Birth Control Access Boosts Women's Wages, Study Finds

[kpete]

Now, for the first time ever, a new study has connected the narrowing of that pay gap to increased access to birth control pills.

Birth Control Access Boosts Women's Wages, Study Finds
http://www.nber.org/papers/w17922



About one-third of women's wage gains throughout the 1990s can be attributed to changing laws in the 1960s and 70s that lowered the age at which women could legally access the pill.

"We found that women who had early access to the pill in the 1960s and 1970s earned 8 percent more on average by the 1980s and 1990s than women without early access," said Martha Bailey, a research affiliate at the U-M Institute for Social Research who authored the study.

When some states dropped the legal access age from 21 to 18, the report found, contraceptive use among 18- to 20-year-olds doubled. This development, in particular, allowed more college-aged women to finish school without being interrupted by an unplanned pregnancy.

"As the pill provided younger women the expectation of greater control over childbearing, women invested more in their human capital and careers," said Bailey. "Most affected were women with some college, who benefited from these investments through remarkable wage gains over their lifetimes."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/26/birth-control-access-womens-wages_n_1380250.html?ref=politics&ir=Politics

[mainer]

1. Duh.

Gentlemen, if you want your family income to drop, just outlaw birth control. And then feeding your family is all on YOUR SHOULDERS.

[derby378]

2. And there you have it...

Apparently, there are too many Republicans who think wimmens gotta learn their "place," so here's another tool to keep her down.

[CTyankee]

3. this is so fundamental.

I wish it were just obvious to EVERYONE!

[REP]

4. Duh. Letting women control their reproductive lives turns out to benefit everyone.

No loss brainpower in the workforce; and when and if those women choose to have children, the children benefit from more educated, experienced and mature mothers (who may also be more financially stable); more financially stable households ... all this and more for the low price of treating women like human beings!

[TheKentuckian]

5. Sounds like more than enough reason for the TeaPubliKlans to be deadset against

Anything that destroys wages or stagnates them is the platinum ring for them.

No need to look any further to answer "why are the Republicans waging a war on women".

There is more to it but that is all the reason they need.

[longship]

6. No wonder AZ legislature wants to let employers have control

"All BC using women are sluts. Rush said it. That's the end of the debate!"

[StarsInHerHair]

7. I'd like to add: where high-school pregnancy happens, isn't "Mommy brain" a reason she drops out?

it takes awhile for the brain, for some mothers, to get back to the same levels. Why isn't this included in the rare sex ed class?