Natural differences inevitably exist between the sexes based on anatomic and biological factors, primarily in the region of reproduction.
Biological discrepancies include hormonal and chromosome differences. Relative or average physical strength found primarily in the upper body as well as the lower body is often more superior in males, but does not mean that any given man is stronger than a given woman.
On average, men are taller which provides advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, on average, women tend to live much longer than men though it isn’t clear to the extent of it being a biological difference.
Greater circulation for the circulation and clotting of blood cells along with larger lung capacity is found in men, whereas women tend to produce antibodies faster and have more white blood cells that circulate.
Exposure to prenatal hormones influences the extent that a person will exhibit feminine or masculine traits. Negligible differences between females and males exist when discussing general intelligence.
Men are significantly more likely to be aggressive than women, which is a trait that is influenced by current exposure to androgens and prenatal exposure as well. It has often been theorized that many of the differences in combination with physical differences adapt the representation of a sexual division of labor.
However, another theory claims that differences in gender for intergroup leads to the way males adapt their aggression to allow for resources, territory, and mate acquisition.
On average, females tend to be far more empathetic in nature than their male counterparts. However, this doesn’t mean that any given woman is more so than any given man.
Women tend to have better verbal memory while men tend to have better visuospatial memory. Such changes are influenced by testosterone which increases memory in both of the two sexes when administered.
At birth, the genders socialize in different ways and experience multiple environments throughout their lives. Due to the influence of society, a human’s gender often significantly influences the major characteristics in life including their personality. Females and males are led on different paths as a result of the expectations and stereotypes placed before them, often well before they decide on them for themselves.
For example, in Western society, blue is often associated with boys and they are typically provided with toys that are associated with traditional roles of masculinity such as trucks, action figures, and machines. Conversely, girls are typically associated with the color pink and are provided toys related to feminine roles like dolls, dollhouses, and dresses.
Influences by parents, guardians, and other adult figures in the life of a child encourage them to fit into such roles. This often affects personality, relationships, and career paths. Throughout their life, females and males are observed as two entirely different species that should remain on separate paths. Despite the fact that much research has traditionally focused on the key differences, they have far more in common than not. This position is proposed by the hypothesis of gender similarities.
Across the board, industries everywhere stratify the genders as a result of a multitude of factors. They include differences in the choice of education, preferred industry, jobs, work experience, number of hours clocked into work, and breaks in their employment for the raising of children.
When compared to women, men typically enter higher risk and higher paid jobs, resulting in a near 75% difference between the average aggregate salary and wage depending on where it comes from. Various explanations for the percent that remains have been suggested such as women’s lowered ability to negotiate pay along with general sexual discrimination. In accordance with the European Commission, this discrimination explains only a small portion of the differences in wages.
In the United States, the average unadjusted annual salary for women is 78% less than that of their male counterparts. Yet, a body of studies from the US Department of Labor, the OECD, and AAUW have observed that pay rates between females and males varied by up to 6.6%, accounting for 94 cents to every dollar earned against male counterparts.
Such is the case for wages that are adjusted to different individual choices made by female and male workers in their college major, working hours, occupation, and paternal/maternal leave. What remains of the 6% gap has seen speculation originate from the deficiency in negotiation skills as well as sexual discrimination.
Theories related to human capital refer to the experience, education, knowledge, and training that makes a person valuable to an employer. This has been understood as a byproduct of the gender wage gap but isn’t any longer a predominant cause as genders in certain occupations tend to have other credentials or similar education skills. Even when the characteristics of workers and jobs are controlled for, the presence of women within key occupations leads to lower wages.
Discrimination is considered to be a byproduct of pollution theory, which suggests the careers that are fulfilled by women offer lower pay than others because a woman is fulfilling the occupation. As they enter such an occupation, the amount of prestige that is associated with the job is reduced, with many men leaving such jobs.
Women who enter into specific occupations suggest that workers who are less competent have begun to be hired or that their occupation’s skill requirement is reducing.
Income disparity can be attributed to the segregation of jobs where people are distributed across them in accordance with gender. Segregation can be understood to contain two dimensions including vertical and horizontal. With horizontal, occupational aggregation occurs as women and men are thought to possess different capabilities in the mental, physical, and emotional categories.
