Gender, sex, individual income, and the choice to work in the twenty-first century

The belief that differences between men and women are biological, and the outcomes of this, has been widely studied. This research attempts to add to that body of knowledge through the use of the General Social Survey to examine the differential determinants of labor force participation and individual income for males and females in the twenty-first century.

Demographic, human capital, household, income, and gender ideology variables provide a much a greater fit for explaining female labor force participation decisions than for men. Potential income and human capital variables significantly affect placement in the labor force for both males and females. Income and household variables only significantly classify females into the labor force categories.

In the individual income analyses, human capital, work structure, and sex and gender variables come to the forefront of explaining variance. Across the male and female models, human capital yields similar returns to income while work structure and gender variables reveal underlying differences in individual income.