Why Do Women’s Fields of Study Pay Less? A Test of Devaluation, Human Capital, and Gender Role Theory

Ochsenfeld, Fabian

doi:10.1093/esr/jcu060

Cited by 65 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 57 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…The two datasets provide us with detailed measures for school degrees, job characteristics, and value orientations. If women earn lower wages because their fields of study are less rewarding (Ochsenfeld, 2014) or their jobs require less effort (Becker, 1985: p. 52), our analysis will pick up these effects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Gender Wage Gap Opens Long before Motherhood. Panel Evidence on Early Careers in Switzerland

Combet

Oesch

2019

European Sociological Review

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According to a popular argument in economics, the gender wage gap persists not because of employer discrimination against women, but because of the differential investment of fathers and mothers into paid work and the household. We test this argument by comparing the evolution of wages between men and women before the onset of family formation and gendered household specialization. We use a cohort study of young adults for Switzerland (TREE 2000-2014) and match the two sexes on their intellectual ability and educational attainment before they enter the labour market. We then use the ensuing survey waves to account for human capital and job characteristics as well as for values towards work and family. We replicate our analysis with a second panel study of Swiss graduate students. We find in both cohort studies an unexplained gender wage gap of between 3 to 6 percent in favour of men. This result suggests that young women earn lower wages than young men with the same productive characteristics long before they have children. Translated into annual wages, this means that young women lose out on half a monthly wage each year in comparison to young men.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Gender Wage Gap Opens Long before Motherhood. Panel Evidence on Early Careers in Switzerland

Combet

Oesch

2019

European Sociological Review

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“…Previous studies have demonstrated the positive impact of ST jobs on the female employment rate (Sakamoto 2009); the present study extends this finding by clarifying the regional differences in Japan. Although they provide relatively low salaries (Ochsenfeld 2014), ST positions enable women work to longer in the same organization.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional Differences in the Labor Supply of Married Female Graduates: Why Is It Lower in the Metropolitan Areas of Japan?

Kato

2018

Rev Urban & Reg Develop

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This study investigates the determinants of the lower employment rate of married female graduates in the metropolitan areas (MAs) of Japan compared to the rate in non‐MAs using Employment Status Survey data from 1992, 1997, and 2002. The results show that the type of employment available in non‐MAs is more conducive to employment tenure. During the study period, married female graduates attained longer employment in full‐time specialized and technical jobs, such as teaching, in non‐MAs. In MAs, a larger proportion of married female graduates worked in clerical jobs, sales, or in specialized and technical jobs (e.g. doctors or uncategorized jobs), which have lower job continuity than teaching jobs. This study concludes, therefore, that employment composition is at least one of the determinants of the lower employment rate of married female graduates in MAs.

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“…Although women are on average more likely than men to complete higher education, men are still more likely than women to graduate from prestigious colleges and universities, and mainly from study programs in engineering, technology, and computer science, while women still make up the vast majority of graduates from health care and education fields, as Corbett and Hill (2012) report. With data from Germany, Ochsenfeld (2014) states that men are overrepresented in lucrative fields and that a disproportionate number of women graduate from disciplines that yield lower wages in the labor market. Additionally, women tend to accumulate less labor market experience than comparable men, which also helps explain gender wage gap from a human capital perspective.…”

Section: Theories Of Gender Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Más allá de la brecha salarial de género

Larraz¹,

Pavía²,

Vila³

2019

conrec

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La desigualdad de género, y en particular la desigualdad salarial de género, ha sido considerada una prioridad política en muchos países durante las últimas décadas, con foco puesto en reducir la llamada brecha salarial, es decir, en buscar una convergencia en media para los salarios de hombres y mujeres. Una aproximación de medias, sin embargo, no implica distribuciones salariales más justas (totales y de género). Utilizando los microdatos de una muestra nacionalmente representativa de la población ocupada de España (N = 216,769), descomponemos la desigualdad salarial total en desigualdad salarial femenina y masculina (intra-grupos) y desigualdad de género (entre-grupos) y exploramos hasta qué punto estos índices dependen de las características laborales previamente identificadas como determinantes de las diferencias promedio entre hombres y mujeres ("brecha salarial de género"). Para este conjunto de datos, los análisis muestran que la desigualdad salarial de género es más alta que la desigualdad salarial total y ambas la desigualdad salarial total y la desigualdad de género aumentan con la edad y el nivel educativo de los trabajadores.

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Why Do Women’s Fields of Study Pay Less? A Test of Devaluation, Human Capital, and Gender Role Theory

Cited by 65 publications

References 57 publications

The Gender Wage Gap Opens Long before Motherhood. Panel Evidence on Early Careers in Switzerland

The Gender Wage Gap Opens Long before Motherhood. Panel Evidence on Early Careers in Switzerland

Regional Differences in the Labor Supply of Married Female Graduates: Why Is It Lower in the Metropolitan Areas of Japan?

Más allá de la brecha salarial de género

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