Social Stratification | Week 6 | Gender Inequality
Concept: Sex and Gender
Aspects of Gender Ineuqality
- Income
- Occp segregation
- Political authority
- Educational attainment
Theories of gender inequality
- Influences of ascription still prevalent in class placement
- Gender determines one’s life chance vary widely across societies and
within society
o 50% ministers in Sweden are female
Sex: biological differences
Gender: social/cultural definitions of what it means to be male and female +
norms and expectations
- What it means to be male/female vary across societies:
o In hunting gathering societies – men are aggressive, but compared
to another society, women are more aggressive
Gender inequalities present in key social institutions
- Traditionally male characteristics are valued more highly in society
Gender and Work
- Variable affecting the nature of work
o What is work?
Economic value to an output
Modern definition: productive activities for which a wage is
paid
Key indicator for a person’s economic/social worth
- Women in labor force participation: steadily increasing since the 1890s to
almost equal participation with men in 2000
- 1960s: 30% married women in labor force, but now, the gap has
narrowed to 60% in 2003
- In Singapore
o 2009: 55% women in the labor force – increasing since 1970s 28%
o Men: 81% in 1970 but reduced to 76% 2009
o Reasons?
Men could spend a longer time working
If increasing number of women taking on jobs, lesser jobs
available for men?
Earning Ratio
- 1989: women earned 69% of what men earn per year
- 2005: women earned 77% of what men earn per year
- Women earn lesser per hour compared to men
o Reasons?
Women: Part time workers, they leave earlier to go home to
take care of kids
Sources of gender wage gap
- Within occupation gender bias
o Discrimination
Women are paid less compared to men
o Movement towards equal pay – Obama signed the equal pay bill in
2009/2010
- Occupational Segregation by sex
o Women just happen to work in jobs that pay less
Require less skill, not as demanding as male occupations
o Measures of inequality – index of dissimilarity or proportion of
male/female in each occupation
o Index of dissimilarity
1 – means huge segregation
0 – means equality
Dropped from .7 (1970) to .5 (1996 onwards) showing
increasing equality
With a degree, there is greater equality for women in
terms of salary (lower than .5 since 1995)
- In Singapore – Representation by major occupational groups
o Below 1 – underrepresentation
o Over 1 – overrepresentation
Valued less/paid less: dominated by females
Clerical work (1.66)
- Proportion of women in most occupational categories increased (even in
male dominated professions)
o Field of medicine, law
o However, limitations are present
Female physician tend to be paid lower and are in less
prestigious specialties
Female lawyers unlikely to become partners in firms
The salary gap b/w the highest paid male and female CEO
(according to Forbes) is very high: 8.2mil compared to
102mil
Why does the gender gap exist?
- Human capital hypothesis
o Less education, skills, trng
o To remedy: increase women’s human capital
- Devaluation hypothesis
o Work done is socially defined as less important to society than
men’s work
o Comparable worth
Additional barriers
Subtle and overt attitudes/stereotypes about appropriate occupations for
women and men – channel women/men into differential socialization and
experiences
- Mommy tracks: jobs that offer opportunities to balance work and family
but paid less
- Glass ceilings: prevents women from moving to higher positions
- Glass escalators: in female dominated jobs, men welcomed and quickly
promoted
Why gender wage gap persists?
Wolf:
1) Structure – policies to keep the wage gap in place
2) Effective lobbyist in Washington Underpaying women who are built-in
benefits for business
3) Woman are not as aggressive in negotiate
Lukas:
1) Lifestyle choices
- More interested in personal fulfillment and families, men focus on
money making
2)