The rising importance of experience and skills over physical strength has altered the productivities across ages and the two sexes. Youth was no longer an advantage, nor was the physicality of the male body. Any company which embraced the shifting demographic of valuable workers would have a competitive advantage over those who continued to skew young and male. Before relevant laws, the pay of women had already begun to equal that of men.

The prioritisation of skills reduced the economic inequalities between sexes while increasing between those with and without skills. Rising earnings also increased the disparity between those who worked full time and those who did not. Women who chose to stay at home with their children and work part-time would see a more stark difference between their earnings and a man who worked full time.