33 votes

New research debunks the gender pay gap myth that 'women don't ask'

7 comments

  1. [5]
    updawg
    Link
    So does that mean that it's entirely due to the amount of time worked? I haven't paid attention to the research in years, but the latest I remember is that women--ON AVERAGE--don't work as much as...

    So does that mean that it's entirely due to the amount of time worked? I haven't paid attention to the research in years, but the latest I remember is that women--ON AVERAGE--don't work as much as men (more time off for parental leave, more time off picking up kids, etc.) and that if we want to fix the pay gap for women working the same job we need to fix the gap in domestic expectations between men and women. And then the overall pay gap was supposed to be more down to men making up the vast majority of STEM workers and women working more of the low-paying professional jobs (therapist, social worker, etc.), so we would need to look at why men choose the jobs they do and why women choose the jobs they do--that is, broadly, why don't more men choose the careers that are about helping people and why don't more women choose the high paying careers?

    It's also interesting that there are multiple articles about contradictory studies linked from this article:
    https://phys.org/news/2023-08-gender-salaries-sought-job-applicants.html
    https://phys.org/news/2021-05-gender-gaps-nonprofits-greater-room.html

    11 votes
    1. [4]
      GenuinelyCrooked
      Link Parent
      It's not that women choose lower paying jobs, it's that when women enter a field, the average pay drops. "Women's work" is undervalued. Why should therapist and social worker be low paying jobs?...

      It's not that women choose lower paying jobs, it's that when women enter a field, the average pay drops. "Women's work" is undervalued. Why should therapist and social worker be low paying jobs? Those are vital, skilled, and often high risk jobs. There's no reason that they shouldn't be compensated accordingly.

      31 votes
      1. CptBluebear
        Link Parent
        I'm not opposing the view in your article but I do find it kinda sparse. When women enter a field of work they weren't participating in (especially in their examples which is just when women...

        I'm not opposing the view in your article but I do find it kinda sparse. When women enter a field of work they weren't participating in (especially in their examples which is just when women started to work in general) it also means that employers have an employee glut which will drive down salaries by default.

        On the other hand, salaries rarely go up and I find the "software engineer" example a bit weak because our reliance on engineers has grown significantly since the time women dominated software.

        It doesn't fully convince me of what they're trying to sell. I think the arguments for the wage gap can be found elsewhere.

        8 votes
      2. [2]
        UP8
        Link Parent
        You can make the case also that the social case for getting men into jobs gendered for women is as strong or stronger as the reverse. If a guy would rather talk about his problems with a guy...

        You can make the case also that the social case for getting men into jobs gendered for women is as strong or stronger as the reverse.

        If a guy would rather talk about his problems with a guy therapist... tough luck.

        https://www.zippia.com/psychiatric-nurse-practitioner-jobs/demographics/

        I think a lot of boys get the idea that school is a girl thing they wouldn't understand because there are so few men in early childhood education.

        7 votes
        1. Hobofarmer
          Link Parent
          I've been working in early childhood education for over a decade as a male, and the kids really do respond differently to me than they do my female coworkers. They pay is absolutely lousy. Edit:...

          I've been working in early childhood education for over a decade as a male, and the kids really do respond differently to me than they do my female coworkers.

          They pay is absolutely lousy.

          Edit: it can also be worrisome working with young children because there's still a stigma about being a man around them. It's been changing for the better recently, but it's still there.

          4 votes
  2. [2]
    The_Ejj
    Link
    “New research debunks gender pay gap myth…” Oh no, here we go again. “.. that women don’t ask. “ Ah. Carry on.

    “New research debunks gender pay gap myth…”

    Oh no, here we go again.

    “.. that women don’t ask. “

    Ah. Carry on.

    7 votes
    1. flowerdance
      Link Parent
      They had us in the first half

      They had us in the first half

      3 votes