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March is Women’s History Month, and this year’s theme is “Providing Healing, Promoting Hope.” We celebrate the amazing accomplishments of women who provide healing and hope by looking at women employed in the health care and social assistance industry.
Year | Total employed | Women employed | Percent of total employment that are women |
---|---|---|---|
2011 |
18,902,000 | 14,836,000 | 78.5% |
2012 |
19,405,000 | 15,209,000 | 78.4 |
2013 |
19,562,000 | 15,343,000 | 78.4 |
2014 |
19,577,000 | 15,379,000 | 78.6 |
2015 |
20,077,000 | 15,752,000 | 78.5 |
2016 |
20,589,000 | 16,212,000 | 78.7 |
2017 |
20,720,000 | 16,271,000 | 78.5 |
2018 |
21,133,000 | 16,558,000 | 78.4 |
2019 |
21,701,000 | 16,959,000 | 78.1 |
2020 |
20,736,000 | 16,141,000 | 77.8 |
2021 |
21,204,000 | 16,446,000 | 77.6 |
In 2021, 16.4 million women were employed in the health care and social assistance industry. This was 77.6 percent of the total 21.2 million workers in the industry. Looking at the component industries that make up health care and social assistance, women counted for 75.0 percent of total employment (5.2 million) in hospitals, 77.4 percent of total employment (8.3 million) in health services, except hospitals, and 84.0 percent of total employment (2.6 million) in social assistance.
Industry | Number of women employed in industry | total employment | Percent of total employment that are women |
---|---|---|---|
Health care and social assistance |
16,446,000 | 21,204,000 | 77.6% |
Hospitals |
5,521,000 | 7,364,000 | 75.0 |
General medical and surgical hospitals, and specialty (except psychiatric and substance abuse) hospitals |
5,453,500 | 7,274,000 | 75.0 |
Psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals |
67,000 | 90,000 | 74.7 |
Health services, except hospitals |
8,283,000 | 10,696,000 | 77.4 |
Offices of physicians |
1,182,000 | 1,579,000 | 74.8 |
Offices of dentists |
805,000 | 974,000 | 82.6 |
Offices of chiropractors |
91,000 | 142,000 | 64.2 |
Offices of optometrists |
115,000 | 152,000 | 76.0 |
Offices of other health practitioners |
274,000 | 345,000 | 79.4 |
Outpatient care centers |
1,617,000 | 2,071,000 | 78.1 |
Home health care services |
1,247,000 | 1,450,000 | 86.0 |
Other health care services |
1,178,000 | 1,719,000 | 68.5 |
Nursing care facilities (skilled nursing facilities) |
1,100,000 | 1,352,000 | 81.3 |
Residential care facilities, except skilled nursing facilities |
675,000 | 911,000 | 74.1 |
Social assistance |
2,642,000 | 3,144,000 | 84.0 |
Individual and family services |
1,226,000 | 1,586,000 | 77.3 |
Community food and housing, and emergency services |
114,000 | 157,000 | 72.6 |
Vocational rehabilitation services |
52,000 | 87,000 | 59.5 |
Child day care services |
1,251,000 | 1,314,000 | 95.1 |
These data are from the Current Population Survey. To learn more, see “Employed persons by detailed industry, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity — 2021.”
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Over 16 million women worked in health care and social assistance in 2021 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2022/over-16-million-women-worked-in-health-care-and-social-assistance-in-2021.htm (visited October 31, 2024).