Archaeology, it’s a women’s world. Ok, slight exaggeration but not by too much. For years there has been concern about the male domination of archaeology, especially when other professions quickly gained more equal gender ratios following the women’s rights movement and archaeology did not. The latest Profiling the Profession report (which I will be posting on for the next few weeks) has some very good news on that front. The female to male ratio of UK archaeologists is just a hairs width away from matching the UK working average (slightly more men than women work in the UK) .
Gender ratio from Profiling the Profession reports
These averages are actually hiding a fairly significant generational trend in gender ratios. Younger generations tend to be dominated by those of the female persuasion. If these numbers hold then archaeology may soon become a female dominated profession.
| 1997/98 | 2002/03 | 2007/08 | 2012/13 | ||
| Male | 20-29 Male | 58% | 49% | 47% | 35% |
| 30-39 Male | 63% | 66% | 60% | 47% | |
| 40-49 Male | 71% | 71% | 65% | 62% | |
| 50-59 Male | 68% | 71% | 68% | 64% | |
| 60+ Male | 70% | 73% | 68% | 64% | |
| Female | 20-29 Female | 42% | 51% | 53% | 65% |
| 30-39 Female | 37% | 34% | 40% | 53% | |
| 40-49 Female | 29% | 29% | 35% | 38% | |
| 50-59 Female | 32% | 29% | 32% | 36% | |
| 60+ Female | 30% | 27% | 32% | 36% |
Table 1: Gender by age group of UK archaeologists
Guarded Cheer
Of course there is concerned about the dreaded family ceiling. That is people drop out of archaeology when they want to have a family. I say people because it is not just women but men too. Though, the common belief is it hurts women more because of pregnancy issues and field work don’t mix too well. This surge in women workers in the younger generations has been noticed for some time now. However, given that the data is collected by decades we still have to wait and see if there is any sort of ceiling in the late 30s to earlier 40s age range for women. Most likely we will know until the next Profiling the Profession report in 5 years.
There is of course the issue of pay as well. It would appear that women earn less BUT when you take into account the generational effect e.g. old people tend to have more experience and thus higher paying jobs. Thus if older generations are dominated by men then it is not surprising that it appears that men make more. Though when we look at generational pay we see that younger women, who outnumber men in their age group, make just as much as men, in some cases more. Again, we will probably have to wait a few years to confirm that nothing happens as women get older.
Average wages for archaeologists by gender and age
So all tentatively good new for women my future bosses in archaeology.
North America Women
A few years back I wrote an article with data I had that saw similar trends in North American archaeology. It was based on a sample of archaeologists in New Mexico and was compared against the gender trends from The American Archaeologists: a profile project. It actually showed that, at least in New Mexico, the younger generations were more heavily skewed towards women then predicted. It is possible in a few decades we might be discussing the “lack of men” problem in archaeology. I will be the first to admit that this US data is not as strong as I would like it. Hopefully, some future project will be able to double check this but it looks like archaeology in North America is following the same trends.
I, for one, welcome our new female overlords in Archaeology.
Doug's Archaeology 
Doug Rocks-Macqueen
October 27, 2013
You might be onto something with social trends but it is probably not through marriage. Across the board more women are going to university then men. As most career options in archaeology require a degree any change in universities will affect archaeology- to a certain point.
Now I was once told that the reason for the increase in women at universities is because only women with well off fathers could afford to send their daughters to university for a major that doesn’t pay well. But they expect their sons to work their way. Thus a sort of “daddy’s girl” effect.
I actually think that is a load of bunk. I think the reason there are more women in archaeology is because there are more women doing to university and pursing archaeology degrees. I think that is much more complex issue. For example, if all things were equal in the US we would see a 52% women 48% men split in university. But there is something like 3 million men in prisons at any one time. Almost- 6 million convicted felons (most people get convicted in their teens or 20s) which is predominantly men. Meaning while they would usually be in university they are actually in prison. That alone nudges the college population up to more women then men by a few percentage points. That is just one facet and I could thing of several more- more men go to STEM subjects which pushes women to others, like archaeology.
I think the issue is that archaeology for the most part requires a degree and that is why there is more women now. I think the reason there are more women in university is a very complex issue with not a single silver bullet answer, possibly a whole magazine of them is needed.
Doug Rocks-Macqueen
October 28, 2013
“Maybe we should ask a bunch of women archaeology prospects and women who became archaeologists why so many women are entering archaeology?”- yep probably the best idea.
AmiraZara
November 20, 2013
This is an interesting post. I would have to agree with you. In my Anthropology/Archaeology department, at the University of Tulsa (Oklahoma), there are no male students in the MA and PhD programs. There are a few males in the BA program, however they are not active in the labs, so it is like they aren’t really there. Besides that the only other males are the professors and only one of them is female. She was recently hired, before that the department never had a female professor.
If I had to guess, I think female field domination is due to the unfortunate view of archaeology as a hobby, not a real job; because the average salary is fairly low..
Feel free to check out my blog as well, it’s mostly on the Paleolithic in the Near East, paleo-climatology, and implementing new technology into archaeological studies.
http://amirazara.wordpress.com/