The Gender Gap in Earnings Among Teachers: The Case of Iowa in 1915

This paper draws on the 1915 Iowa State Census Report to decompose the gender gap in earnings into explained and unexplained parts. A novel feature is that the decomposition is performed not only at the mean but also over the entire distribution of earnings. In addition, an entire state, rather than a few cities, is considered. This paper finds that at least 25.6 percent, and probably more, of the gap is unexplained by the main observable characteristics at the mean. More interestingly, the unexplained part grows moving up the distribution of earnings, which indicates the possibility of a glass-ceiling effect for women. Results provide new insight into gender wage gaps among the highly educated, theories and empirical analysis in labor economics, and quantification in the history of education.