Title:

Gender Wage Gap

Research Questions:
-Why do women still earn less than men even if they overtake men in educational
achievements?
- How this issue can be minimized nowadays?

Subject: English 204

Professor: Dr. Ghada Awada
Done by: Nelly Sfeir, Joumana Daher, Nour Rabah, and Kareem Kanawati
Abstract:
The process of equalizing wages paid to women and men is until today an issue. This
research paper tackled the notion of why women are still being paid less than men even
though now women are entering the work field of men. The purpose of this research was to
investigate this issue in order to understand why women still earn less than males. The study
design was mixed methods as both quantitative and qualitative data were used. The number
of participants who filled out the survey was in total 20 males and females ranging from 16 to
21 years old. The findings showed that many people supported women and men being
equally treated and paid equal wages. Also, they did not have a problem with working in a
company owned by a woman. The implications included that women would not earn more
than men and it can only be fixed if the right legal policies were implemented in all
workforces.
Introduction:
Throughout history, men have been known to be the breadwinners and the sources of
income for their families. Women, on the other hand, have traditionally been expected to stay
at home, care for their families, prepare meals, and clean. As the years have passed, women
have decided that they also want to gain the right to educate themselves in order to have a
position and purpose in their lives. Moreover, Coulter (2015) states that from the very
beginning, Elizabeth Blackwell, the very first woman to get a medical degree from the
university of the United States, is getting paid far less than her male coworkers for
performing the same work. This phenomenon has remained the same in recent days due to a
set of reasons concerning the wage disparity. Some reasons include that although women
major in jobs that are most likely dominated by men like engineering, Carnevale et al. (2018)
convey that 32% of environmental engineers, one of the engineering majors with the lowest
salaries, are employed by women. However, the authors further say that only 17% of women
work as petroleum engineers, one of the most-paying engineering majors. Furthermore,
Carnevale et al. (2018) claim that the National Center for Education Statistics has reported
that women recently have 57% of bachelor’s degrees, increasing from 43% in 1970. In
addition, women nowadays are known to be multitaskers, other than going to work they are
taking care of their children and are responsible for the house. Meanwhile, Tyson (2019)
indicates that women perform a disproportionate amount of that work globally, not just in
sophisticated industrial nations and it is not considered to be payable. Additionally, there
exists a wage penalty for motherhood. As the number of children a woman has increases,
Tyson (2019) claims that there is an approximate 7% pay drop for each child. Although the
majority of women around the world are asking for equal wages, society is not taking action
and thus women should raise their voices more.

Background:

Men and women should have equal access to economic possibilities, which is a
crucial basic fairness principle. However, there continues to be a pay difference between men
and women everywhere in the globe despite advancements, protests, and regulations.
Carnevale et al. (2018) state that the number of women now enrolling in a historically male-
dominated profession has increased. In order for women to close this wage gap, they have
mostly depended on the benefits that have been provided by education. This is clear when
Carnevale et al. (2018) have claimed that nowadays more women than men enroll in college,
and they overcome hurdles to seek degrees in fields with a male preponderance that pays
more. Regardless of that, the gender wage gap is largely caused by gender discrimination
which can be either directly, such as expressly underpaying an employee because of their
gender, or indirectly, such as discriminatory practices.

Purpose:

The purpose of the study is to investigate and understand why women are not being paid
equally as men are paid. Although the rise of gender equality has evolved and women have
been asking for higher salaries, this issue is not taken seriously. That is why the research
questions tend to be: Why do women still earn less than men even if they overtake men in
educational achievements? and How this issue can be minimized nowadays?

Significance of the Study:

The study that is being conducted has sufficient information and data to be able to use in our
research paper. The study is typically important because it addresses a problem that only
women encounter on a worldwide scale. Although women have achieved many things like
being educated and able to take the same position men are working, women are still being
paid fewer wages than men. Daugherty (2022) claims that despite the fact that the gender
wage disparity likely existed before civilization ever began, it only became a political
problem in the United States in the 1860s when the phrase equal pay for equal work became a
catchphrase. Meanwhile, he adds, several movements have been made and two advocates of
women’s rights, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, have argued for closing the
pay gap in their newspaper, The Revolution, and other writings. Thus, since then many
studies have been made to deliver women’s voices.

