The Bloody Gender Gap
We recently came across a study showing that lesbians -- at least in the UK -- earned consistently more than their hetero counterparts. You can fill in your own explanation. It turns out there's been a lot of research lately into this question, much of it undermining the argument that plain vanilla bigotry accounts for the male/female disparity (although we haven't heard that argument since we attended a friend's graduation from Mt. Holyoke). Here's the latest we've come across:
In most Western countries illness-related absenteeism is higher among female workers than among male workers. Using the personnel dataset of a large Italian bank, we show that the probability of an absence due to illness increases for females, relative to males, approximately 28 days after a previous illness. This difference disappears for workers age 45 or older. We interpret this as evidence that the menstrual cycle raises female absenteeism. Absences with a 28-day cycle explain a significant fraction of the male-female absenteeism gap.
The study goes onto suggest this difference accounts for a 12% income gap.
Hmm, perhaps this whole freakonomics thing thing has run its course. Sorta makes you pine for the days when economists did stuff like forecasting the GDP, or advise presidents about price controls.
More about menstruation and the gender earnings gap [New Economist]
Comments
So what you're saying is that lesbians don't menstruate?
Posted by: Banana Joe | August 4, 2006 02:14 PM
A lot of people's actions and the social economy or values determines what people earn or how they are rewarded. Yes there is sexism, judging others based on their sex or gender, and women do this too - sometimes against their interests and sometimes against men's interests.
If you look at what men or women are willing to risk gaining or losing or dangerousness of the job, flexibility, jobs that have good relationship components (contact with others) interest of society in their activities (NBA players earn more than WNBA players since more people go to NBA games and are willing to pay more to see them and more sponsors will pay more to NBA players). All systems must be corrected after they get started. Single women with equal education in their 20s and 30s make as much or more money as men do at those ages who are single. Women then choose different paths based on if they are married or not, have chidren or not, focus on home or not. Behavior adds to how pepole value you.
Posted by: larry | August 4, 2006 08:09 PM
A lot of people's actions and the social economy or values determines what people earn or how they are rewarded. Yes there is sexism, judging others based on their sex or gender, and women do this too - sometimes against their interests and sometimes against men's interests.
If you look at what men or women are willing to risk gaining or losing or dangerousness of the job, flexibility, jobs that have good relationship components (contact with others) interest of society in their activities (NBA players earn more than WNBA players since more people go to NBA games and are willing to pay more to see them and more sponsors will pay more to NBA players). All systems must be corrected after they get started. Single women with equal education in their 20s and 30s make as much or more money as men do at those ages who are single. Women then choose different paths based on if they are married or not, have chidren or not, focus on home or not. Behavior adds to how pepole value you.
Posted by: larry | August 4, 2006 08:09 PM