How fast do you expect the global gender gaps to close within the next 10 years?

Scandinavian countries tend to be pretty forward thinking, socially – so I’m not surprised. I think that closing the gap in developing economies is going to depend on a couple things: (1) the installment of stable government structures and infrastructures in African and some East Asian nations, and (2) a separation of church and state law in Middle Eastern nations.

I think it will close pretty close pretty quick. Take Fluther as an example….with the anonymity of many of the avatars and personas here, ½ the time you really don’t know if you are dealing with a 13 yr old or a 50 yr old . Add in this instant access and exposure to all levels of information and discourse available on the internet you can dummy up and dummy down and in short order there is a pretty level playing field for all ages to romp on..

I don’t expect it to close any time soon. I am still astonished that when hearing that women make 77 cents for every dollar men make, there is not more of an outcry.

In the U.S. in 2009: “Additional state Census data show that women working full-time, year-round continued to earn less than men working full-time, year-round in every single state, although the wage gap among them varies. Overall, women in 20 states saw the wage gap between men and women widen.”

Source

@marinelife – I agree, it’s totally outrageous. What could be the reasons? Are women too nice when talking to their bosses about a raise? Or when they are hired? What can we do to change the situation?

@marinelife and @mattbrowne: It depends on who you ask. There’s a lot of controversy surrounding the extent to which this gap still exists. There are a lot of mitigating factors: that women tend to prefer low-paying jobs, that women are more likely to take time out of the workforce, that women tend to work fewer hours, and that women are less likely to negotiate, among other factors. Wikipedia sums up some of this but I think is not a particularly exhaustive review of the research in this field.

Some reason women make less:

Women usually aren’t coached as men are to compete and negotiate their every move.

Women tend to wait for merit to be recognized rather than bringing attention to or asking for attention to their accomplishments. Women see a lot of this as bragging which is “unladylike” but for men, it’s assurance and advertising on their “turf”.

Women tend to take jobs they see as the least threatening to a home life. Jobs that don’t expect over 40 hrs a week, jobs that don’t require travel/overnights, jobs not far from home/kids’ school, jobs they can pick up on the go after babies are born or toddlers off to daycare, jobs in proximity to a partner’s prioritized one.

@Neizvestnaya

Women tend to take jobs they see as the least threatening to a home life. Jobs that don’t expect over 40 hrs a week, jobs that don’t require travel/overnights, jobs not far from home/kids’ school, jobs they can pick up on the go after babies are born or toddlers off to daycare, jobs in proximity to a partner’s prioritized one.

I think that this is compounded, and perhaps a greater cause here, is the fact that employers are less likely to hire women because they think they’ll have to pay for pregnancy, maternity leave, etc.

@iamthemob: That might be true in corporate level jobs, I haven’t seen it though because I’ve worked the 20+ years in blue collar ones where women have made up the greater numbers and I’ve always thought it’s because they’re lower paying “disposable” jobs.

But that’s the point, isn’t it? ;-) If lower-level jobs are more likely to accept women, then women will be working them, and you exacerbate the gender gap.

@iamthemob: I could propose a nationwide female clerical strike but suspect the response would be to panic and pay more to young males who would then bump us old female clericals down to fast food drive thru clerks.

I don’t think a strike is necessary. ;-) I think halving maternity leave and giving the other half as paternity leave is a better way to go.

A little off the topic but not entirely. Divorce is bad for marriage, bad for kids but better for equalizing status on the jobs. How many men once divorced had to start taking time off work to go and pick up sick kids or leave early to make the school extracurriculars or come in late to wait on a kid’s bus or carpool? That changes how bosses see the men in relation to what they assumed just women did.

“Oh, she’s always late because she drops the kids off…” How many times has this been looked on with scorn until some man starts doing the same thing at work? These types of things can’t be held over women’s heads for much longer as an excuse not to grant raises or promotions or to be labelled an unreliable employee. They’re now just facts of daily living for both male and female parents.

I wouldn’t say that they’re now just facts for BOTH male and female parents – but it’s an exciting trend that it’s more and more expected that gender is not a deciding factor here. I agree.

I don’t think it’s off-topic, because employer perceptions are central to methods for reducing gender gaps.

@nikipedia The statistics are for the same work. Seventy seven cents on the dollar to what men make FOR THE SAME WORK.

As to women taking more time out of the work force, that is bull pucky. They are not paid for that time. They are paid for the time they are working side by side next to guys making 23 cents more an hour because they have a penis.

@marinelife: Not according to your source cited above. Do you have other sources that say as much?

“Women’s median pay was less than men’s in each and every one of the 20 industries and 25 occupation groups surveyed by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2007.3 Even men working in female-dominated occupations tend to earn more than women working in those same occupations.” Institute for Women’s Policy Research: Still A Man’s Labor Market: The Long-Term Earnings Gap, pg.4, table 5 (PDF)

National Organization for Women

@marinelife: I understand that whether the gender gap exists is not really up for debate. I only take issue with the 77 cents for every dollar figure, which I believe has been largely debunked.

In our company the top management has made the following new rules:

The bonus of senior managers depends on
– how close their divisions/departments come in terms of equal pay
– the number of female employees enrolled in talent management programs
– the number of promoted women in their divisions/departments

Most of these senior managers are still men, but it’s interesting to watch how they compete against each other trying to develop female managers. Everyone wants to be the best.

I was told that a woman came up with this idea, knowing that men would like this kind of competition. But nobody could tell me her name.

I’m responsible for a team of 30 technical specialists and only 3 of them are women. One works part-time and told me that until her 2 kids are older she doesn’t want to work more or get promoted. Another one told me that she has to care for her sick mother and promotions are not a priority either. For her it’s also important that the tasks she gets do not involve too much business travel. The third women wants to get promoted, but from the performance reports she gets in her projects it’s very hard for me to justify this and my boss told me that he’s not convinced it would be the right think to do at this point in time. I’ve also tried to hire more women, but most of them choose different IT roles such as project manager, business analyst or application owner. Technical specialists need to know all the details about Java EE, Tomcat, Oracle, Web Services and so forth. I wish I found a way that more women become interested in this. In Germany the economy is booming and it’s very hard to find enough engineers and IT professionals. Some time ago I went to a high school and give a speech about careers in IT. I hope more young women will make that choice.