Mini Exam 4 Flashcards
Gender Wage Gap
What is the gender wage gap?
The difference between the median wages of the average man and the average women who work full-time, year-round
Misconceptions About the Gender Wage Gap
It does not exist
It’s simply a reflection of women’s choices and preferences about work
A result of overt-based gender discrimination
Gender wage gap only affects cisgender women
What Explains the Wage Gap?
41% of the gender gap cannot be explained
Job segregation: 49%
Labor force experience: 10%
Unexplained (likely discrimination): 41%
2 reasons why the gap narrows over time
women’s rising wages since 1970s
loss of men’s income in same period)
What does the trend of race/ethnicity say?
Women of all races make less than their male counterparts, but the size of the gap varies by race
How does age depict a trend?
The wage gap appears and widens sharply through the 20s and 30s
Why: Children/Family
women are burdened with childcare and the labor at home, which creates inflexibility in their job
Social pressures in the workplace - especially from employers
Certain assumptions are made about women with children which allows for lower pay
Where is the gap largest in terms of education?
The gap is largest among college-educated men and women who earn professional degrees
What 3 things explain the gender wage gap?
Gendered job Segregation
Gender Discrimination
Practice and Ideology of Parenting
What is gendered job segregation?
The practice of filling occupations with mostly men or mostly women workers
Jobs are not naturally gendered
Where is there job segregation?
Between Occupations and Industries
Within Occupations and Industries
Where does job segregation come from? (3 hypotheses)
Socialization Hypothesis
Employer Selection Hypothesis
Selective Exit Hypothesis
Socialization Hypothesis
men and women respond to gender stereotypes when planning, training, and applying for jobs
Employer Selection Hypothesis
employers tend to prefer men for masculine jobs and women for feminine jobs, slotting applicants into gender-consistent roles during hiring and promotion
Selective Exit Hypothesis
an explanation for job segregation that emphasizes workers’ abandonment of counter-stereotypical occupations
How Does Job Segregation Affect Wages?
Jobs that are strongly male-dominated are among the highest-paying
Women dominate two-thirds of the lowest-paying professions
It has to do with how we value different kinds of labor
Andocentric pay scale
the correlation between wages and the gender composition of a job
Emotional labor
the act of controlling one’s own emotion and managing the emotions of others
Jobs dominated by women tend to be defined as…
outside the realm of work because they are believed to utilize skills seen as coming “naturally” to women
Care Work
Work that involves caretaking of the physical, emotional, and educational needs of others
What does job segregation create and contribute to?
Job segregation doesn’t just create a differentiated workforce; it creates an unequal one
Job segregation contributes to the gender pay gap because we attribute more value to “men’s work” than “women’s work”
Lilly Ledbetter’s Fair Pay Act of 2009
Loosened time restrictions on filing equal pay discrimination lawsuits, resetting the 180-day filing period each time discrimination occur
Trans people often have…
different work experiences post-transition, clarifying the ways gender shapes the workplace
Benevolent Sexism
discrimination in the form of chivalry - but works in a way that disadvantages women
Hostile Sexism
demonstrating hostility toward women; may or may not be sexual in nature
Women pose a symbolic threat…
their presence potentially threatens the identity of the dominant group
Double Bind
a situation in which cultural expectations are contradictory, making success unattainable
For women in male-dominated occupations…
The glass ceiling is the invisible barrier between women and top positions in masculine occupations
When women do break through a ceiling, they often encounter a glass cliff - a heightened risk of failing as compared to similar men
For men in female-dominated occupations…
The glass escalator is the invisible ride to the top positions offered to men in female-dominated occupations
Token
Individuals in an extreme numerical minority who are socially isolated, highly visible, and adversely stereotyped
Why does status matter for a token group?
matters for how tokens will be perceived and treated
the glass escalator assumes a…
racial homogenization
What Causes the Glass Escalator Effect?
Relationships with colleagues and supervisors
Perceptions of suitability for job
Distance from femininity
What are the relationships with colleagues and supervisors
Close ties that men create with their supervisors
The idea that gender connects them
Women play a significant role in the implementation of the glass escalator in men’s careers
What are the perceptions of suitability for job
Pushes men from the feminine aspects of a job to more masculine ones
The perception that men aren’t well suited to nursing pushes them out of the feminine aspects of the job into more masculine- associated roles (with more authority, prestige, status, and pay)
What is distance from femininity
Men disassociate themselves from the feminine aspects of a job to hold on to their masculine privilege in the field
Where is the glass escalator most prominent?
The glass escalator effect is more prominent in care-oriented professions (like nursing, social work, and teaching)
Wingfield’s Findings: “Glass Barriers” (3)
Gendered racism limits bonds with supervisors and colleagues
Negative racial stereotypes skew perceptions of suitability for nursing
Refusal to reject femininity
Racializing the Glass Escalator
The glass escalator is a phenomenon that reproduces racial and gender advantages in the workplace
Intensive Mothering
the idea that mothers should be self-sacrificing while emotionally and physically available to their children
Ideal Worker Norm
The standard for work that demands undivided commitment and loyalty to a job at the expense of other priorities, including family time
The Motherhood Penalty
the documented wage penalty associated with becoming a mother that can’t be explained by job experience, education, or work hours
Fatherhood Premium
the documented wage increase that accrues to married men who become fathers
may be mostly about men leaning into work before or after a child is born
fathers are increasing the time they spend at work when there are children at home
Mommy Track
Employers expect less commitment from mothers (with the understanding that they’re sacrificing the right to expect equal pay, regular raises, or promotions)
Correll 2017 Resume Study
Correll (2017) send 1,276 fake resumes for a marketing job that gave hints of parental status and gender to 638 actual employers
Mothers receive fewer than half as many callbacks as non-mothers
Fathers were rated more favorably than non-fathers
Because women are clustered in industries with low pay…
families with women breadwinners are increasingly experiencing poverty and homelessness
Medical understandings of female fertility emphasize
Age: the decline of fertlity with age
Eggs: the limited quantity and diminishing quality of eggs with age
Egg freezing preserves a person’s fertility in anticipation of aging-related fertility decline if they’re not ready to become pregnant now but would like to get pregnant later
What is Egg Freezing?
Step 1: two weeks of self-injected hormonal medications to stimulate ovaries
Step 2: egg retrieval surgery
Step 3: harvested eggs frozen and stored indefinitely for future IVF use
How Effective Is Egg Freezing?
The clinical pregnancy rate per frozen and thawed egg is 4.5-12 percent
Success depends on two factors:
Age at which a person freezes
Number of eggs extracted and frozen
How Much Does Egg Freezing Cost in the US?
Approx. $15,000-20,000
Medical treatment: $11,000
Hormonal medication: $5,000
Egg storage: $2,000
Average cost of a single IVF cycle in the US: $23,000
What Are The Risks of Egg Freezing?
Bodily risks
Emotional risks
False hope
“A very expensive lottery ticket”
Why is Egg Freezing Sociologically Important?
Gender and Motherhood
Cultural understandings of womanhood still emphasize motherhood
Gender and Work
Conditions of professional work create insurmountable time pressures between career advancement and family formation
Egg Freezing Research Method
40 interviews with child-free, professional women of reproductive age who work in cities and industries where egg freezing is increasingly being offered as an employee benefit