Claim:

The study assumes that the gender wage gap is a significant impediment to women’s
advancement by the discrimination women are facing in the workforce.

Literature Review:

Introducing the Gender Wage Gap

Young (2018) has indicated that according to the International Labor Organization's
(ILO) 2016 report Women at Work, the majority of employment found in the previous 15
years has been high-skilled, especially in high-income nations where women account for
slightly under half of the high earning managers, professionals, and technicians. Nonetheless,
OECD (2017) has shown that the typical full-time female worker earns over 15% less than
her male equivalent. Despite a long list of prescriptions, Young (2018) has declared that the
vast salary disparity persists which involves salary transparency in businesses, equal pay
laws, and encouraging women to seek more profitable STEM subjects, as well as systemic
improvements to paternity leave, flexible hours, and cheap childcare in the workplace.
Furthermore, Chamberlain (2016) has mentioned that the gender wage gap appears to exist
both in the United States and globally, in every nation viewed males earned more than
women on average either before or after including statistical controls for individual traits, job
position, firm, business, and other variables to establish a comparison between employees.

Overview of the Gender Wage Gap

Wilson (2019) has indicated that women in America are more educated than males
on average, where women have received more bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees
than males for decades. Despite this, women in the United States co for decades, have
received more bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees than males do, recent data reveals
that the gender pay gap may be much worse (Wilson, 2019). Unlike previous studies, the
new data takes into account part-time workers and women who have taken time off from
work to care for children or other family commitments (Wilson, 2019). Picchi (2018) has
believed that new policies such as, increased paid parental leave, childcare subsidies, and
other pro-family measures are needed to help close the gap, where fear of making money
while connected to the issue of uneven pay is a distinct issue that affects women more than
males. Negotiating compensation is sometimes perceived as greedy or desperate by women,
leading to uncertainty when it comes to asking for their value at work (Sankar, 2017). As
reported by Wilson (2019) Glassdoor study has revealed that women negotiate their salaries
less frequently than men where over 70% of women accepted the pay provided without
bargaining, while only 52% of men did.

Reasons Behind the Gap

Gascoigne et al (2015) have revealed that it is undeniably true that there are more
senior males than women in the workplace overall, and because senior individuals are paid
more than younger people, this has a detrimental impact on the gender pay gap. The
assumption at the heart of the problem is that senior occupations naturally need lengthy
hours and constant availability and so cannot be done flexibly or part-time ( Gascoigne et al,
2015). Additionally, it has been made worse in many industries by globalization and
always-on technology, which have increased the length of the workday to 10 or 12 hours,
employers with a long-hours culture for top positions are likely to be the worst offenders,
yet long hours are gendered by nature and worsen the gender wage gap (Cha & Weeden,
2014). Furthermore, Costa Dias et al (2018) have indicated that the gender wage gap has not
shrunk in the previous 25 years for the best-educated women those most likely to hold top
positions. Furthermore, caring obligations and part-time jobs are unequally distributed, here
the idea is that because women choose to care for children, they inevitably wind up in part-
time professions that are below their skill levels and offer fewer prospects for advancement
(Costa Dias et al, 2018). It is true that the gender pay gap widens after childbearing, and that
by the age of 20, women's hourly income is around one-third that of men, and it is
estimated that gender inequalities in rates of part-time and full-time paid work to account
for more than half of that disparity, particularly among the well-educated (Costa Dias et al,
2018). In addition, women choose to work in low-wage jobs and industries, where many of
the lower-paying professions are historically performed by women and need feminine
qualities such as people skills and care skills, as a result, women choose to work as nurses,
teachers, or store clerks, whereas men choose to work as surgeons, construction workers, or
engineers (Mattison, 2017). The issue here is that people undervalue historically feminine
abilities, and changing that will take time, however there is a widespread belief that women
pick low-wage jobs because they provide more flexibility or are more family-friendly
(Mattison, 2017). Again, the notion that prioritizing children over paid employment is a
choice, rather than a lack of acceptable options, drives the female wage gap ( Mattison,
2017).

