Industry, Occupation, and State-by-State Job Estimates, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, April 2013
Investments in the green economy have the potential to create jobs with family-sustaining wages that do not require college degrees. Given women’s greater propensity to earn less than family-sustaining wages than men, this characteristic of green jobs is particularly relevant to women.
The report “Quality Employment for Women in the Green Economy” from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research provides detailed estimates of women’s employment in the green economy, state-by-state, by industry, and by occupation.
From a positive perspective, IWPR’s research finds that women working in the green economy have higher earnings than other women and that the gender wage gap in green jobs is lower than in the economy overall.
A negative, however, women are much less likely than men to work in green jobs and are particularly underrepresented in the occupations that are predicted to grow most strongly in the green sector.
The report suggests that state and national workforce development policies need to explicitly address women’s underrepresentation in green growth occupations to ensure that investment in the green economy equally benefits women’s and men’s economic prospects.
Read the full report.