By Chip O’Connell
The Biden-Harris Administration recently launched the Apprenticeship Ambassador Initiative, a national network committed to strengthening apprenticeship in the United States, with a focus on increasing access and support for underrepresented populations. One target population is women, who have traditionally been underrepresented in the world of apprenticeship. The US Department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship has taken several steps to increase women’s representation in apprenticeship (see fact sheet here), including starting the Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations program. With that in mind, let’s look at the data regarding women in apprenticeship.
All data for this analysis can be found here.
First, referring to Figure 1 below, we see that women are still underrepresented in apprenticeship, with only 17% of new apprentices in 2021 being female.
However, while women remain underrepresented, their participation in apprenticeship has increased substantially in previous years. Figure 2 below shows that the number of new female apprentices beginning an apprenticeship each year has more than doubled since 2016, growing from 10,485 new apprentices in 2016 to 27,714 new apprentices in 2021.
Figure 3 shows the distribution of gender in apprenticeship since 2016. Women’s participation has more than doubled over this time, growing from 7.9% of new apprentices in 2016 to 17% of new apprentice in 2021.
Female apprentices can be found in every industry, as shown in Figure 4. The Health Care and Social Assistance industry is the largest industry for women, with 9,289 active female apprentices in this industry. Heath Care and Social Assistance is followed by Construction (with 7,776 active female apprentices) and Educational Services (4,339 active female apprentices).
Finally, Figure 5 shows median starting wages for new apprentices between 2016 and 2021, broken down by gender. Figure 5 shows that a gender wage gap exists in apprenticeship, but the gap has shrunk substantially over recent years. Looking at 2016, new female apprentices started their apprenticeships with a median wage of $12/hour, compared to male apprentices’ $15/hour, or a difference of $3/hour. Fast forward to 2021, and new female apprentices started at a median wage of $15/hour, compared to men’s $16.61/hour, or a difference of $1.61/hour. The change of a difference of $3/hour to $1.61/hour represents a 46% reduction in the apprentice gender wage gap.
In conclusion, while women remain underrepresented in apprenticeship, their participation has grown rapidly in recent years. They are heavily concentrated in the Health Care and Social Services industry, but they are also in every single other industry. Lastly, there still exists a wage gap in apprenticeship, but that wage gap appears to be shrinking rapidly.