In Sonoma, women live longer and have more education, but men earn more. HEALTH
Education and income indicators are far behind, however. Nearly 44 percent of Latino adults did not complete high school, and their median earnings are only about $21,500, which is below the poverty line for a family of four. In the chapters that follow, the distribution of well-being by race and ethnicity in health, education, and earnings are explored further. VARIATION BY GENDER
Source: Measure of America analysis of data from the California Department of Public Health 20052011, and U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2012, 1-year estimates.
Sonoma County’s females edge out males in human development by a small margin; their score is 5.41, as compared with 5.30. Females outlive males by just over four years, women are slightly more likely to have completed high school and college than men, and girls’ school enrollment is higher than boys’.6 Females age 16 years and older in the workforce, however, lag behind males in earnings by an annual amount of $8,628 (see S I D E B A R ). The difference in life expectancy between men and women can largely be attributed to biological genetic factors—the world over, females have an average four- to five-year advantage in life span over males, though differing patterns of health and risk behaviors play a role as well. In the United States, women have taken to heart the notions that education is an assured route to expanding options beyond traditional low-paying “female” occupations and that competing in today’s globalized knowledge economy requires higher education; girls and young women today are graduating high school and college at higher rates than men across the nation. Yet, as the numbers show, higher educational achievement has not automatically translated into higher earnings. The earnings gap between men and women remains stubbornly persistent.7 Median personal earnings include both full- and part-time workers, so part of the difference is a higher proportion of Sonoma County’s women than men working part time.8 These gaps are also explained in part by the wage “penalty” women pay if they leave the workforce to raise children; in part by women’s predominance in such low-wage occupations as child-care providers and home health aides; and in part by the persistence of wage discrimination—even in a female-dominated field like education, where two in three workers are women, men earn $17,000 more per year.9
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THE M EASU R E O F A ME R ICA S E R IE S
Men 78.9
years
Women 83.0 years
EDUCATION
Men 85%
Women 89%
with with at least a at least a high school high school diploma diploma
EARNINGS
Men $34K
per year
Women $26K per year