Student: Brian Miller

Date: 10/29/14
Title: Journal Entry #7
Question:
Think about gender roles. Write about gender roles. Why do we often feel one gender
has more social power than the other? Do you know more women go to college than men
yet on an average women get paid 25% less than men? Why is this?
Gender roles are products of society that have been formed over hundreds (if not
thousands) of years. As such, many of the modern roles associated with each gender are
deep rooted and therefore not often challenged. Consequently, once something becomes
conventional wisdom progress in re-defining or changing it is slow.
Although many of the reasons behind the formation of gender roles (picture a
pregnant Neanderthal woman trying to chase down an animal for dinner) no longer exist,
hints of those primitive roles still exist. For example, many women now work deep into
their pregnancy and take a limited amount of time off of work. Aside from physically
carrying and birthing a child, the disruption to a modern womans work life by the birth
of a child can be minimal. However, because of the traditional role of women, they are
the ones who are expected to alter their professional life to care for the child. This
expectation is so deep rooted, that many women feel guilty if they do not take time off to
become the primary care giver for their child.
The topic of wage inequality is very complex. The fact that more women go to
college than men does not automatically mean that women are going to earn the same as
men. The careers that women go to college for need to be looked at. For example, if
there are a disproportionate number of women who go into a low paying career such as
social work (from personal experience I have observed this) this will skew the numbers.
It appears the 25% less than men number comes from full-time/year-round
workers (Hegewisch & Hartmann, 2014). This is a broad group of occupations and
simply lumps all occupations together. This number fails to take into account the
different careers women and men choose (see the social worker example above).
Aside from career choice, studies have shown that men are more competitive than
women. This leads men not only to choose those jobs that are higher paying, but also
win those jobs when there is a competitive hiring process. Men are also more likely to
ask for a raise or negotiate a higher wage when accepting a job (List & Gneezy).
There are many other reasons that men earn more than women but I believe very
little can be attributed to outright gender discrimination.

Citations:
Hegewisch, A. & Hartmann, H., (September 2014), The Gender Wage Gap. Retrieved
from http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/the-gender-wage-gap-2013
List, J. & Gneezy, U., The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics
of Everyday Life. Dreamscape Media, 2013. Audio book.