Project background:
Based on our initial work started at the 2004 MAC institute, we applied for permission to develop a 10-credit coordinated studies course consisting of 1 section of introductory 200-level microeconomics and 1 section of College Algebra for Business & Social Science majors.
This class has been approved and will be offered during Spring 2006 with an emphasis on the labor market—titled Why Work?
Course Justification:
Americans work more hours than any other industrial nation. “More than a decade has passed since the release of The Overworked American, a prominent 1991 book about the decline in Americans’ leisure time, and the work pace in the United States only seems to have increased. From sleep-deprived parents to professionals who believe they must put in long hours to succeed at the office, the demand of work are colliding with family responsibilities and placing a tremendous time squeeze on many Americans ”.1
These choices and their impacts are often discussed as “women’s issues” and generally without a through analysis of the trade-offs. Yet, women are increasingly choosing education (and market work) over traditional women’s work of managing households and child-rearing. Many are choosing to marry later and to have fewer children
As of 2000 2, 84 percent of American adults (age 25 and over) had at least completed high school and 26 percent had a bachelor’s degree or higher, both all-time highs. More men than women hold these degrees (25 percent of women age 25 and over has a bachelor’s degree or higher compared with 29 percent of men) but with the prevailing trend that will soon change. In fact, among younger women and men, there is already a reverse gap: 33 percent of young women, age 25 to 34, have completed college, which exceeds the 29 percent of their male counterparts who have done so. Young women, 25 to 34, also have higher high school completion rates than young men: 89 percent versus 85 percent.
This trend, which is just becoming widely recognized, actually started some time ago (since 1979, the majority of college students have been women and since 1982, the majority of bachelor degrees awarded have been to women) and our social and economic environments have already been impacted by these changes.
This class will use the micro theory of utility and the basic supply and demand focused on the labor market to highlight the implications for individuals and for society of these issues. Students benefit by acquiring the quantitative skills and analytical framework provided by the math component of this course
1. http://www.contextsmagazine.org/content_sample_current.php accessed 10 January 2005.
2.US Census Bureau News Release, July 18, 2002; US Census Bureau Facts & Features, CB03-FF.03, February 14, 2003