Gender and Work Segregation

The gender pay gap is the difference in the size of payments received by women and men. As a rule, the latter are paid more, and this phenomenon is observed all over the world. Today all progressive societies are very concerned about the issue of gender wage inequality. And the reason is not only human rights but also the economy. The countries, in which women are actively included in the labor force, receive a bonus in the form of faster economic growth. Despite the anti-discrimination movements that fight for women’s right for decades, women still earn less than men. Variations of gender pay gap among the countries range from 75% to 30%. In the USA, a middle-aged working woman earns 74% of a man’s salary. Depending on the state, women earn approximately from 55 to 75 cents for every dollar earned by a man. This research paper aims to examine the correlation between gender and work segregation; it focuses on the occupations with the largest gender pay gap known from legal writing services.

Women still cannot manage to become involved in the field of top management. In the USA and Germany, the proportion of women holding the presidency in the largest companies has been less than 3% for many years. Feminization of employment provides a number of women with better opportunities in middle management, in trade, and finance; however, there are only 30% women in Europe and 40% in the USA, who are involved in these spheres. They are actually stuck on this official capacity level and cannot rise to the top jobs. The legislation on equal rights and equal opportunities for men and women works only in the public sector of economy, but it does not work in private business.

According to the predictions of experts of the World Economic Forum, it will take 81 years to get rid of the wage gap between women and men. However, it has become evident that the majority of employed people do not notice the gender inequality. According to a survey conducted among the users of Glassdoor, the American website, where employees review various companies, 7 out of 10 working people believe that men and women earn almost the same. 70% of women and 77% of men do not notice inequality in salaries. Thus, practically all respondents advocate for the equality of remuneration. Such an opinion is expressed by 89% of respondents from the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Americans are the most interested in the equality of the salaries as such a position is supported by 93% of respondents.

Another finding shows that people do not want to work in the companies where the gender pay gap takes place. 3 out of 5 employees state that they would not apply for a job if they knew about inequality in the organization. A career portal Glassdoor also asks the survey participants what, in their opinion, can be made in order to reduce the inequality in wages. 45% of employees in the United States believe that companies need to change their policy in terms of compensation, and 39% of respondents rely on legislative initiatives of the Government. The majority of respondents around the world rely on their country: in Canada (38%), the UK (41%), France (33%), Germany (41%), the Netherlands (33%), and Switzerland (40%). Other 27% of respondents in all countries believe that implementing remuneration transparency at all levels can eliminate salary disparities.

Women in the United States earn 20% less than men. Some men believe that equal pay is not quite appropriate. Glassdoor also has analyzed the situation with the pay gap, taking into account characteristics such as age and education. The wages of men and women, who have the same occupations, has been compared, and it has become evident that the gap is becoming smaller but is not disappearing.

Some of the most interesting jobs in the USA have been analyzed with the focus on gender wage gap. First of all, as far as medicine is concerned, salaries of health professionals widely vary from nurses and assistants to the famous surgeons. To some extent, there is the difference in the payment due to the fact that the health professionals work in different fields of medicine. Among highly paid physicians, 37% of anesthesiologists are women, whereas among low paid health workers, 71% of all pediatricians are female. The insurance industry is largely occupied by men, and it is one of the reasons of the big differences in wages - 7.2%. Metallurgical and Mining industry are characterized by unfavourable working conditions, which may be the cause of the high proportion of men employed in this field. As well as in the insurance industry, the predominance of men is likely to be the reason of the increase in pay gap to 6.8%. Transportation and logistics are largely occupied by men; in addition, the business is more technical in nature. Both of these factors contribute to the gender gap in wages, raising this specialty in fourth place in the Glassdoor survey - to the level of 6.7%. Media ranks the fifth place in the Glassdoor survey as the gender wage gap is at the level of 6.6%. One reason for this phenomenon is the fact that the media require completely new professions, such as a video game designer, in which men are again in the majority. Art industry as well as entertainment and hospitality are not too popular among men, but even here, the difference in payment is maintained at the level of 6.6%. Jennifer Lawrence, the highest paid Hollywood actress, has earned several million dollars, which is less than her male colleagues in 2015. Finances were once known as the “all-male club”. Now, however, the pay gap is 6.4%, and this sector proved to be more favorable to women than the previous six spheres.

However, there are some professions in which women earn more than men. The profession of pharmacist is on the first place. Here women can earn approximately $ 1.898 a week. The pharmaceutical industry is known to be very well paid immediately after graduating and at all times during career growth. This is a very good return of investment in terms of money and time spent on education. Female lawyers take the second place. Managers of computer and information networks are in third place. Some kinds of doctors rank the fourth step. Men occupy the most highly paid positions among doctors working as plastic surgeons, while women are mainly engaged in the general practice medicine and pediatrics.

Generally speaking, the most surprising fact is that women are often better educated than their colleagues of the opposite sex. In many countries, including the United States, the proportion of women enrolled in universities and colleges has grown steadily and finally has become greater than that of men. This phenomenon is called "the reversal of the gender education gap" in the scientific literature. Researches show that gender reversal in education does not necessarily lead to equality in terms of salaries and career development.

Taking into account some popular occupations, it is possible to make a conclusion that two main concepts such as gender pay gap and sex segregation, which have been analyzed in this work, still exist. These findings regarding both concepts show that gender inequality is the largest among the most profitable and highly paid jobs. There are various thoughts regarding the possible reasons of gender segregation at work. Some people believe that general gender pay gap reflects the fact that women often work in lower-paid industries or are employed in short-term jobs. This inequality can be also explained by different strategies in work search. Some people think that biological factors such as giving birth to children and taking care of them can be the reason of the disparity in men’s and women’s wages. However, in my opinion, all of the reasons listed above are nothing else than stereotypes. Unfortunately, many employers are guided by different prejudices connected with women’s work. Leaders should be fair while employing workers and giving salaries for their employees.