General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "We raise girls to cater to the fragile egos of men." [View all]davidn3600
(6,342 posts)The wage gap is supposed to be a comparison between male and female salaries doing the SAME work for the SAME hours for the SAME level of experience. In other words you are comparing a male doctor to a female doctor.
You seem to be going more in the argument that female-dominated careers pay less than male-dominated careers (ie: kindergarten teacher vs a software engineer). That's a different phenomenon than the gender wage gap we are normally talking about. A number of things are going on here. First off, careers women tend to choose are many times quite simply are not in high demand. Second, a software engineer will always make more money than a kindergarten teacher...not because a teacher isn't important, but the software engineer will be working for employers that have a potential for large profits. In America, we don't pay salaries based on the job's importance to society, we pay based on supply and demand combined with available cash flow. STEM majors are in high demand and their employers tend to make good profit margins...teachers on the other hand are not in demand and are paid by taxpayers (where there is always pressure to lower taxes).
Im not saying it's right that people are not paid according to their social value to society. That's unfortunately just a reality of the capitalist system.
Another part of the issue is our gender roles. Societal pressures on men and women are not the same. So when we go to pick a career, we have different motivations.
And also a lot of it is just interest. Men tend to have a fetish for technology. Men tend to be visual and kinesthetic learners more than women. Not saying women can't do it. It's just men are more enthusiastic about STEM careers than women.
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