. . . .we see no indication of a notable improvement in women’s relative earnings in the immediate post-1964 period that might be attributable to the effects of the government’s antidiscrimination effort; the gender pay ratio remained basically flat through the late 1970s or early 1980s, after which it began to increase. In contrast, blacks experienced considerable increases in their relative earnings in the decade following the passage of the civil rights laws that many scholars attribute, at least in part, to the impact of these laws (e.g., Donohue and Heckman 1991).

Nonetheless, there is some evidence from a variety of detailed, micro-level studies of a positive effect of government equal employment opportunity policies on women’s earnings and occupations. . . .On the other hand, it is puzzling that the largest female relative-wage gains and the strongest evidence of a decline in the unexplained gender wage gap were during the 1980s (see section 2 and section 6), which includes a period in which the government’s antidiscrimination effort was noticeably scaled back.

. . . .Although decreases in gender differences in occupational distributions contributed significantly to convergence in men’s and women’s wages, gender differences in occupations and industries are quantitatively the most important measurable factors explaining the gender wage gap (in an accounting sense). Thus, in contrast to human-capital factors, gender differences in location in the labor market, a factor long highlighted in research on the gender wage gap, remain exceedingly relevant.