- cross-posted to:
- europe@feddit.de
- cross-posted to:
- europe@feddit.de
Organisers hope the women’s strike – whose confirmed participants include fishing industry workers, teachers, nurses and the PM, Katrín Jakobsdóttir – will bring society to a standstill to draw attention to the country’s ongoing gender pay gap and widespread gender-based and sexual violence.
Studies say there are none.
Where are these studies?
It is objectively true that women are overrepresented in lower paying jobs. This is due to a variety of reasons, including societal and social factors thay discourage women from going into higher paying, traditionally male fields. The gap is narrowing especially now that, at least in the US, there are more women attending university than men and we have robust laws to prevent/punish discrimination based on sex.
Here’s a good summary/explanation by Pew Research Center in a writeup of a survey of theirs on the Gender Pay Gap:
They go on to say that a gap still exists, even accounting for these factors, but it’s smaller than the commonly cited 84% figure (though 84% is correct if you don’taccount for other factors).
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/03/01/gender-pay-gap-facts/
The US government has found that "Specifically, differences in the industries and occupations where men and women work explain 42.0% of their variance in earnings. ": https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WB/equalpay/WB_issuebrief-undstg-wage-gap-v1.pdf (source on the chart in page 2 of the writeup, comes from 2020 study by the US Census Bureau)
Here’s a brief writeup of a Harvard study that talks about how women self-select into lower-paying jobs: https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/effect-task-choice-and-task-assignment-gender-wage-gap-experimental-study
Basically, there is a pay gap, some of it is explained by factors other than gender, but we should work to try to eliminate those factors by removing barriers for women to enter certain fields as well as gender discrimination.
That’s a way to read that. Another is that the effect largely vanishes (but not completely) when you correct for the factors that cause the gender gap.
This means that we understand HOW women are paid less, but not necessarily WHY.
In large parts it’s because of the choice of employment and losing out on work experience when staying home.
It should be socially accepted to work what the hell you want. But I don’t see any way to codify a fair gender ratio into law. So this is a really tough nut to crack, because it requires a mind change by all of society.
Arguing for equal compensation regardless of experience makes no sense. Unfortunately only one parent is equipped with the hardware to make and raise kids. So we need a way to enable more equal distribution of work. But if women are just naturally more inclined to care for kids (which would make a lot of sense from an evolutionary perspective), then this gap will persist unless we force people by law to work or take care of kids more.
That’s a good overview of the first order effects, but there is some nasty stuff at the edges.
For example, trans men report being able to negotiate higher salaries after transition. For example, jobs that transition from traditionally male to traditionally female dominated see a depression in salaries.
I’m not sure how to fix it, but there are serious reasons to believe we are far from “equal pay for equal work”.
Yes that is also one aspect.
I didn’t mention it, because I have no idea how that could even be solved on a large scale. This is a problem that arises from the individual’s ability to negotiate. Unless you work in a unionized job, where salaries are more often clearly defined in a table and negotiated for everyone at once
Studies that “correct” for the effects themselves say there are none.
@Tvkan
Which studies?