveterans between ages 25 and 64 in the civilian labor force.

Women veterans were more likely to work 35 or more hours per week (84.3 percent vs. 77.7 percent), to work at least 50 weeks per year (73.1 percent vs. 71.6 percent) and to work in public administration (16 percent vs. 4.8 percent) than nonveterans.

Male veterans were less likely to have a bachelor’s degree (16.3 percent vs. 20.5 percent) and more likely to be divorced (15.2 percent vs. 9.7 percent) than nonveterans.



Note: This analysis is based on the 2005 American Community Survey data. More recent general data about veterans can be found on <http://factfinder.census.gov>. As part of the Census Bureau’s reengineered 2010 Census, the data collected by the ACS helps federal officials determine where to distribute more than $300 billion to state and local governments each year. Responses to the survey are strictly confidential and protected by law. The 2005 ACS estimates are based on an annual, nationwide sample of about 250,000 addresses per month and did not include group quarters. For more information go to <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/index.htm>.

Alice and Rebecca: Mother and daughter Walkers clash on feminism

Courtney L. Martin, one of my fave writer-thinkers on the gal scene (--hope that's PC--and see my blog entry below about Courtney's latest, Perfect Girls, Starving Bodies, 12th August, 2007), has written a kind of sad yet insightful piece for AlterNet on how a daughter's resentment over (for her) failed mothering signals the failures of feminism. Martin raises the question of whether we are to fault failed mothers for their decision to split their commitment between child-rearing and spearheading movements or the social system that encourages women to bear the burden of raising children inordinately or even alone.

High-Paying Jobs for Women

We borrow a page from Yahoo for this article of interest to you gals searching around for a new or first career where pay parity odds may not be as great.
So, if you're so inclined, Go for it!

LA Times: ‘Dancing With the Stars’: Kristi Yamaguchi fulfills her destiny : Show Tracker : Los Angeles Times

This hyperbolic from the L.A. Times:

‘Dancing With the Stars’: Kristi Yamaguchi fulfills her destiny : Show Tracker : Los
Angeles Times:

"After 10 weeks, we’re all tired here, so let’s cut to the chase: Kristi
Yamaguchi and her partner Mark Ballas, the highest scorers in the history of the
show (or at least the U.S. version) took home the trophy. Jason Taylor and Edyta
were the runners-up"

Well, seems that becoming one of the premiere figures and most widely recognized, early ambassadors for her sport might have ranked somewhere on the chart of 'fulfilling her destiny,' but there's no doubt that Yamaguchi's gracefulness translates easily off the ice. She's a great athlete and, we know, also a terrific dancer.

It Figures...

From Harper's Index, this month, May:

Number of nations that do not legally guarantee women any paid maternity leave: 4
Average annual per-capita income in the three other than the United States: $1,226

Hip, hip, Latinas!

Hispanic Business magazine lauds successful Latinas making an impact on America's workplace by naming 20 to their Winner's Circle of Elite Women. They include an astronaut (Ellen Ochoa), California State Senator (Gloria Romero), IT entrepreneur (Nina Vaca), and a university president (Dr. Elsa Murano, Texas A and M).
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/newsbyid.asp?idx=94479

The Case for Women Leaders

Alternet has excerpted part of Madelin M. Kunin's Pearls, Politics, and Power (Chelsea Green, 2008), which states the case, not just for more women leaders, but leadership more in the recently-identified women's style of running things. It's provocative. A too-brief runthrough of the difference between transactional leadership, said to be clearly masculine, one of hierarchy and command, and transformational, a more feminized process that's shared and premised on common purpose, led to an obvious irony. Hillary Clinton's style seems nearly textbook transactional, while Barack Obama's is transformational.

I don't know whether she gets to those other women who've learned to act mega alpha because they think that's the only way they'll be heeded. And, I'm wondering, too, about those pearls.