IDEX Online Research: Jewelers - Target Female Self-Purchasers, Part IX

The model family of the 1950s, Dad is the sole earner and Mom is at home cooking three hot meals a day, is hard to be found in the U.S. these days. In this multi-part series, we are looking at what this means for jewelers. The good news: more women than ever before work outside of the home and now have the discretionary income to buy jewelry for themselves. The opportunity: professional women.

Women’s Earnings Affected by Occupation

Women have made substantial inroads into higher paying occupations. They hold roughly half of all management, professional, and related occupations. In part, this relates to increased educational levels for women. For example, in 1970, only 11 percent of all women between the ages of 25 and 64 had completed four or more years of college; today, more than one-third of all women in that age range hold a college degree.

Source: BLS

• In management, business and finance, the highest paying occupations for women were chief executives and computer and information systems managers.

• Within professional and related occupations, women working as pharmacists, lawyers, and computer software engineers had the highest median earnings.

• Asian women were more likely to be employed in management positions than white, black or Hispanic females. The graph below illustrates the percentage of women by ethnic group employed in management positions in the U.S. labor force.

Source: BLS

Women account for more than half of all workers in each of the following industries: financial activities, education, health services, leisure and hospitality.