Currently,
women’s median annual earnings are about 20 percent below men’s. What’s the
reason for this? New findings suggest that work done by women is not valued as
highly. Women are now better educated than men on average, have nearly as much
work experience, and are equally likely to pursue many high-paying careers.
Yet, the pay gap persists. In one study, it was found that when women enter
fields in greater numbers, pay declines—for the very same jobs that more men were
doing before.
The
research of Paula England, a sociology professor at New York University, shows
that once women start doing a job, “It just doesn’t look like it’s as important
to the bottom line or requires as much skill.” This is likely due to gender
bias. Evidence of this can be seen in many occupations throughout history. For
example, when women became housekeepers, wages fell by 21 percent and when
women became biologists, wages fell 18 percentage points. The reverse can also
be seen. Computer programming used to be a menial role done by women, but when
male programmers began to outnumber female ones, the job began paying more and
gained prestige.
It is true
that the pay gap has been closing over time, but it sadly still exists. The
gender pay gap has been found to be largest in higher-paying, white-collar
jobs. The explanation behind this finding may be that these jobs demand longer
and less flexible hours, and research has shown that workers are
disproportionately penalized for wanting flexibility. In addition to this,
women are indeed sometimes more attracted to lower-paying occupations, but many
social scientists say there are other factors that are hard to quantify, like
gender bias, and social pressure, that bring down wages for women’s work.
What can we
do to stop this? Certain policies have been found to help close the pay gap,
such as raising the minimum wage and providing paid family leave. It is also
helpful to give priority to people’s talents and interests when choosing
careers even if goes outside gender norms. For example, encouraging girls to be
engineers and boys to be teachers. Hopefully, since the problem has been
acknowledged, change will begin to take place in order to destroy the pay gap
once and for all.
This is a very interesting article and side of the gender wage gap. I did not realize how far wages have decreased in the past when women enter into certain professions more than men do. These are very sad statistics and ones that need to be taken care of. I think as women continue to become educated in all kinds of different fields that it will become more and more crucial for this gap to disappear. As women become more educated, they position themselves not only with more human capital, but also equip themselves with the ability to fight this gap and nullify it. I think the key here is to continue to gain more and more human capital in order to position ourselves to receive equal pay as we deserve it just as much as men.
ReplyDeleteThis article also brings into question the "standard work day" as the world continues to adapt and change to the needs of its workers, I am surprised that flexibility is still seen as a challenge and average jobs still confirm to the rigid structure of the "work day". I also found it interesting that more women are better educated. I wonder if the working women needs to get more education to work in a role where a man would only need a lesser degree.
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