Elite Women Are Becoming More Like Elite Men, Less Like Other Women

Alison Wolf's main point in The XX Factor is that women in the top fifth of the economy live lives more like their male counterparts - high education, long careers, hired help. 

In fact, if they hire help and go right back to work after they have kids, women of the top classes do not even pay a 'mommy penalty' in their earnings.  Elite women, in other words, are living more like elite men than they are like other women.

The bottom 80% of the economic structure is very gendered.  The Fortunate Fifth, though, are becoming more integrated and similar to one another.

One Reason Women Go to College More Than Men: Women's Careers Have Become Much More Credential-Driven

This is a helpful point made by Alison Wolf in The XX Factor. 

As is well known, women are now more likely to go to and complete college than men.

Part of the reason is that they can go to college now much more than women could in the past.

But another part of the reason is that traditional women's careers - which are still overwhelmingly female - require more educational credentials than they used to.  Nursing and the other health care fields, in particular, are much more credentialized than they were even a generation ago.

Traditional men's careers, by contrast, such as electricians, carpenters, and plumbers, do not require a college degree.  They may even require more certifications than they used to, but not the kind given by colleges.