Dentist characteristics over time , according to sex , 1990-2010 .*
The ADA ’ s Health Policy Institute considers the wage gap an important issue . HPI studied this in April 2017 and produced a video titled “ The Gender Gap in Medicine , Law and Dentistry .” Part of this study ’ s analysis contained data from a JADA article produced at that same time . Among the findings in the JADA piece (“ Trends in the earnings gender gap among dentists , physicians , and lawyers ”) was the following : “ Although mean differences in earnings between men and women narrowed over time , there remained large , unaccountable earnings differences between men and women among all professions after multivariate adjustments . For dentists , the unexplained difference in earnings for women was approximately constant at 62 % to 66 %.”
The fundamental differential association between parenthood and women ’ s / men ’ s earnings is thought to result from gendered responses to having children . Women tend to reduce work hours to care for their children , whereas men increase work hours to provide for their family . Women are more likely than men to stay home if there is a newborn baby to care for , a sickness or injury . Employer discrimination is still thought to occur against mothers and favoring fathers . Employers may discriminate against mothers in hiring , firing , promotion and compensation likely because mothers are perceived as less committed to work . In contrast , the positive wage differential for fathers is believed to be due to men ’ s gender traditional response to the birth of a child , wherein fathers will want to increase their breadwinning capacity by increasing work hours and effort . One indicator to support this is the consistent finding that mothers on average earn less than childless women , where on the contrary fathers tend to earn more than childless men .
DENTIST CHARACTERISTIC 1990 2000 2010
Male Female Male Female Male Female Income , $ 143,874 65,744 192,145 105,766 185,192 120,475 Age , y , Mean 47,22 39.02 49.99 39.16 53.63 42.30 No . of Children 1.11 0.81 1.01 1.05 0.88 1.09 White , % 92.76 82.01 89.32 71.02 87.21 66.85 Black , % 2.35 4.93 2.39 5.77 2.11 4.79 Other Race , % 4.89 13.05 8.30 23.22 10.68 28.36 Married , % 85.53 68.86 84.82 70.79 84.98 75.96 Self – Employed , % 79.66 44.71 78.11 50.83 72.87 50.52 No . of Hours Worked per Week 38.73 34.74 37.63 36.77 35.79 35.66 Weeks Worked per Year , % † 1-13 1.89 4.67 1.89 3.07 1.89 2.57 14-26 2.77 6.90 2.81 4.75 1.41 2.57 27-39 2.24 6.16 1.98 4.37 2.37 3.57 40-47 8.11 10.08 8.92 11.58 9.98 9.71 48-49 14.92 11.78 14.85 11.96 12.31 10.33 50-52 70.06 60.40 69.54 64.26 72.04 71.24 No . of Participants 7,110 973 6,582 1,318 7,297 2,130
* Data from 1990 and 2000 Integrated Public Use Microdata Series census microdata and 2007-2011 American Community Survey . 16 Income indicates each respondent ’ s total pretax personal income from all sources for the previous calendar year . Amounts are expressed as they were reported to the interviewer , adjusted to 2011 real dollars .
†
Percentages do not total 100 % because of rounding .
Half of all households in 2019 were headed by women , yet they owned only 28 % of total household wealth . Gender wealth equality has been demonstrated as having better economic growth and development outcomes . Children of households run by women ( particularly single women ) have fewer financial resources available to them . Thus , parental finances are tied to children ’ s ultimate economic success . Disparity created by a gender wealth gap could therefore negatively affect the next generation ’ s productivity and thus their future economic status .
In addition , in the United States there is no publicly provided childcare , and there is no national policy for paid parental leave . During the recent COVID-19 recession , these negative economic factors took on the moniker “ she-cession ,” due to the lack of available during the pandemic , and pressure on jobs disproportionately held by women . 12.2 million jobs in the U . S . held by women were lost within the first three months of the pandemic , and many did not return .
One of the most prevalent explanations for occupational sex segregation among the workforce is that women choose jobs that maximize their ability to combine paid
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2023 | PENNSYLVANIA DENTAL JOURNAL 19