The United States led all other nations in the development of universal and publicly funded secondary school education, and much of the growth occurred from 1910 to 1940. The focus of this article is on why the "high school movement" occurred in America generally and why it occurred so early and swiftly in America's heartland-a region we dub the "education belt." Since Iowa was at the center of this belt, we use information from the unique Census of Iowa for 1915 at both the county and individual level to explore the factors that propelled states like Iowa to embrace so expensive a public good as secondary school education...

The fraction of U.S. college graduate women entering professional programs increased substantially around 1970 and the age at first marriage among all U.S. college graduate women soared just after 1972. We explore the relationship between these two changes and how each was shaped by the diffusion of the birth control pill among young, single college educated women. Although the pill' was approved in 1960 by the FDA and diffused rapidly among married women, it did not diffuse among young single women until the late 1960s when a series of state law changes reduced the age of majority and extended mature minor decisions. We model the impact of the pill on women's careers as consisting of two effects. The pill had a direct positive effect on women's career investment by almost eliminating the chance of becoming pregnant and thus the cost of having sex. The pill also created a social multiplier effect by encouraging the delay of marriage generally and thus increasing a career woman's likelihood of finding an appropriate mate after professional school. We present a collage of evidence pointing to the power of the pill in lowering the costs of long-duration professional education for women. The evidence consists of the striking coincidences in the timing of changes in career investment, marriage age, state laws, and pill use among young single women. The connection between changes in the age at first marriage and the pill is further explored using state variation in laws affecting young single women's pill access. We also evaluate alternative explanations for the changes in career and marriage.

Secondary school education greatly expanded in the United Statesfrom 1910 to 1940, setting its schooling attainment apart from thatof all other countries. Barely 10 percent of youth were high schoolgraduates in 1910, but by the mid 1930s the median youth had ahigh school diploma. In some regions, by the 1930s enrollmentand graduation rates rose to levels that were as high as they wouldbe two decades later. The issue addressed here concerns the economicimpact of the large increase in the supply of educated labor.Evidence is presented concerning the sharp decline in the wagepremium to ordinary white-collar workers. With the expansion ofthe high school, large numbers of Americans competed for positionsin the coveted white-collar sector. Although the return to ayear of high school remained considerable on the eve of WorldWar II, egalitarianism had evened the playing field for a substantialsegment of Americans.

Economic inequality is higher today than at any time in the past sixty years, measured by both the wage structure and wealth inequality. But the comparison between 1939 and 1999 is largely made out of necessity, since the 1940 U.S. population census was the first to inquire of wage and salary income and education.In this paper we address what the returns to skill were in the United States prior to 1940 and piece together a full century of skill premiums, the dispersion of the wage structure, and the returns to formal schooling. We examine the long run history of distribution in the United States through the lens of the wage structure and the returns to schooling and are able to do so because of the recent retrieval of a remarkable and unique document - the 1915 Iowa State Census. We also use several less-obscure materials but ones, nonetheless, that have remained dormant. Using all of these sources, we find that the wage structure narrowed at several moments in the first half of the century, both coinciding with major economic disruptions brought about by war, inflation, and union activity. The returns to education were in fact higher in 1914 than in 1939, and the enormous expansion in secondary schooling was a contributing factor.

We present the first estimates of the returns to years of schooling before 1940 using a large sample of men and women, employed in a variety of sectors and occupations, from the Iowa State Census of 1915. We find that the returns to a year of high school, and to a year of college, were substantial in 1915 - about 11 percent for all males and in excess of 12 percent for young males. Some of the return to years of high school and college arose because more education allowed individuals to enter lucrative white-collar jobs. But we also find sizable educational wage differentials within the white- and blue-collar sectors. Returns to education above the 'common school' grades were substantial even within the agricultural sector. Given the high overall rate of return to secondary schooling, it is no wonder that the 'high school movement' took root in America around 1910, even in agricultural areas such as Iowa. Census data for 1940, 1950, and 1960 are used to show that returns to years of schooling were greater in 1915 than in 1940. We conclude that the return to education decreased sometime between 1915 and 1940 and then declined again during the 1940s.

Economic inequality is higher today than it has been since 1939, as measured by both the wage structure and wealth inequality. But the comparison between 1939 and 1999 is largely made out of necessity; the 1940 U.S. population census was the first to inquire of wage and salary income and education. We address what the returns to skill were prior to 1940 and piece together the first century-long history of skill premiums, the dispersion of the wage structure, and returns to formal schooling. We use the 1915 Iowa State Census, a remarkable and unique document, as well as several less-obscure but untapped reports. Using all of these sources, we find that the wage structure narrowed at several moments in the first half of the 20th century, not just in the 1940s, both coinciding with major economic disruptions brought about by war. The returns to education were in fact higher in 1914 than in 1939, and the enormous expansion in secondary schooling beginning in the 1910s was a contributing factor to the decrease in educational returns. Inequality and the returns to education across the entire century, therefore, first declined before their more recent and steep ascent.

Inequality across the twentieth century United States is a tale in two parts. The last half-century is the better known of the two and has been a period of widening inequality. But the first half-century, as we will demonstrate, was a period of narrowing inequality. It is the less well understood of the two tales largely because of data deficiencies. The federal population census, which provides much of the evidence on the distribution of material well being, first asked questions on income (and education) in 1940. We assemble data from a wide variety of sources showing conclusively that there was, during the first half of the century, a substantial decrease in various measures of inequality. The wage structure in manufacturing narrowed, the premium to various white-collar occupations decreased as did that for many craft trades, and the return to years of post-elementary education fell. These declines, moreover, came in two large spurts, both during wartime periods that were subsequently sustained. Not only was there a wage and income compression in the 1940s, about which much has been written, but there was also a narrowing in the late 1910s. Both periods of reductions in the premium to skill and decreases in the pecuniary return to education coincided, as well, with expansions in education, first for secondary schooling and later at the college level.

Secondary-school enrollment and graduation rates increased spectacularly in muchof the United States from 1910 to 1940; the advance was particularly rapid from1920 to 1935 in the nonsouthern states. This increase was uniquely American; noother nation underwent an equivalent change for several decades. States that rapidlyexpanded their high school enrollments early in the period had greater wealth, morehomogeneity of wealth, and less manufacturing activity than others. Factorsprompting the expansion include the substantial returns to education early in thecentury and a responsive "state." This work is based on a newly constructed stateleveldata set.