Authors: Adilia S., Elena Petrova
In recent years, some authors try to promote the idea of gender pay gap being a myth. However, scientists from the University of Vermont disagree.
No country in the world has attained the absolute gender equality so far, researchers established. Remuneration levels, opportunities for professional development and career growth, and representation in politics are showing inequality between men and women, despite females studying nearly as much as men in today’s world.
Even among top earners in Hollywood gender inequality in remuneration shows up profoundly. The infamous Sony hack revealed that Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence were paid 7% of the movie profits while male stars Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner and Christian Bale were awarded 9% for American Hustle. Charlize Theron was paid $10 million less for her leading role in Snow White and The Huntsman 2 than the male lead Chris Hemsworth, The Hollywood Reporter published.
On average, actresses in American-produced movies are paid 78% of what men earn, Forbes reported. Are they also not working as hard and don’t wish to be promoted, as the authors of the “gender pay gap myth” paradigm purport?
Lawrence said she was afraid to appear “difficult” or “spoiled” and therefore chose not to negotiate strongly. “If a woman speaks up and is assertive and has a voice, she’s going to be called a brat,” she wrote. Multiple Hollywood female stars talked about the issue of unequal pay and opportunities for women in the movie business but the situation still persists in this industry, just as in other areas of career and work.
However, the situation with gender equality in 2016 is much better than it was 30 years ago, statistics demonstrate. We are moving in the right direction albeit not as fast as we could.
Gender Pay Gap Is Far from Being a Myth, Statistics Show
Stephanie Seguino, an economist at the University of Vermont, analysed data from 150 countries over the past 20 years to find out whether the level of gender inequality decreased or not, Science Daily reported. The gender pay gap showed up to be statistically obvious in the modern society, rather than a myth.
As it turned out, the greatest successes were achieved in education. The gender disparity in education is only 9% (the level of women’s education is 91% of men’s).
- The employment rate of women in the labor market is lower: only 75% of men’s (up from 62% in 1991).
- The lowest attainments are in politics — female politicians constitute only 25% of the number of men in top echelons of power.
Initially, it was expected the equal education level will help to oveсome the issue of the gender gap. Educated women were supposed to become highly competitive and have the same opportunities to get highly paid jobs. But in fact, female workers still earn less than their male colleagues.
It has been calculated that women in the UK would have to work about 416 hours a year more to earn as much as men. UK female citizens earn on average 19% less than men and they are negatively affected by the gender pay gap in 90% of sectors.
It’s almost the same in the USA with 21% gender pay gap. Due to the payment inequality, it takes women much more time to pay off their student loans.
All over the world the share of women working in highly paid fields as compared to men has fallen by 20% since 1990.
Thus, Seguino believes that educational gains are not enough to overcome the gender disparity between the sexes.
Why Women Are Paid Less
The scientist underlines the two key reasons why women are paid less:
- Females have lower access to jobs with higher remuneration.
- Women do a greater amount of unpaid work (children care, housework).
The author offers the following measures to solve the problem:
- Provision of paid maternity leave.
For example, in Sweden parents are able to share 480 days of paid maternity leave (for 390 days they are paid 80% of their monthly wages). Moreover, 60 days of paid holiday are allocated to fathers. The Swedish state is determined to overcome gender stereotypes that only women can take care of kids. As a result, modern Swedish fathers spend much more time with children than they used to and help their wives more around the household.
- Affordable daycare
- Fair hiring policies
- Access to public transportation
- Available medical care in the countryside
- Introduction of gender quotas
Some governments introduced the so-called gender quotas to improve imbalances in society, particularly in politics. The quotas help to regulate how many women should be represented in the parliament. Seguin mentiones Canada as an example, where the number of women in parliament had increased dramatically after introduction of gender quotas.
In today’s world, the share of women in politics increased by 14% since 1990. Seguino emphasizes the importance of women’s equal representation in political life. It’s extremely hard to adopt laws promoting gender equality without women in the parliament.
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Scientists are right in this case. For our country, this is also true. Everyone can make a poll among his entourage to see this. Womens work less paid-up than mens. Often it is justified if a man performs the physical work that a woman can not afford. But when both male and female are office workers, this difference is unfair!
The gender pay gap is a myth. When you strip away all the decisions men and women make that affect their careers you find there is no real difference in income. Comparing all men to all women and saying it is gender discrimination that men make more is like saying that it is age discrimination because 40 year olds make more than 20 year olds. The underlying populations have different characteristics that affect income, not just gender.
