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Sexism Dictates Your Paycheck
By News Desk | September 23, 2008
In 2008 society has reached a pinnacle of social equality in race, class, and supposedly gender. No longer do signs regiment the color of skin, nor is slavery condoned and/or practice (openly at least) in America. However, despite what seems to be equal gender relations studies show that this is not the case.
Thought women have come a long way from their 50’s counterparts in long high-wasted dress who stay at home and perform as a perfectly obedient little housewife, it seems they still have a ways to go. The workplace has not yet accepted women and men that no longer hold traditional views of women’s places in our world. The difference in opinion can be seen in their monthly earnings.
A study at the University of Florida found that men who still cling to the ‘traditional’ view (stereotypical generalizing idea of a women’s work) make $11930 more annually on average than those that are a bit more open minded. This is true in the reverse for women. Those who are open to a progressive society make $1052 (average) more than traditional women.
However, the most stark wage gap can be seen between the salaries of men and women. Men with traditional values make between $14404 and $13352 more than women. (Frightening huh) Statistically base men of traditional views make 71% more than traditional women where as egalitarian minded men make only 7% more.
“What really surprised us was the magnitude of the difference,” says Timothy Judge, a psychologist connected with the study. “We suspected that ‘traditional’ gender-role attitudes would work against women. What surprised us was the degree to which that effect held, even when you start controlling for a variable that you think would make the effect go away, like how many kids you have, or how many hours you work outside the home, what type of occupation.” When the researchers controlled for education, intelligence (based on the participants’ IQ test scores), occupation, hours worked and even what region they lived in the United States, Judge found that “none of those really made the effect go away.”
So it seems that the wage gap is most heavily connected with gender-roll-attitudes with traditional minded men taking the biggest chunk of the pay day. Who knows why this gap still persists in such a forward seeming society, but the evidence is not doubt there. Hopefully as years pass and equality continues to grow, this salary gap will shrink.
By Landis Grenville
Topics: Discuss Amongst Yourselves |