Don't let the wave of important female public figures and CEOs making headlines convince you that there is no longer any need for a conversation about the role of women in the workplace. A new study by researchers at the University of California San Diego indicates that powerful women like Hilary Clinton, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer of Yahoo are rare exceptions and that overall, gender inequality remains rampant in the American workplace.
The study surveyed the status of women and men in the American workplace in the processions of law, medicine and science and engineering, some of the best-paying fields in the American service economy and also, historically, male-dominated fields where women have made significant gains.
"Women are underâ€represented in all three professions," said lead author Mary Blair, an associate professor of sociology at UC San Diego, in a statement. "They are rarest in the most powerful sectors and at the highest levels."
The study also challenged the notion of "male-decline"-that male-driven jobs like construction and manufacturing and high-finance have dried up as a result of the 2008 recession, and that that working-class men are frequently ill-equipped to take on the jobs available in the country's new post-recession economy.
News media often depict women as thriving in the new economy, and the study says there is a general public assumption that there is a wealth of jobs for women where there is little or no competition from men.
However, the study says there is an often ignored spectrum of power in the service economy and that while women dominate the lower-paying tiers of the service economy, it is still men who are the helm of power.
The ongoing equality is not good for individuals, organizations or society as a whole, Blair-Loy said.
"The first step is to see through this myth that women are doing better than men," she said. "The second is to thank Sheryl Sandberg for inciting discussion about gender disparities in the workplace. But to solve this issue, we need to look beyond the behavior of individuals and to recognize the structural barriers that continue to disadvantage and discourage.