Of course. “Gender pay gap is a myth” and women who have the same education as male counterparts, of the same age and experience, are rightfully overlooked in promotions, because (we all know) they will soon make silly decisions such as having kids (which only affects a woman’s career prospects but not a man’s). Women simply don’t want to work hard. So it’s natural they should be paid less. Right, Joe? 🙂
Women are not paid less, but paid according to the work that they choose. Women work on average less hours than men and at less dangerous and physically demanding jobs and thus get less pay. Therefore you have to control for those factors when comparing pay and comparing all men to all women is misleading at best and disingenuous at worst. Of course having children will affect a woman’s career differently than a man’s. Most women choose to take time off and be primarily responsible for child care. For a woman who chooses this, she will inherently work less and… Read more »
Sounds like a carbon copy of other comments, you guys are from a team? 🙂 Your ideas about women without kids being paid and promoted as much as men are incorrect. In short, the myth about gender pay gap being a myth, is a myth. Lovely constructions though, keep up the crafty work. 🙂 🙂 You can convince yourself perfectly.
I am not sure why you reject facts and analysis. Also, why is it so hard to realize that children take a parent away from work and that impacts their career (most often the woman, at least in the US)? Here’s the proof that young women with no kids make more than men: “according to a new analysis of 2,000 communities by a market research company, in 147 out of 150 of the biggest cities in the U.S., the median full-time salaries of young women are 8% higher than those of the guys in their peer group. In two cities,… Read more »
Sweetie, why don’t you take a critical look at yourself. 🙂 You are probably a lonely & unhappy MAN. If you were happy, you wouldn’t need to argue gender pay gap with a GIRL on the Internet. If you had a wife, you’d know that gender discrimination exists. By promoting “gender pay gap myth” online, you are killing hopes for equality of billions of women and girls around the world. Stop being a pest and realize it’s not about you or your grievances. There is a big world out there, and you are not a part of it, by your… Read more »
Why do you resort to ad hominem attacks when I simply provide facts that support a different position from yours? This has nothing to do with my personal situation (married for 20+ years and widowed and have two adult girls) or my world view (as I have visited over 50 countries and worked in dozens over the years). Gender discrimination does exist (as does a lot of other types of discrimination). It simply does not exist in the US (and most western countries) in terms of pay. Numerous studies show that its the decisions men and women make about careers… Read more »
Joe, come back to me when there is the same amount of women on Forbes “Richest” list as men. You are trying to maintain views that are chauvinistic in nature: that women work less hard than men (you call it “choices”) and as such deserve to get paid less for their work. There is gender discrimination in hiring and promotions, which results in women being paid less. So, one can talk for hours about “reasons” why women are paid less than men while there is the simple 100% proven fact: women earn less. Fewer women are billionaires than men. There… Read more »
I agree with you it is pointless for me to respond to you because logic and facts seem to go no where with you. As I pointed out to you in the US at least (the largest market in the world) women without kids and just out of school with the same education and experience as men make MORE than men. But you don’t want to hear facts and resort to anecdotal evidence and feelings. Once those young women and men begin to make different decisions about their careers, pay and promotions differ. Its that simple. I cannot speak for… Read more »
Joe, you keep trying to explain the gender pay gap. You say that women choose wrong professions, have less career prospects because they have kids, do not work as hard etc. I am saying it’s nonsense because the gender pay gap differs by country. There is direct correlation between the size of gender pay gap and the extent of inequality between men and women by country. In the USA, there is still a pay gap between men and women. Point is, you and I, we both agree that in general women earn less. The difference: – You believe it’s fine… Read more »
The only reason I keep explaining the gender pay gap is because the data and analysis in western countries is so clear and yet you don’t seem to care about that analysis. I do not think women choose the wrong professions, I think they choose the ones they want that give them a mix of pay and benefits. Earning less and getting flexibility in return to enable a woman to do other things they want (like take care of children) is not a bad thing. The point I am making is that women choose the mix of pay and benefits… Read more »
Joe, I have no idea why you keep arguing. I am not equalling women’s success with how much money they can earn. I earn probably more than your bosses, yet I am at home and don’t need to travel. This is the type of education that women need: how to earn more. And how to not be scared to ask for more, as women still are, which it what the story with Amy Adams and American Hustle shows still present in the show business. Again, your keeping to insist it is a “myth” is due to the fact that you… Read more »
One last comment. I read the link you provided and it had NO data on the gender pay gap, but a study on self interest. As I pointed out, how much women make in my company or in the US economy has NO impact on what I earn. What affects my earnings are the skills I bring to the marketplace, level of effort I apply, and the profit I bring to my firm. Period. Liberals always see the economy as a zero sum game as the article you attached cited. In reality, it is not a zero sum game. That… Read more »
