In the past, teachers, bank tellers, and secretaries were predominantly men; these occupations slipped in pay and status when they became largely occupied by women. Therefore, if women become the majority in currently male-dominated professions like accounting, law, and medicine, the income and prestige of these professions will also drop.

Which of the following, if true, would most likely be part of the evidence used to refute the conclusion above?

(A) Accountants, lawyers, and physicians attained their current relatively high levels of income and prestige at about the same time that the pay and status of teachers, bank tellers, and secretaries slipped.
(B) When large numbers of men join a female-dominated occupation, such as airline flight attendant, the status and pay of the occupation tend to increase.
(C) The demand for teachers and secretaries has increased significantly in recent years, while the demand for bank tellers has remained relatively stable.
(D) If present trends in the awarding of law degrees to women continue, it will be at least two decades before the majority of lawyers are women.
(E) The pay and status of female accountants, lawyers, and physicians today are governed by significantly different economic and sociological forces than were the pay and status of female teachers, bank tellers, and secretaries in the past.

Please help on this...i was not at all able to relate the options with the conclusion which will help to refute it.

I will go with A

This seems like a tough one. See my opinions in blue below.

Option A says that when women largely occupied professions such as teachers, bank tellers, and secretaries, accountants, lawyers, and physicians got their current relatively high levels of income and status

It just says that the two events happened at the same time.

ill go for E... what reasons have been given by others on top for A are hanging on only assumptions, which do not relate to anything stated in argument.....
however E gives a reason by making the two sets of job varying from each other so what is true for one need not be true for the other

what is the source? oa doesnt seem to be correct.....
what is the expl?

even i was looking for the explanation hence i posted it...

Correct Answer is A...

Explanation:
The above question is a Cause and Effect Reasoning situation.
Cause = If women enter a certain profession
Effect = The profession slip in pay and status

Now if we can prove that there is another cause for this effect, we can refute the conclusion in the question.

Option A does that perfectly
Its says that: Accountants, lawyers, and physicians attained their current relatively high levels of income and prestige at about the same time that the pay and status of teachers, bank tellers, and secretaries slipped.
This means that women entering the profession is not the reason for the slip in status or pay in the professions of teachers, bank tellers, and secretaries. The slipped happened due to some other factors which affected only these profession and didn't effect the other professions like Accountants, lawyers, and physicians. The option doesn't discriminate whether these professions were held by men or women. It could be that the supply of these profession was too high that led to decrease in status and pay of these professions.

Option E cannot be correct for a reason which isn't that logically but it does hold good in GMAT upto some extent. The GMAC would never make an answer which would be biased or show case the discrimination of women (specially downfall) in the current society. The words - " today are governed by significantly different economic and sociological forces" show a sense of discrimination and partiallity with respect to women and hence wouldn't stand a chance of being the correct answer!

I might be wrong in my explanation of Option E but Option A does get the credit as the perfect answer as per the CR rules
_________________

Cheers!
JT...........
If u like my post..... payback in Kudos!!

|Do not post questions with OA|Please underline your SC questions while posting|Try posting the explanation along with your answer choice|
|For CR refer Powerscore CR Bible|For SC refer Manhattan SC Guide|


~~Better Burn Out... Than Fade Away~~

A little lost now as sagarsabnis posted the OA is A and now you have posted the OA as E...
Can you please check and confirm!
_________________

Cheers!
JT...........
If u like my post..... payback in Kudos!!

|Do not post questions with OA|Please underline your SC questions while posting|Try posting the explanation along with your answer choice|
|For CR refer Powerscore CR Bible|For SC refer Manhattan SC Guide|


~~Better Burn Out... Than Fade Away~~

(A) Accountants, lawyers, and physicians attained their current relatively high levels of income and prestige at about the same time that the pay and status of teachers, bank tellers, and secretaries slipped.

I have one problem with OA as 'A' it was never said that in the option A women entered in both the accountants,etc., and teachers ,etc., profession at the same number

without that we can't assume that women entered in both types of profession

I still feel that OA is E.

I was disappointed to see OA as A as I can't relate the answer to it. but felt better when I saw posts which states that OA as E