Do Womens Career Choices Create the Salary Gap?
The different career paths taken by men and women are partly responsible for the salary gap that places women’s salaries at just 80 percent of men’s. But that’s not the full story. Research has shown that women are consistently paid less than men working similar hours in comparable job roles. At present, 57 percent of college students are women, and females consistently perform better than males in education. So much so that policy makers in the U.S. and Europe are looking at ways to improve educational participation and outcomes for men and boys. So, lower educational attainment is clearly not to blame for the salary gap. Neither is lack of opportunity. With the exception of certain military jobs, women are no longer barred from most occupations. What creates the salary gap? It’s easy to blame society, but let’s not forget that half of our society is made up of women. Does this mean that women are complicit in allowing workplace inequalities to persist? A myriad of factors, conscious