Joe, people like you who are self centered don’t see the wider implications. Yes, in your own company you are paid as much as you wish (you have no boss) and maybe you pay your female employees as much as males. It’s not the same in all other companies in your country and other countries. While you insist that gender pay gap is s myth, this will not change. Women need to be encouraged and actively invited to join traditionally male dominated industries, given incentives to do so. While you promote the idea of gender pay gap being a myth,… Read more »
I am sorry for misleading you. I do not own my company but work for a large global enterprise and I do have a couple of bosses (one is a woman in fact). I am sure in our company as in most companies if you look at the earnings of all women compared to all men, women will make less. The reason is that as people move up in our company, travel is extensive. There are few women who will travel 20-35 weeks per year with babies and small children at home, no matter how feminist they are. Therefore during… Read more »
Of course women don’t have to join different fields than the ones they like working in. Just the pay should be fair, so women should be able to earn just as much as men. Women continue doing too much of unpaid work, that’s one of the reasons they earn less (see the article above?). And if a woman does want to work in a more male-dominated field, she should not be patronized or treated like a “little girl” (my step-daughter works in the government’s fire emergency service, so I know what I am talking about, chauvinistic attitudes under the formal… Read more »
Elana, thank you for your responses and the change of tone. While women overall do earn less than men, it is NOT due to discrimination or some nefarious institutional intent. At least not in the US/Canada or most western European countries (I have not studied third world countries on this topic). The difference is due to the different choices women and men make about careers. Women get pregnant (men do not) and most often choose to be the primary caregivers of children and thus take themselves out of the workforce for extended periods of time. You simply have not addressed… Read more »
Joe, if the difference in women’s and men’s average earnings was the same in every country, you would have a point in your argumenting “the gender pay gap myth”. But the gap by country varies quite dramatically. So, your arguments about biological differences causing the gap in earnings are not valid. What drives the pay gap is the societal stereotypes and the level of women’s equality to men. I should not remind you that 200 years ago in UK married women were not allowed to own property and vote. You know that. So, today’s society is still not 100% equal… Read more »
As I said, I cannot speak for every country and there are many countries that have structural barriers to women being equal to men (Muslim countries come to mind) so lets set those aside for purposes of this discussion because if those structural barriers are not addressed, equality cannot be achieved. Now in western countries where equality is the law, all research indicates that choices determine where men and women end up with respect to careers. The issue of children will always hit women disproportionately with respect to career for two reasons. First, they more often CHOOSE to be the… Read more »
Joe, love your ardour in regard to the pay gap myth. But it is totally misdirected, your being a while male from “the boys club”. You simply have no idea what it is like, just your reasoning and explanations. You have not been passed for a promotion based on your gender and societal stereotyping (just like the one you so ardently defend, that’s it’s fair that women lose career prospects after having kids and men get promoted). It’s like me talking about men’s sexuality or erections, or your reasoning about women’s menstrual pains. 1 – Pay gap used to be… Read more »
Final comment because I see that logic and facts don’t matter to you. You seem to think that being a man disqualifies me from evaluating information and making an informed decision when it is you that cannot get past your gender to see what the data says. The reason the pay used to be wider in developed countries is the only reason for any pay gap at all — women and men make different decisions about career and family. As time has gone by, women are now making more “male” decisions about career and family. That is, they are waiting… Read more »
Joe, I have A+ in logic, having studied both mathematical and formal logic, as well as statistics and methodology of research for my degree. Your patronizing comments are not appreciated. For the facts: BOTH men and women have children. It does not affect men’s career prospects but it does affects women’s job options (that’s what you are happy to admit). The gender pay gap is not a myth if this is your explanation: it’s societal stereotyping. The woman can work up to nearly the end of her pregnancy in office jobs, and she is able to immediately resume her responsibilities… Read more »
It is a myth. The stats don’t explain hours worked, full time versus part time, education level, how long someone drops out of the work force, married versus never married, and the fact a computer engineer makes more than a teacher. In reality, women make more than men up to the age about 30, then some women “choose” to start a family. More women (in the western world) are graduating with degrees more than men, commit sucidide less, go to prison less, killed at their job less, and live longer than men. Women in the west are from oppressed. Bottom… Read more »
Alex,
First, are you a guy or a girl? 🙂
Second: If gender pay gap is a myth, then why in some countries like Norway it is much smaller?