What can be done about the gender wage gap?
The first thing to do is understand the nuances of how the gap comes into existence. It’s more apparent than simply two people working the same job for the same rate and one being paid a lesser amount. The wage gap can more accurately be described as the average total a man makes in comparison to the average total a woman makes. There are several factors to consider when calculating the wage gap and it’s important to take these factors into consideration. With these valuable tips, we can help close the wage gap between men and women:
1. Encourage women to go into higher-paying fields.
One of the biggest reasons that there is still a disparity between men’s and women’s salaries is because traditionally male-dominated industries tend to pay more money than traditionally female-dominated industries. For example, some of the highest paying professions are science and math-related fields such as petroleum engineering and aerospace engineering. That’s not to say that there aren’t any women in these industries, but the gender ratio still appears to be heavily skewed in men’s favor. According to a report by Business Insider, jobs in which women constitute a majority include teaching, social workers, counselors and psychology as well as jobs that center around child-care. These jobs pay less, but women may often feel more fulfilled by these roles.
Harvard economist Claudia Goldin found that women moving into higher-paying male-dominated fields could close the wage gap about 35%. She admitted that a large wage disparity was still persistent in some jobs, like aircraft pilots or financial advisers, but that it was much smaller in several other fields like human resources and computer programming.
2. Encourage women to negotiate for higher pay.
One of the main reasons that men usually earn more money than women is simply because they ask for more money. However, the intricate nuances of the wage gap between men and women go much deeper than that. A study by Linda C. Babcock, a professor from Carnegie Mellon University decided to search for herself after she received multiple complaints that the male graduates at the school received teaching jobs while the female graduates only received assistant jobs. When she asked her boss why this was, she was told that the male graduates simply “asked” for the teaching jobs.
“The dean said each of the males had come to him and said, ‘I want to teach a course,’ and none of the women had done that. The female students had expected someone to send around an e-mail saying, ‘Who wants to teach?’,” she said.
This prompted Babcock to run multiple experiments that tested both men’s and women’s willingness to ask for higher pay. In one study, 74 participants played a game called Boggle. The participants were told that they would receive a reward anywhere between $3 and $10 after the experiment was finished and, as luck would have it, the male participants were the ones who ended up asking for more money.
A second study asked students who were graduating with master’s degrees whether or not they tried to negotiate for their starting salary. Just a little over half of the male participants asked for a higher salary, while only 12.5% of the female participants did the same. This meant that the male participants earned an average of 7.4% more pay.
That is not to say that sexism doesn’t play a role in this. Many women fear being labeled as “aggressive,” “pushy,” or “unladylike” when trying to ask for a bigger salary. This can come across as a double-edged sword and part of the problem might be that bosses and hiring managers are simply not used to women asking for more. The solution is to encourage women to practice their negotiation skills, which might be a bit difficult, but will, quite literally, pay off.
3. Support social culture that helps women build their confidence.
If you remember Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Ban Bossy’ campaign, you will remember that one of the main talking points was that girls and women can feel apprehensive to take leadership positions for fear of being called “bossy.” Such a label could easily crush their confidence. This phenomenon has a name. It is called “The Confidence Gap.”
Part of the reason that women don’t negotiate for more money is because they simply lack the self-confidence to do so. Far too often, women may feel like they are undermined or that their skills are simply not in the same league as their male colleagues. Add this is with the fact that there simply aren’t enough publicized role models for women and girls, especially in science and politics, and you have the notorious confidence gap.
Authors Katty Kay and Claire Shipman asked WNBA basketball star Monique Currie how she felt about her own confidence compared to that of a male athlete. “For guys, I think they have maybe 13- or 15-player rosters, all the way down to the last player on the bench, who doesn’t get to play a single minute. I feel like his confidence is just as big as the superstar of the team,” Currie told them. “For women, it’s not like that.”
Several studies have proven this problematic fact. Institute of Leadership and Management polled working men and women in 2011 in the United Kingdom. They found that half of the women felt doubt in their own abilities, while only one-third of men did.
This confidence gap affects women and girls of all ages. A study at the University of Texas found that young girls can have their confidence undermined by something as simple as an attractive woman calling herself ‘fat.’ Lead researcher Eric Stice found that up to half of the young girls have body image concerns and that up to 70% of them would take a pill to lose five pounds, while only about 15% of young males would do the same.
4. Encourage women to work for more time.
It should come as no surprise that working longer hours means higher pay. Therefore, it should also come as no surprise that women are more likely to work part-time and that men are more likely to work overtime.
A study by Youngjoo Cha from Indiana University and Kim A. Weedan from Cornell University found that that 19% of men and 7% of women worked 50 hours or more per week. This difference in working hours accounts for about 10% of the wage gap, the researchers concluded.
This is not the only study to find such results. In 2007, the Labor Department found that about 55% of people working more than full time hours, which the Department defined as 35 hours a week, were men. Additionally, 25% of full-time working men worked at least 41 hours, while only 14% of women did the same.
The Department of Labor also conducted a Time Use survey which found that men work about 8.14 hours a day, while women only work about 7.75 hours a day. This 5% can account for about one-fourth of the wage gap.
However, longer hours is not the only problem. Women are the ones most likely to take career interruptions or time off work in order to become mothers and take care of their children. Pew Research Center found that, in order to take care of family duties at home, 42% of mothers cut down their hours, 39% took a significant amount of time off, 27% quit, and 13% turned down a promotion.
Goldin looked at female Harvard graduates in 1990 and found that taking 18-month breaks had devastating effects on women’s careers. Eventual MBAs ended up making 41% less than their male counterparts, while female lawyers made 29% less, and female doctors made 15% less.
The main solution to combat this problem is to ensure that companies provide the necessary maternity leave that mothers need in order to keep their career without taking significant losses. One such advocate is Susan Wojcicki, who worked for Google and is the CEO of YouTube. She was the first woman to take maternity leave at Google and the company has since provided leave for all mothers.
She cites a study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research which found that 91% of employers said paid maternity leave increased profits or had no effect at all. Additionally, the women were much happier and more productive upon returning back to work, two things which would help increase their pay even further. As filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom said, women need maternity leave in order to help them advance in America.
In conclusion, the wage gap can be explained by many factors, only some of which may be related to sexism and discrimination. Fortunately, women are not powerless to fight against this disparity. With the advice provided above, perhaps we can all make a change and strive for a more equal future so that both genders may achieve parity in wages.
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