> From: Deirdre Saoirse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> On Fri, 4 Aug 2000, Simon Britnell wrote:
>
> > The pay disparity between men and women may be due to the
> choices women
> > make, rather than discrimination in the workforce.
>
> Similar studies were cited by Thomas Sowell in one of his
> books. He cited
> some very interesting things, such as:
>
> 1) never-married women earned salaries virtually on par with
> those of men;
> 2) married women earned approximately 25% of that of married men;
> 3) women were several times more likely to quit jobs;
> 4) women were more likely to select jobs that allowed them
> easy entry and
> exit from the job market; by economic law these would be
> lower-paying
> jobs.
The problem with these studies is they are attributing cause based on
correlations. The first two facts put together could indicate a difference
in the preferences of married women in jobs, a difference in single women in
temperment or a difference in how employers treat married women. All of
these have different implications.
Similarly the third fact could indicate either a tendancy for women to quit
jobs or a tendancy for people in traditionally female jobs to quit jobs. Or
it could mean something else entirely. Is it possible that females have a
hard time advancing within a company and thus seek advancement by changing
companies?
As for the 4th fact, the wording clearly implies a cause, but is the cause
justified? One thought is that the jobs traditionally held by women may
have eisier entry and exit because of differences in how the job market
treats men and women. Are the women choosing the jobs because of the job
characteristics or are the job characteristics because the jobs are
predominately female?
>From my recollection jobs that are traditionally held by women and jobs
which were traditionally male and became traditionally female became less
desirable when women came to dominate the field. For example secretaries
have changed quite a bit since it was a male dominated field losing much
prestige in the process.
Unfortunately, there are still biases in the workforce based on impressions
of women and studies like this re-enforce these impressions. There are
people who are more reluctant to hire women because women (especially
married women) can have children (thus taking them out of the job force
temporarily) or are more likely to follow their significant other to a new
job location. (It is still rare for a married couple to move because the
wife found a job in a new location.)
There are also biases that begin at a much younger age. Jobs that involve
math skills traditionally pay better than those that don't. However, women
tend to have lower math skills because of biases that happen in education
(not to mention society -- Barbie's "Math is hard" comes to mind here).
christi
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