Gender Pay Gap

Sheryl Sandberg(CEO of Facbook) - Book Lean In

1. Sit at the table 2. Make your partner your partner 3. Don't Leave before you leave

Fatherhood premium:

Fathers are paid more than men without children, and have less difficulty finding work.

Equal Pay Policies

• Equal Pay Act (1963) • Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964) • Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (2009) • Paycheck Fairness Act

Sources of the Gender Pay Gap?

- More women have college degrees than men. - More women work part-time than men, and more men "overwork" than women. - Men's typical jobs tend to pay better than women's typical jobs. -Worker characteristics like education, kind of job, working hours, marriage & children explain only a portionof the gender pay gap.

An example of how we learn gender:

-From early on we assign colors and certain toys to children from a young age

Gender differences in work/family balance (Pew)

-Women's careers are interrupted more than men's for family obligations. -Women face more pressure to "opt out" of work for family obligations

"Men work" (Most common jobs for men):

1. Manager 2. Truck driver 3. Sales supervisor 4. Sales person 5. Computer scientist 6. Construction laborer 7. Computer software developer 8. Cook 9. Janitor 10.Carpenter 11.Chief Executive/ Administrator

"Women Works" (Most common jobs for women):

1. Secretary 2. Primary school teacher 3. Nurse 4. Manager 5. Nurse's aide 6. Sales supervisor 7. Customer service 8. Accountant 9. Office supervisor 10. Misc. teacher 11.Book keeper

Feminism:

Advocating for social, political, legal, and economic equality for women and men. "Simply put, feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression." - bell hooks

Gender at work:

Gender norms and stereotypes affect nearly all aspects of work: • Gender roles affect the kinds of work people do. • How much and how well people are able to work. • How their work is evaluated.

Motherhood penalty:

Mothers are paid less than women without children, and also have more difficulty finding work.

Gender and evaluations of work performance

Reasons for success: • Men attribute own success to ability • Women attribute own success to hard work, help, luck Evaluations of performance: • Gender differences in perceived competence • Gender differences in "likability"

Gender and work performance

Stereotype threat: knowledge of negative stereotypes increases anxiety, and undermines performance Example: experiment with math tests

Sex:

biologically based categories ("male" and "female")

Gender:

social meanings attached to sex categories ("man" and "woman", "boy" and "girl")

Claimsmaking about the Gender Pay Gap

• "American women who work full time, year round are paid only 79 cents for every dollar paid to men — and for women of color, the wage gap is even larger. It's long past time to close the gap." (National Women's Law Center) • "Women still are not receiving equal pay for equal work, let alone equal pay for work of equal value." (National Organization for Women) • "Why do I make less than my male co-stars?" (Jennifer Lawrence, covered by CNN) -"You know, today, women make up about half our workforce, but they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it's an embarrassment. Women deserve equal pay for equal work." (Obama SotU 2014)

Potential Solutions to the Gender Pay Gap

• Anti-discrimination laws do not target all the sources of the pay gap. • Strategies like "Lean In" provide practical results for many women, but put the burden of change on women themselves. • Changing social structure more generally could resolve the gap, but how to implement such a change?

What are the sources of the gender wage gap?

• Education/qualifications? -Well as of 2000, more women than men held college degrees • Amount of work? -Well more women work part time jobs then men, however more men overwork than females • Types of jobs? -Women hold "Better" jobs than men • Processes within jobs?

Women's occupations:

• Low/medium-wage white-collar jobs

Men's occupations:

• Professional/technical white-collar jobs • Relatively high-wage blue-collar jobs *white-collar worker is a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work. *Blue-collar is a working class person who performs manual labour.

bell hooks - "Dig Deep: Beyond Lean In"

• Sandberg's recommendations are targeted toward White, middle-class women • The burden of change is put completely on women themselves.

What Is the Gender Wage Gap?

• The difference between men's and women's average earnings • Often measured as female/male wage ratio (cents/dollar) • Can refer both to the total difference, and the difference between otherwise comparable male and female workers

Anne-Marie Slaughter - "Why Women Still Can't Have It All"

• The top jobs are incompatible with family responsibilities. • Women are still evaluated by men's standards. • The kinds of work women are channeled into still aren't valued.

Shriver Report - Women on the Brink

• Women are disproportionately employed in low-wage work • Combination of care duties and work barriers make women particularly vulnerable.