I totally agree...except for the "paid more" part. The whole 70-cents-to-the-dollar thing is probably one of the most widely spread bogus statistics...when you look at men and women working in the same field with the same level of education and experience, the difference in pay essentially disappears.
The 71% that keeps being used is a result of just comparing all men currently working who have obtained, say, a B.A. with all women currently working who have obtained a B.A., with no regard to field of study, the major, or anything else that matters substantially - many more women than men obtain their B.A. in education, and many more men than women obtain their B.A. in engineering. Engineers make more than elementary teachers. More men are engineers, more women are elementary teachers. Female engineers do not get paid less than male engineers.
Human Resource departments don't say "Hm, she's qualified for the $40,000 salary using our company's payscale rubric, but she doesn't have a penis. Better make it $28,000". If women were really paid less than men for the same work, every hiring department would ONLY hire women - it would be cheaper across the board.
Sorry for the long-windedness, we spent two full class days dissecting it in my statistics class and now it haunts my dreams.
Yeah, no arguments here. Don't know what to do about it though...those same elementary school teachers who were encouraged to go into the arts/education are the ones in a position to make the change for the younger generation, but are also less likely to :-/
Agree 100%. I wanted to be a high school English teacher for a very long time (still do)...I was a dual major at UCF for awhile in English Lit and Secondary Education, but felt fairly discouraged by the program and professors...the basic message was "If you want to support a family, this is not the job for you." I still want to teach, I'm just going to have to wait until I've saved up enough to semi-retire :-/
Although the number of women with professional degrees also more than doubled since 1977 to 1998, with enormous jumps in the percentage of women to men in Dentistry, Medicine, Law, etc...so there's hope. Engineering has a long way to go though...87% of degrees awarded in 1997 were to men.
We studied the pay "thing" in my econ class last semester (which contradicted everything I'd learned in undergrad gender studies courses). Brian's right to an extent. That being said, women aren't encouraged to negotiate salaries and men are, which is often the cause of men making more for the same job. There is also still a problem with companies thinking, well, she's gonna leave to have a baby eventually, so we'll invest more money into the man who will still be here.
Also, when women do try to negotiate salaries or ask for a raise, they're perceived as more threatening; whereas for men, this is considered normal behavior.
Actually, my roommate and her husband graduated both graduated from Stetson law. she had .3 more grade points and, they had almost identical resumes and internships and scores on the bar exam, and Chelle even had the benefit of being the editor of the law review.
They applied at the same firm for opening positions and both got first year lawyer jobs (sorry, I'm just a lowly teacher so I don't know the titles) and he makes 8 thou more a year.
Maybe it's not as prevalent, but it's still there.
The 71% that keeps being used is a result of just comparing all men currently working who have obtained, say, a B.A. with all women currently working who have obtained a B.A., with no regard to field of study, the major, or anything else that matters substantially - many more women than men obtain their B.A. in education, and many more men than women obtain their B.A. in engineering. Engineers make more than elementary teachers. More men are engineers, more women are elementary teachers. Female engineers do not get paid less than male engineers.
Human Resource departments don't say "Hm, she's qualified for the $40,000 salary using our company's payscale rubric, but she doesn't have a penis. Better make it $28,000". If women were really paid less than men for the same work, every hiring department would ONLY hire women - it would be cheaper across the board.
Sorry for the long-windedness, we spent two full class days dissecting it in my statistics class and now it haunts my dreams.
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Also, when women do try to negotiate salaries or ask for a raise, they're perceived as more threatening; whereas for men, this is considered normal behavior.
I wonder if you and I read the same articles.
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They applied at the same firm for opening positions and both got first year lawyer jobs (sorry, I'm just a lowly teacher so I don't know the titles) and he makes 8 thou more a year.
Maybe it's not as prevalent, but it's still there.
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