Solutions for the Gender Wage Gap

When looking for solving the gender wage gap dilemma, Lythgoe (2019) has
revealed that starting with pay transparency, where businesses pay their male and female
employees in total transparency, by opening up about how the business sets employee
benefits and salary packages, as well as the method used to calculate wage increases help to
minimize the gap. Furthermore, men should be encouraged to take parental leave, many new
fathers have discovered that their employers are not very accommodating when it comes to
how much time they take off to care for a new baby (Leiva, 2022). Enabling males in
the company to take shared parental leave allows their partners to continue working, this will
go a long way toward closing the gender pay pap where for every month of paternity leave
taken by her husband, a woman's wages increase by around 7% (Leiva, 2022). Also,
companies should encourage working from home, hence enabling employees to work
remotely to suit family obligations is a simple move that can help close the gap (Dawson,
2021). Women sometimes work fewer hours to accommodate family obligations, which
unavoidably decreases their earnings, they would be able to commit to a full-time job without
jeopardizing crucial family time if they could work from home (Dawson, 2021). Both the
House of Commons and the Women and Equalities Committee have stated that solving the
gender wage gap requires flexible working for everybody, as a result businesses should strive
to embrace flexible working practices through a flexible working policy which is an
important step toward effectively closing the gap (Dawson, 2021). However, ITUC (2018)
has claimed that Governments should adopt strong equal pay and anti-discrimination
legislation that supports the concept of equal pay for equal work, with powerful enforcement
mechanisms, grievance procedures, and access to justice by international labor standards and
good practice. Moreover, employers should use gender-neutral job evaluations and
classifications to avoid bias in the hiring and advancement of women, as well as make all pay
criteria and decisions transparent, and collect and publish data on wage levels for all
categories of employment disaggregated by gender regularly (ITUC, 2018). Finally,
governments and social partners should take action to address gender segregation across
sectors and job categories, such as by instituting quotas and/or launching focused campaigns
to train, attract, and retain women in underserved fields (ITUC, 2018).

Methods:
study design:
To explore the research, a mixed methods design was the best fit. For deeper insights, a
combination of both quantitative and qualitative data was collected. Quantitative data
allocated a degree of precision that qualitative data was unable to offer, while qualitative data
offered individualized and conceptual data.

Participants:
The interviewees selected were college students from an English course at AUB, who are
more likely to have a similar intake on the research as us. They are a total of 20 both females
and males and their age range is between 16 and 21. All survey respondents confirmed their
consent prior to participating in the voluntary questionnaire that was sent to them.

Process/procedure:
To begin the research, a precise search for recent articles was conducted, and eight of them
that were extensively related got selected. Next, the extraction of qualitative and
individualized data from every single article was performed. After that collection, the search
for numerical data to support qualitative data was completed.
Upon segmenting the data collected, some questions seemed still controversial thus the
decision to conduct a survey was taken. The goal was to view other perspectives on the
research questions. Finally, it was easy to interpret many similarities between the
interviewees’ opinions.
The survey was concluded in a duration of two weeks, and the results were displayed to the
participants as they were expected.

Study instrument:
The survey included seven questions that tackle the qualitative aspect of the research. The
goal was to examine if the interviewees identified a wage gap between men and women in
their society. Some of the questions included were:
Why do you think women are paid less than men?
What do you think is the best solution for the gender wage gap?
Do you think maternity leaves affect female job opportunities?
Do you accept working in a company owned by a woman?

Data collection and analysis:

The collection of data from various credible articles was conducted. First, the information
needed was determined, and based on that decision, a method to collect the information was
chosen. Data collection was achieved and the analysis was performed whereby the raw data
was developed into beneficial insights. Finally, the implementation of the findings assisted to
reach an equivalent outcome.

Results
To find out how the findings varied, a poll was conducted among university students at AUB

who were a mix of men and women. This assisted us in determining the level of interest

among students in the gender wage gap and its effects on the workforce.

Findings on research questions:

Most of the results that were given to us were displayed using pie charts.

Questions 1: What is your gender?

The results showed that 70 % of all the people who answered the survey were men and 30 %

were women. This indicates that the majority of the people who answered favoured a certain

gender and might contain biases towards the topic at hand.

Question 2: What is your Age?

The age groups of the people who have answered the questions are 90 % between 19-21 and

10 % between 16-18. We can see that the people who answered this survey probably

answered from what they heard and mostly from what they experienced in internships.

Question 3: What is your major?

