Everyone knows that economic inequality has increased dramatically since the 1970s, and this has created a new cottage industry: dissecting "the top 1 percent." We now have a study from three economists that broadens what we know about these top earners. The study's biggest news: Economic inequality is becoming more gender neutral.
Go back to the early 1980s, and almost no women were in the top 1 percent. Now there are lots, says the study, though women's representation still remains well below their overall share in the workforce, about half in 2012.
The study was conducted by Fatih Guvenen of the University of Minnesota, Greg Kaplan of Princeton University and Jae Song of the Social Security Administration. The study divides the top 1 percent of earners into two parts: the top 0.1 percent (meaning that 99.9 percent of earners are lower) and the second 0.9 percent. From 1981 to 1985, women averaged about 2 percent of the top 0.1 percent; now, they're about 11 percent.