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Could the Gender Pay Gap Actually Be A Sign That Women Prioritize Socially Valuable Careers?
Reason ^ | August 10, 2022 | Emma Camp

Posted on 08/11/2022 6:20:18 AM PDT by karpov

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal published a report analyzing data from 1.7 million college graduates examining how the gender pay gap manifests itself in the first few years of college graduates' careers. They found that even for graduates with the same major, women often earned strikingly less than their male counterparts. For example, among Georgetown accounting majors, male graduates earned 55 percent more than female graduates just three years after graduation.

The data is "evidence that pay gaps between men and women often form earlier than is widely perceived," says the Journal, adding that "economists who have long examined pay gaps between men and women cite the so-called motherhood penalty—referring to the perception that mothers are less committed to their jobs—and say this affects hiring, promotions, and salaries. Determining why those gaps appear earlier isn't simple."

However, is this picture as dire as it seems? Among several explanations the Journal gives, including internalized sexism and outright discrimination, is worker preference.

Take, for example, the University of Michigan School of Law, where the median male graduate out-earns the median female graduate by $45,000. "The school said that in the classes of 2015 and 2016, 237 men took jobs at law firms, while 158 women did. Fourteen men headed into public-interest jobs, whereas three times as many women did. The classes those years had slightly more men than women." Women appear more likely to prefer notoriously low-paying public-interest law over a grueling job at a law firm. As one woman law grad, now a public defender, told the Journal, "With corporate law, I could make all the money in the world, but I'd rather get some kind of fulfillment from my job."

(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: gendergap; jobs; pay; paygap
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Many of those "socially valuable careers", such as "public-interest law", are actually destructive. The ungated WSJ article is here.
1 posted on 08/11/2022 6:20:18 AM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

Many women view their careers as something to do until they get married, so they don’t make it central to their lives.


2 posted on 08/11/2022 6:21:25 AM PDT by Jonty30 (Some men want to watch the world burn. It is they that want you to buy an electric car.)
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To: karpov

The entire pay gap concept has been bogus from the beginning.

If two job seekers come through the door, and I think I can get away with paying one of them half as much as the other, I will hire the cheap one. What that would mean is that the woman just got hired for a low-paying job, and the man is unemployed (because he “costs too much”). And, clearly, that is not the real life situation.

Women earn less for a wide variety of reasons, but sexist pigs in the patriarchy who want to oppress women are not the reason women earn less. Women make their own decisions, and these decisions result in women earning less. Just a fact.


3 posted on 08/11/2022 6:25:18 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (We are already in a revolutionary period, and the Rule of Law means nothing. It's "whatever".)
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To: karpov
I know women who prioritize time with the family over higher paychecks and power in the workplace.

It is common for some people to say, "I have enough money". "I don't have enough time."

Women are genetically driven to spend more time with family then men are.

4 posted on 08/11/2022 6:29:23 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: ClearCase_guy

Exactly. Jordan Peterson has made a career out of debunking bullsh!t like “gender inequality.”


5 posted on 08/11/2022 6:32:45 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("It's midnight in Manhattan. This is no time to get cute; it's a mad dog's promenade.")
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To: karpov

My observation is that women are far more passive and less likely to ask for a raise. In contrast, men are far more likely to do so. Another thing is that some men work a lot harder than women. Not all men, but some. They are obsessive in a way that women aren’t. This probably tends to skew the average for men up vs. women. In almost any bell curve, women tend to cluster around the mean with a much smaller standard deviation then men. They are also far more process oriented than men. That is they are great at enforcing an existing process. Not necessarily innovating or creating a new process in the first place.


6 posted on 08/11/2022 6:41:12 AM PDT by rbg81
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To: karpov

Can we all just accept that men and women are different and that they have different motivations and different roles to play. On the whole men are task oriented while women are relationally oriented. Both are good and both are needed. Let us value men and women for what they are, and not for some false idea of egalitarianism.


7 posted on 08/11/2022 6:48:13 AM PDT by Petrosius
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To: karpov

As to the question of the headline: No.

My answer, which of course would be the truth IMHO: Women, overall, do not put the hours and dedication into a “career” that a man does. It’s OK, God made them that way. Praise God for women!