We can clearly see that we have a diverse group of people who have answered this survey.

The largest group was 30 % of business students of which 5 % consisted of business students

majoring in Finance. There was a small number of people from different majors which was

indifferent, but added value to the survey to see different opinions from different majors.

Question 4: Do you know any females being paid less than males?

Even though this survey was mostly answered by males, we can clearly see that half of the

males who answered this survey could agree that they don’t know females who are being
paid less than men. Which could contain a false narrative since there are countless protests

and media articles where we can clearly see biases in the workforce. On the other hand, we

can see that 45 % of the surveyors do in fact know females who are being paid less than men.

Yet, they accept it and do not act upon it barely protesting, and not finding actual solutions

which would help women achieve the goal of equal pay. This is more logical in this age due

to the multiple protests happening worldwide in which we can clearly see the disdain and

how so many women happen to have this problem. Finally, only one person thinks he might

know a person who has this problem, which is questionable since they either know that they

get paid well or not, which caters to the false narrative men have that they do indeed have

equal pay not considering the statistics and countless proof.

Question 5: Do you think women are really paid less than men?

We can clearly see in our findings that 45 % people believe that women are being paid less

than men. This can be a narrative that is pushed out in western media and is backed up by

proof from people who suffer from this problem being women. The other 30 % of people are

not sure whether women are being less than men which is quite a serious problem. So, this

means that there should be more educational programs to study this topic and educate people
and provide them with actual resources. On the other hand, 25 % believe that women aren’t

paid less than men, and that the workforce is equal towards all people no matter the gender.

Question 6: Do you accept to work in a company owned by a woman?

We can clearly see that 90% of people say that they don’t mind working in a company owned
by a woman. This indicates the spread of awareness and tolerance of diversity between
people. Whereas only 10 % of the people say that they don’t accept working in a company
owned by a woman. This could mean that some people are sexiest and this would cause
problems in workplaces because they view women as inferior to men.

Question 7: Do you think women being paid less than men is normal and acceptable?
80% of people believe that it is not normal and acceptable for women to be paid less than

men. However, 15 % of people believe that it is acceptable and normal which indicates that

they are racists and bigots, and believe that women are inferior.
Question 8: Why would someone don’t accept to work in a company owned by a woman?

We can clearly see that people, in general, have similar opinions about refusing to accept

work being owned by a woman. They assume that this could be due to the view of men as

superior to women where they believe that they have higher leading skills than women where

their ego doesn’t accept to receive orders and commands from women where this believes

result from being sexiest.

Question 9: Do you think maternity leaves affect females' job opportunities?

65 % of surveyors believe that maternity leaves affect females' job opportunities. Whereas 30

% of people do not believe that it affects job opportunities since nowadays women can work

online, and even if they have children, they can still produce their work and work efficiently

even more than men.

Question 10: Why women are being paid less than men?
We can see that 60 % of people believe women are being paid less than men due to

discrimination because of sexist mind sets and false ideologies. Explicitly, 20 % believe that

it is unexplained and is the norm in today's society. However, 5 % believe that it is due to

experience or occupation. Lastly, 10 % believe it is due to industry.

Question 11: What do you think is the best solution for the gender wage gap?

We can clearly see that solutions vary where 30 % believe that salary negotiation should be

encouraged by showing salary ranges which proves the pay discrepancies and would cause

companies to allocate fair wages. However, 20 % voted for implementing fair scheduling

practices as a good solution. 15 % voted for raising the minimum wage which receives the

least consideration since it is the least doable. The last choice was increasing transparency

where 35 % of the participants considered it as the best solution to minimize the gap.

Discussion

I-When tackling the findings of the study conducted the results have shown the validation of

the claim studied. Yet, 50 % of people who participated in the study where the majority aged
19-21 and 70 % of them are males and 30 % are females, voted that they know women who

are paid less than men, and 45 % of them believed that women are really paid less than men.

