Do women really earn less than men?

Question

From the answers provided to the following question, it certainly does not seem to be the case:

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ank.6nYcrXscBAxGHfiRFhRA6Qt.;_ylv=3?qid=20071113210905AA3UpiO

Nikki B, you seem to be saying that equality has been acheived, however the majority of women are not taking up challenging roles. Is that correct?

Gnu Sense: thanks for your answer, but it just demonstrated the opposite of what you were saying. Well done!

Answer 1

A lot of women do administrative jobs, and therefore bring down the average salary. If a woman is in a managerial job, she'd earn the same as a man in the same role.

Answer 2

Thanks for posting the interesting paper on doctors' wages. The journal is well respected, but did anyone notice that although the suggestion was that the wage difference is due to discrimination, the evidence presented suggests nothing of the kind. In fact female doctors were more likely than males to:

1/ work part time
2/ be in low paying specialties e.g. geriatrics rather than cardiology
3/ be employees rather self-employed
4/ see fewer patients
5/ do less administrative work
6/ take time off from work. 82% of women worked reduced hours for childcare reasons compared to 19% of men

I suppose all the above are due to the oppression of women by men rather than women's career choices?

BTW I posted a similar question about wages yesterday. Three of the four replies suggested that women were discriminated against in terms of wages. Really, isn't it high time women stopped wheeling out this tired old lie about wage discrimination? You are well and truly busted on this issue, so lets just drop it.

Answer 3

I believe Nikki B is quite wrong in her assumption, when the woman or the man makes more than the other equality has not been reached, unless that is the true feminist meaning of the word. It has been proved that women don't make less when their wages are higher; I've always felt that with the insurance figured in, the social responsibility put on the men to foot the majority of the bills and dates, it comes out about even.

Answer 4

Yes the majority of women earn less than men and most women earn less than their partners. Though it is true that in a lot of cases this is down to job description this doesnt mean that it isnt a gender issue. Women are often pushed into part time and casual labour because they are considired by society to be the principle carers for children, and without proper childcare they cant achieve equality. These sexist(Held eqaully by a lot of women) notions also prevent them from entering other areas of the workforce that are considered male. This is despite the fact that during the world war in Britain showed that they were quite capable of doing the same jobs men could do with the pressure of a war on them.

Answer 5

If you take ALL women, regardless if employed or not and ALL men then yes, men earn more than women, thats because men take jobs no woman would even dream of to consider, like deep sea maintainance on an oil rig. And if thats the case what does that mean ? Yes, you have less women working than men. When faced with the decision of beeing a traditional wife or working as a garbage woman or the like, women will happily be the good wife.
Does it mean a woman earns less for job X ? No. Maybe she earns less, maybe she earns more than some man/woman.

And finally you cant make generalizations.

Answer 6

There are a few jobs were women are still discriminated against, and do not earn as much as men....these are getting to be fewer the mor years that go by.

Women earn less, because they take time off to have babies, or stay home and care for people will long term illnesses.

It is also because of the MAJOR difference in the jobs men and women are willing to take. Yes, you will find a few women who want to be firefighters...but for the most part it is men who take the dangerous, hard work, very physical, outdoor type jobs.

When we ment, my husband was a helicopter mechanic. A fresh from school helicopter mechanic can make $60 thousand in his first year. That's a great starting wage.

I spent a lot of time with the helicopter crews. In all the time that I spent with them, I only saw one woman helicopter mechanic. Why? Major descrimination? No, not at all.

Being a helicopter mechanic means being on the road with the helicoptor. In two years time, my husband was only able to come home for two weeks....14 days in two years.

The rest of the time, they are on the road. They live out of suitcases, sleeping in motels, and eating every single meal at resteraunts.

It's a very lonely, difficult life. A helicopter mechanic can have the potential to be making $80-100 thousand in just a very few short years (under 5). Yet what woman is willing to put up with that lonely lifestye? What woman is going to work on a helicopter in the driving freezing cold rain at 3AM, because the helicopter must be up and running by 8AM?

There are lots, and lots of jobs like that, that men do, that women are quiet simply unwilling to put up with.

Men make more, because they are willing to take the dangerous/physical/outrageous hours jobs.

My husband now works on the commercial wind turbines. I have yet to hear of a single woman that does that job. Climbing a 300 foot tower, strait up, no matter if it's 110 outside, or negative 50. Of course being on call ever other weekend, to fix a turbine should the need arise.

Men are just willing to do different jobs. The statistics on what men and women earn is rarely compaired job by job. Instead they just lump it all together, as male vs. female.

The statistics are mostly skewed.

~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

P.S. I just looked at the link you posted...should have done that first, huh? I can believe women are going to earn more money on their paychecks for office type jobs than men. In the long run, they will not earn more money, since they will almost always take time off for babies. Employers are still very much worried about being sued by women, so paying them more is a way around that.

Men will still continue to earn more, overall, simply because of the jobs they are willing to take.

Answer 7

most times not. It could be as someone else claims, with women not taking up "challengeing" rolls, the numbers to support equal wages are not there. Not always the case, the career i was in, has always been male oriented, there were 2 women in this field, myself and a woman out of Florida, we had no problem with equal wages. Feminist's can yell and scream till the walls cave in, but you cannot force people into careers and trades they do not want. Very, very few women want jobs where they may have to get dirty, very few women want jobs that call for heavy physical work. I think a major problem in society today is that most go for the cash, not that which they may have the knack or natural ability for. I noticed many years back, this trend, to jump on the band wagon, talk up a tough argument, then go home and live life as before. Most women for all their talk, still teach their children, especially girls, that marriage and kids is the only path in life. The majority of women always take, "what looks like" the easier life. If you wish to scream for equal pay, try banding together, demand women be paid a decent wage to stay home, raise kids, is this not tomorrows greatest product, is this not what politicians "use" constantly. We know for fact, (if done right) it is the hardest job in the world, no quitting time, working vacations, no sick time, skills unlimited. Make parenting skills manditory to payment, lessons on teaching responsibility, encouragement, confidence, age appropriate financial skills, teach parents how to parent and teach parenting skills. At one time it was taught through close knit families, with relatives assisting, one learned through living it. This was lost long ago, add divorce and multiple marriages, multiple parents, financial needs sky rocketing, money has for many years come before the kids, this is reality. Dysfunctional familie's are the norm. And for God sake, stop with the "a woman can have it all", that makes for the biggest failures of all. Nobody can" have it all "! But most of all, quit making women who choose or have no choice, but to stay home, "feel like loosers", the only loosers are those who can't see the incredible value in it.

Answer 8

A lot of women are earning more money than their husbands and after having a child immediately return to the workforce while the babies father takes paternity leave as it is more financially viable to do so.

Answer 9

I have just one word for you...* OPRAH *! You can take the conversation down from here and I'm sure you'll find a ton of women who throw away more money on shopping than a lot of men make in a year. My ex earned a lot more than I did and so does my daughter, for that matter. And I glad they had the opportunities to do so.

Answer 10

Women on average earn less than men because women take more time out of the workplace on maternity leave. The career gaps cause women to have less experience than men and therefore makes women less able to do high paid jobs that require experience.
Ultimately there is no point in feminists beating men over the head about unequal pay when mother nature is to blame. But that won't stop them...