Posts
I came across this article during my daily search of HuffPo and wanted to share it. Unfortunately the link to the DoL website didn't work for me so I was unable to see what their findings had to offer. But I thought this small article/photographs were interesting because, in each of the fields that women earned more than men, I was not surprised (except perhaps with science technicians). These are domestic jobs in which women have always dominated. The article claims that this is because women are in "lower paying industries." If only I could access the website, I'd like to see what the disparity is between women and men in higher paying industries, such as engineers.
The few statistics mentioned were fascinating - younger women in their 20s see less of a wage gap than women in their 30s/40s. I assume that it is because as they are first entering the workforce, women and men are viewed as equals in terms of hiring; yet once they move up the ranks, their qualifications and job preferences change and potentially place them in different positions than men. Any other reasons that you think this may be the case?
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I don't think that this is news that we should be too excited about. The majority of these jobs are low-paying, and relatively unskilled. I don't think it says something good about women in these jobs, but that society doesn't view these as good male jobs, so the men are paid less in them if that is what they choose to do. Perhaps this is a tool to discourage men from taking these jobs, but that may be taking it a bit too far.
To answer Jena's question, I think the wage gap increases as people move forward in their careers for the reasons that we have discussed all semester; namely women leaving the workforce for family reasons, female characteristics not being valued in the upper echelons of management, and women failing to put themselves out there for promotions. I think Jena hit the nail on the head when she said the reason the gender gap isn't as evident in the opening phases of one's career because at that stage workers are generally viewed as across the board amateurs without distinguishing characteristics. Essentially, no reason to pay one more or less than the other. This is really an awful phenomenon, and really makes me sick to be perfectly honest.
Post a Comment