Similarly, according to Young (2018) based on the International Labor Organization's (ILO)

2016 report Women at Work, almost all of employment found in the past 15 years has been

high-skilled, particularly in high-income countries where women account for slightly less

than half of the high-earning managers, professionals, and technicians. Meanwhile, the

OECD (2017) has found that the average full-time female employee makes 15 % of their

income less than their male equivalent. Moreover, 60 % of the study participants voted that

women are being paid less than men due to discrimination while 20 % of them believed that

the reason behind this gap is unexplained and 10 % voted that the gap depends on the

industry. However, Gascoigne et al. (2015) have found that there are undoubtedly more

senior males than senior females in the workplace overall, and because senior persons are

paid more than younger people, this has a negative influence on the gender pay gap.

Furthermore, men have preferred to work as surgeons, construction workers, or engineers,

whereas women have preferred to work in low-wage jobs and industries where many of the

lower-paying careers have traditionally been undertaken by women and require feminine

capabilities like people skills and care skills; as a result, women have preferred to work as

health care providers, educators, or shop assistants (Mattison, 2017). In addition, 65 % of the

contributors in the survey believed that maternity leaves affect females’ job opportunities.

Costa Dias et al (2018) have considered that caring responsibilities and part-time occupations

are unequally allocated; the argument here is that because women choose to care for children,

they unavoidably end up in part-time professions that are below their skill levels and provide

fewer opportunities for progress. It is actually true that the gender pay gap has expanded after

childbirth, and that by the age of 20, women's hourly income has been roughly one-third that

of men, and gender disparities in rates of part-time and full-time paid work have been
estimated to account for more than 50 % of that difference, especially among the well-

educated (Costa Dias et al, 2018). Finally, regarding the solutions around 40% of the

participants chose that increasing pay transparency could be the best solution for the gender

pay gap, however around 30 % believed that encouraging salary negotiation by showing

salary ranges, 22% voted for implementing fair scheduling practices, and 11% voted for

raising the minimum wage as the best solution. Hence, Lythgoe (2019) has indicated that

beginning with pay transparency, where firms pay their male and female employees in

complete accessibility, by opening up about how the business establishes employee perks and

compensation packages, as well as the process used to compute pay raises is a great solution

to shrink the gap. Additionally, companies should utilize gender-neutral job assessments and

classifications to minimize prejudice in the hiring and promotion of women, as well as make

all pay factors and choices clear, and periodically collect and publish salary data for all

categories of employment disaggregated by gender (ITUC, 2018). According to Leiva (2022)

allowing male employees to take shared parental leave allows their wives to keep working,

which will contribute a long way toward eliminating the Gender Pay Gap, where a woman's

wages improve by roughly 7% per each month of paternity leave undertaken by her partner.

Besides, Dawson (2021) has found that employers should encourage workers to work from

home, where allowing them to work remotely to accommodate family responsibilities is a

simple step that may help in minimizing the gap. Meanwhile, ITUC (2018) has been

convinced that governments and civil societies should take action to alleviate gender

segregation among industries and career classes, such as through the implementation of

quotas and/or the initiation of targeted campaigns to train, recruit, and retain women in

underrepresented professions.
II-The research was primarily limited by the sample size of the interviewees. Only 20

individuals participated in the survey, which is quite an insignificant proportion of the

population. Moreover, this issue builds some concerns when it comes to the validity of the

participants' answers. For instance, it’s possible that some felt hesitant in providing their

genuine responses to avoid adversely presenting themselves.

It is necessary to note that time restrictions highly affect the outcome of the research. The

submission before deadlines is a substantial priority, thus more credible aspects could be

achieved as the time limitations decrease.

III-The study needs additional time to be conducted on a larger scale because the bulk of the
participants were college students who have not yet begun working or even obtained jobs.
This study is still in its early stages because we have not questioned experts or people who
have worked both nationally and globally. The sample group should be informed about what
to anticipate at work and how it affects them before doing the survey. Additionally, they
ought to have the opportunity to use it and get experience with it to form an opinion on it and
provide more accurate answers to the questionnaire.

IV-In conclusion, women are still earning less than men no matter what solutions will be
implemented. However, there should be changes to help women gain some of their rights like
getting paid for their work even if they are on parental leave. That is why women should raise
their voices more so that society can hear their demands and take action for their rights. Also,
both parents should be granted parental leave for men and women, not just women.
Moreover, society should accept the ideology that women can do the same work men can do
and even better, and society should trust women in their workforce. In addition, it is highly
recommended by society that they should become more open to the world and accept women
have power the same as how men gain power and the right to do anything they want.
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