Gender Wage Gap: Why Women Just Can't Choose Higher-Paying Jobs And Narrow The Difference

The gender wage gap still exists and women still earn much less than men. They say it's because women choose lower-paying jobs, however data shows that men and women within the same occupation are still compensated differently.

The Huffington Post argues that the gender wage gap is hardly affected by choice. It's true that men dominate the high-paying fields of science and engineering but it doesn't explain why women in the same field still earn less.

Parent Herald reported a study that showed female doctors earn $20,000 less than their male counterparts and in medical school, a female full professor receives the same salary as a male associate professor. The study suggests that gender discrimination is evident.

The Huffington Post highlights the work of Economic Policy Institute colleagues, Elise Gould, a senior economist and Jessica Schieder, a researcher. From the onset, society maneuvers men and women to take different educational and professional routes. Men choose to be engineers and women choose to be social workers.

Gould and Schieder writes that these are culturally influenced choices. Take this as example: in childhood, science-related toys in stores are found in the boy's section and in adulthood, if women do choose to be engineers, the sheer volume of males in the tech-industry becomes intimidating for women.

The Huffington Post also reports that women suffer from sexual assault in these industries. Women leave these jobs on a higher rate than men.

More than that, women are also expected to perform domestic roles aside from their actual paying jobs. When they get home, much more is expected from them to be their children and their home's caretaker than their husbands who can work for longer hours, and therefore, earn more.

The Atlantic almost echoes The Huffington Post's article. It reports about a study early this year by Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn who found out that the largest contributor to the gender wage gap is the lack of women in specific jobs and fields.

The Atlantic talks about the need for male-dominated industries to be more welcoming to women. In the collegiate level, women should be enticed more to take courses on coding or science. It also discusses the domestic role women are expected to play that limits their time and contribution to the workforce.

According to Parent Herald, the problem also persists because the human resource department of companies allows it to. The system tends to be bias to men and no changes are being done to solve the gender wage gap.

Learn more about the gender wage gap by watching the video below. Sound off your thoughts on the Comments section and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.