8 posted on 08/11/2022 6:50:37 AM PDT by Blue Collar Christian (I'm a nationalist. I'm white. How does that make me racist?)
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To: karpov

“For example, among Georgetown accounting majors, male graduates earned 55 percent more than female graduates just three years after graduation.“

Unless women are lousy accountants, or aren’t putting in the hours, that is a flat out lie.


9 posted on 08/11/2022 6:51:06 AM PDT by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: Blue Collar Christian

Female employees at a zoo outnumber man. Caretakers. Good place to meet them.


10 posted on 08/11/2022 6:54:03 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: karpov

“For example, among Georgetown accounting majors, male graduates earned 55 percent more than female graduates just three years after graduation.”

Hard to believe, all things being equal. The professional women I’ve known are basically more careful and detail oriented than men. In accounting that is an advantage.

I don’t think all things are equal. I think a certain percentage of the women are taking time off for babies. You get 20%-25% of those women earning zero dollars for a year or a year and a half, and the average salary goes way down for that group of women. I will bet dollars to donuts (as an old teacher used to say) that the study didn’t account for family leave. I’m thinking this is one of those studies that set out to prove an assumption instead of taking an unbiased look at data.


11 posted on 08/11/2022 6:54:41 AM PDT by Roadrunner383 (;)
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To: Jonty30

This is 2020. Not 1960
How many women under 60 do You know who do not have jobs?


12 posted on 08/11/2022 6:54:44 AM PDT by RWGinger (LGB)
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To: Jonty30

I am sure that the “gap” used to be a simple recognition of human existence - women get pregnant and raise children. The household should continue with most of its pay, and the employer gains nothing investing in a woman who will leave.

Whether idiots want to understand it, or not, men and women are as alike as your right and left hands. They are mostly the same, but God, or nature if you prefer, is not wasteful and they complement each other for the greater good.

Statistics can also be a field of weasels. Some women are more like men and some men are more like women. The outliers get paid accordingly.


13 posted on 08/11/2022 6:57:30 AM PDT by Empire_of_Liberty
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To: Petrosius

Nowadays, it’s politically incorrect, to say that men and women are different. That’s part of these sorts of debates, that nobody wants to say that there are differences.


14 posted on 08/11/2022 6:57:52 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: bk1000
I've heard that accounting jobs at the big firms are absolute meat grinders for the low level employees: a 60 hour week is a light week. If you don't want those hours or don't see yourself climbing the ladder at one of those companies you might go on to be a bookkeeper at a local business. There is a big difference in pay between the two.

I've only had to deal with those accountants when going through a company audit. Two or three accountants would come from out of town and work 12 hour days for a week. And that was their life.

15 posted on 08/11/2022 7:02:42 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference of the Devil...-Churchill)
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To: karpov

It’s a sign that women value motherhood more than climbing the corporate. And that many husbands prioritize the raising of their children over their wives earning every dime that they can possibly make.


16 posted on 08/11/2022 7:04:01 AM PDT by LuxAerterna (/)
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To: RWGinger

The times do not change our biology and inborn created nature.

Women still want men to be greater than them and be the ones that support the family while their jobs go to making nice homes.

If there was a pay gap, it would be economically advantaged to not hire men at all where it could be avoided and just hire women. What business doesn’t want an extra 30% of profit if it could find it?


17 posted on 08/11/2022 7:06:53 AM PDT by Jonty30 (Some men want to watch the world burn. It is they that want you to buy an electric car.)
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To: Empire_of_Liberty
I will bet dollars to donuts (as an old teacher used to say)

In the past that phrase meant a very low odds, near certain bet. Now it's about even odds. If Bidenflation keeps going it will be a very high odds bet like winning the lottery - you mean for a mere dollar I have a chance to win a whole donut?

18 posted on 08/11/2022 7:07:56 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference of the Devil...-Churchill)
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To: Jonty30

Good point.

If women really earn 30% less than men, then why does any man anywhere have a job? Why doesn’t every business in America hire only women so they can cut payroll costs by 30%?


19 posted on 08/11/2022 7:11:12 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: bk1000

I was surprised at that number as well.


20 posted on 08/11/2022 7:12:46 AM PDT by Maine Mariner
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