THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN PROFESSIONAL SOCIOLOGY.

The article focuses on the status of women in professional sociology in the United States. It shows both a numerical and a proportionate decline in undergraduate degrees awarded to women from 1949 through 1958. During the same period the percentages of graduate degrees in sociology earned by women show an irregular series of fluctuations within certain fairly broad limits. The pervasive character of sex differentials in professional sociology is presented in the article, which presents information on earnings and age for equivalent categories of male and female sociologists. The data were gathered in 1952 by the American Council of Learned Societies in a national survey sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense. It was estimated that the survey covered 40 per cent of all professionally employed sociologists, including those working in applied sociology. It is noteworthy that all six of the salary comparisons show a differential in favor of the men, although in every case but one the median age of the women is greater than that of the men.