These vary the genders for the types of jobs they are most suited for. This is specifically viewed with the division between non-manual and manual labor.
In vertical segregation, occupational separation occurs in stratification according to the power, prestige, authority, and income in association with the occupation with women being excluded from the majority of jobs in this category.
Once women entered the workforce in increasing numbers since the period of the 1960s, occupations have seen segregation based on the amount of masculinity or femininity that is presupposed to have an association with each occupation.
Data according to the Census suggests that while many occupations have seen greater integration in mail carriers, real estate agents, bartenders, and bus drivers, occupations such as teachers, librarians, nurses, and secretaries have become dominated by females while airplane pilots, architects, and electrical engineers remain predominately male by composition. Furthermore, the
Census data suggests that women occupy service sector jobs at far higher rates than their male counterparts. The overrepresentation in these jobs in comparison to jobs requiring managerial work acts as reinforcement into the roles that create gender inequality.
This gap in gender wages is indicative of female earnings compared with males. It is calculated through the division of the average earnings for women by the average earnings for men. Many scholars are in disagreement with respect to the gap in accordance to factors like experience and other characteristics such as education, and occupation.
Douglas Massey, a sociologist, discovered that nearly 41% of this discrepancy remains unexplained. However, analysts from CONSAD discovered that the factors explain up to nearly 76% of the raw gap. CONSAD claimed that factors like overtime and benefits detail additional portions.
Another possible contributor to the income disparity includes what is known as the glass ceiling effect, which suggests that gender provides disadvantages towards the top of the hierarchies which gets worse as a person’s career progresses. It implies that artificial and invisible barriers exist that prevent women from receiving promotions or advancing within their jobs.
Such barriers exist despite the qualifications and achievements of women and exist when other characteristics of relevancy like abilities, experience, and education are accounted for. The effects are far more prevalent within higher income and higher-powered occupations with fewer women holding such types of occupations.
This also indicates the lowered chances of women for promotion to more prestigious jobs or positions. By women being prevented by such artificial barriers from either receiving income raises or job promotions, the effects of the glass ceiling increase over the course of a female’s career.
Other causes for gender inequality can be observed from statistical discrimination. This indicates the likelihood of employers denying all access to women for certain career tracks because women are far more likely than men to leave the labor force or their job upon getting married or becoming pregnant. These women are provided positions that have little mobility. In developing nations like the Dominican Republic, female impresarios often fail more in their business. Upon failure, women often return to a domestic lifestyle even in spite of the lack of income. Conversely, men often search for alternative employment as the household does not represent a priority.
The earnings ratio for different genders suggests that there has been a marked increase in women’s earnings in comparison to men. Male plateau with respect to earnings began after the period of the 1970s which allowed for an increase in female wages to close the gap between incomes.
Even despite the reduced ratio between male and female wages, much disparity exists. Data from the Census demonstrates that women’s earnings are only 70% of that of males by the turn of the century. Finally, the wage gap differs in width amongst many different races. Comparatively, whites have the greatest gap between the genders, at 78%. Conversely, African Americans earn 90% of the wages that their black male counterparts do.
Some exceptions exist in which women earn more, however. In accordance with a survey conducted on gender pay inequality via the International Trade Union Confederation, female workers living in Bahrain earn almost 50 percent more than their male counterparts.
A report issued by the International Labor Organization in 2014 revealed the wage gap between factory workers living in Cambodia. Up to a $25 per month pay difference between women and men was observed, suggesting that women possess a much lower rate and are devalued not only in the workplace but also at home.
Since the mid-1960s, gender gaps have largely narrowed. Where up to 5% of the first-year professional programs were composed of females in 1965, the number jumped to 40% in medicine and law, and over 30% in business and dentistry school.
Before the advent of the birth control pill, women would plan their professional careers that required expensive, long-term commitment, and had to abstain from sexual activities. Such control over reproductive decisions allowed them to more easily make their long-term decisions regarding professional and educational opportunities. These women are highly underrepresented in senior positions and on the board of directors.
Furthermore, with reliable birth control, younger women and men had more of a reason to delay marriage, meaning that the market available to any women that delayed their marriage to pursue a career wouldn’t be as depleted. As such, birth control could have potentially influenced the age of marriage, professional degrees, careers, and college majors.