SOCI 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Government Debt, Child Labour, Telecommuting
8 Jun 2018
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Lecture 14 (October 31st, 2017)
Gender Inequality (Part 2)
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“Sex-typed” work
•!In 2003 1/3 of women workers are clustered into just 20 out of roughly 500 occupational
categories.
o!Detail stats – there really is this thing called “women’s work” which tends to be
less valued in society and receives less rewards – notion of meritocracy (one is
rewarded for talent, ambition, and training. If one receives less training, they’ll
get less return for that)
o!Secretary, elementary school teacher, and cashier at the top of the list in these 20
categories of occupation
•!Only 11% of women work in occupations that are 75% male
o!This shows how segregated the workplace is
•!In 2000, 53% of women would have to change to predominantly male occupations in order
for them to be full occupational integration
o!Most women would have to change their jobs in order for there to be parity in the
workplace across all these occupations
! Explaining the gap
•!Even when they do have the same job, why do men tend to make more than women?
•!Exception: pharmacist – women tend to make a little bit more than men
•!Some of this has to do with the fact that research suggests and shows that men work more
hours than women
•!Women work less hours (still full-time): Yes, this does explain some of the gap in earnings
but not all. Why do women work less?
o!Additional expectations related to the family
•!Women more likely to leave workforce for some time during career. Yes, this does explain
some of the gap in wages, but not all.
o!Why do women leave the workforce more often?
o!If one of the primary factors is time in the workforce, women and men differ on
this score. Again, why are women more likely to have work interruptions?
Possibly, maternity leave (one of the major reasons) – for family reasons
•!Women “choose” less prestigious, and high paying degrees/jobs. Why?
o!The same education, yet they don’t choose the same careers, which have very
different earnings potential
o!Reasons: gender segregation, agency decisions, family…
o!Choice is a critical and powerful term – choice implies decisions without
constraints, how free are those choices, are free are the choices that women make
o!We’re disproportionally inclined to raise boys as growing up to be men who are
providers – achieving the most they can in their occupation
o!Men, in the way they’re socialized, are not given much of an option; it’s a
singular path – this is where you need to go
o!Women are presented with 2 options: 1) family as a principle outlet for their adult
life, 2) inserting themselves into the workforce and try to advance a professional
life.
"!These are 2 things that are very difficult to negotiate, especially
ethnographic work
"!“No matter what I do, I am condemned by some people as a woman”. Men
don’t face that same kind of tension. However, men are not really happy
with not having any choices at all – or the presumptions that men have
fewer choices
•!Thus, critics of the “gap” claim it has nothing to do with discrimination and everything to do
with women’s “choices”.
o!When it comes to this idea that women chose less prestigious and less paying
jobs, critics will say that we shouldn’t really concern ourselves with this gap
because the largest part of this can be explained by women’s choices. It’s not
discrimination or sexism, it’s women’s choices. They choose to work less, to have
children, to major in social science instead of science or engineering, and so they
pay the price for their presumably bad choice
o!This logic is advanced quite often when people talk about gender differences and
income
o!Women are to blame for their choices – negative connotation
•!Let’s take a look…
! Women in science and math
How much of this is actually free will and directing them away from higher prestige jobs?
•!Women earn only 12% of computer science degrees
o!These jobs are near the top of the food chain in terms of income
o!One argument: they’re not as talented, ambitious, capable, and so they don’t find
themselves being successful in math and science
o!Another argument has to do with steering
o!Another argument: maybe women are not as interesting in chasing the carrot
•!This is the highest paying Bachelors degree.
•!What share is explained by choice vs. discrimination.
o!Example, new study shows that women may be underrepresented in science and
math jobs because of teacher bias in primary school which had a long-term
influence on choice of Univ. major.
"!This idea of being able to follow science and math grades from primary
school all the way to university.
"!The distribution of grades, in such that when I know who you are as the
teacher, the grades for girls tend to be lower than for girls. Then when I
give those tests to someone who doesn’t know who you are, the reverse
trends show up: girls get higher scores than boys
"!Point of the research: in most cases, especially in primary and secondary
school, there is no blind scoring going on. If this trend is “true” this study
is suggestive in that primary and secondary educators are looking and
evaluating boys and boys differently. Evaluating women less favorably
than men could lead to a steering effect. In other words, if I’m being told
by educators that I’m not as good in science in math, the logical response
is to switch to something else
"!Why do girls and boys start to diverge in their interests in these fields?
The answer has to do with the way educators in this case are responding to
girls and boys
•!Sometimes, teachers are women and sometimes teacher are men. Women professors are
harder on women than men are on women
o!We also know that science professors give female students lower grades
(discriminatory).
"!In both cases, researchers gave assignments to two groups. One knew the
name and the other didn’t. Guess the findings?
o!Employers less likely to hire women (discriminatory).
! Article
•! https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/technology/women-entrepreneurs-speak-out-sexual-
harassment.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share
•!Article about sexual harassment.
•!Relevant because this whole notion of sex typed work, there’s a cost and a consequence for
going into male dominated workforce, and it’s not just lower pay or discrimination in
hiring/promotion, but also in types of harassments and potentially assaults
! Feminist rebuttal
•!Sexist stereotypes “steer” women and men into different education, training, and career paths
and family roles.
•!Empirical data supports claim.
•!What one should focus on and do as a woman:
o!Is that a choice? What’s expected of me as a woman as I steer for jobs that will
make it easier for me to care for my family?
o!Is that really my free choice?
! Article: how blind auditions help orchestras to eliminate gender bias
•!https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/technology/women-entrepreneurs-speak-out-sexual-
harassment.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share
•!Gender bias and hiring
•!Trying to look at gender discrimination and hiring by examining things like what is
mentioned in the article
•!I have 2 people playing a musical instrument, I am trying to judge who is better. The study
shows that it’s not much different than the types of outcomes mentioned earlier (women in
science and math). When I get to see you and evaluate you, men tend to be favored in the
performance – evaluated in a better way – higher scores. But when I cannot see them, women
are evaluated higher
•!It’s a problem in the way we evaluate what women do
! A closer look – McGill hiring
•!The fact that we are a group of highly educated people does not make us immune to these
problems
•!Gender equity exercise
Document Summary
Why do women work less? o additional expectations related to the family: women more likely to leave workforce for some time during career. Possibly, maternity leave (one of the major reasons) for family reasons: women choose less prestigious, and high paying degrees/jobs. These are 2 things that are very difficult to negotiate, especially ethnographic work. No matter what i do, i am condemned by some people as a woman . Men don"t face that same kind of tension. It"s not discrimination or sexism, it"s women"s choices. This idea of being able to follow science and math grades from primary school all the way to university. The distribution of grades, in such that when i know who you are as the teacher, the grades for girls tend to be lower than for girls. Then when i give those tests to someone who doesn"t know who you are, the reverse trends show up: girls get higher scores than boys.
