Recommended book: The Economics of Gender

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Recommended bookThe Economics of Gender

• By Joyce P. Jacobsen

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Gender, gender, gender

• Women
• 8 left handed
• 24 die in accidents
• 7 in prison
• 71 bought lottery ticket

• Men
• 10
• 66
• 93
• 92

Whats significant? What are the manifestations
of deeper differences?
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It all starts with a good question

• Why do women earn less than men?
• Why is there so much occupational sex
  segregation?
• Do anti-discrimination policies work?
• What are the pros and cons of implementing
  comparable worth?
• What are the effects of pronatalist policies?
• What are the differential effects of development
  policies on women and men?

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equal pay
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1815 U.S. working women made 29 cents for every
man earned

• 1995, 74 cents

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At this rate, it will take 90 more years to
gainthe 27 cents necessary to close the gap.
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Much of the closing of the wage gap has been due
to mens wagesdeteriorating.
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What influences the wage gap?

• Strength of Economy
• Occupational Segregation
• Numbers of Women and Men Entering the Workforce
• Union Affiliation
• Education, Skill and Experience
• Discrimination
• Government Enforcement of Anti-Discrimination Law
• Employer Actions to Eliminate Wage Discrimination

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Why? Why? Why?

• According to the U.S. Council of Economic
  Advisors, a longitudinal study of the gender pay
  gap found that
• 28 of the pay gap is explained by differences in
  skill and experience
• 32 is explained by differences in industry,
  occupation, and union status
• 40 is discrimination and other factors

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Ici pourquoi?

• A Statistics Canada study found that the major
  factor in the wage gap is the presence of
  children, rather than age, marriage or education
• Women are expected to cut down on their paid
  work, quit their jobs, take emergency leave from
  work, or refuse promotions, in order to care of
  children, elderly parents or in-laws, or disabled
  relatives. Men are not. (CRIAW)

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Still true?

• paid less because they are not considered
  primary breadwinners
• hired less frequently in high-wage
  establishments
• given fewer training and mentoring opportunities
  than other workers
• given smaller benefits and pension packages than
  their male counterparts
• Employers or career counselors steering women
  into female-dominated occupations

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So what?

• Women
• Lower wages
• Less purchasing power
• Less economic power
• Less autonomy/self-sufficiency
• Higher rates of poverty
• Poorer standard of living during retirement
• Lose over 500,000 over a lifetime
• Men
• Men of color are affected by the wage gapin the
  same way that women are
• Men employed in female-dominated occupations also
  suffer from the wage gap
• Men who are married to/live with working women
  suffer lower family/household income as well

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Children

• Most children are supported by the income of at
  least one woman
• Both married and single mothers are working
  outside the home in record numbers
• If the wage gap leaves mothers in poverty,
  children have increased chances of
• infant mortality
• poor health
• inadequate diet
• low school achievement
• high school dropout rate
• unemployment or underemployment as adults

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June 10, 1963 John F. Kennedy signs the Equal
Pay Act into law in the United States. Four
decades later, men's and women's salaries have
yet to reach parity.
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What is the wage gap?

• calculated by comparing the median wages of women
  and men who work full-time.
• Womens earnings are divided by the mens
  earnings in 2000, this earnings ratio was .73
• the average woman in 2000 earned only 73 cents
  for every dollar the average man earned in 2000
• The wage gap was 27 cents per dollar.

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Add colour

• Black women and Hispanic men earn approximately
  2/3 of the income of white men, while Hispanic
  women earn a little over 1/2 - 52 (source
  Little Progress on Closing Wage Gap in 2000.
  U.S. National Committee on Pay Equity)
• Women of color only represent 1.6 percent of
  corporate officers, up from 1.3 percent in 2000

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Oh Canada!

• The average annual income for a visible minority
  woman in Canada is 16,621, almost 3000 less
  than the average for other women (19,495) and
  almost 7,000 less than that of visible minority
  men (23,635). (CRIAW)
• Recent immigrant women between the ages of 25-44
  who have a university degree and who worked
  full-year, full-time earn 14,000 less than
  Canadian-born women

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overt racism

• And structural racism
• lack of recognition of foreign credentials and
  experience

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Sexual Preference

• Lesbians There is little information about the
  economic status of lesbians. We only have
  isolated bits and pieces to go by, such as a
  Winnipeg study that found that 14 of gay men
  over 65 reported incomes below the poverty line,
  compared with 42 of lesbian seniors
• Sounds like a thesis topic

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Get to work!

• Women and youth account for 83 of Canadas
  minimum wage workers.
• Thirty-seven percent of lone mothers with paid
  employment must raise a family on less than 10
  per hour

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Get Older

• Although the wage gap is very small for young
  women, it continually increases with age.
• WISER (Womens Institute for a Secure Retirement)
  estimates that older women are twice as likely
  as older men to be living near or below the
  poverty level.

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Add a family?

• A Female Householder with a family earns
  approximately
• 45 of a married couples income,
• 62 of a male householders income (with a
  family)
• 80 of a male householders income (without a
  family)

• A Female Householder without a family
• 34 of a married couples income
• 47 of a male householders income (with a
  family)
• 61 of a male householders income (without a
  family)

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• A recent longitudinal study of the wage gap,
  however, found that only 60 of the wage gap
  could be explained by differences in industry,
  occupation, union status, skill and experience.
  The other 40 of the wage gap is caused by
  "discrimination and other factors."

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The typical 25-year-old woman will lose more than
500,000 over the course of her career? On
average, women are only earning 73 of men's
earnings, and women, men and families are
suffering because of it.
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Implications

• Higher rates of poverty
• Low birthweight - higher infant mortality,
  disabling conditions (vision, speech, mobility,
  dexterity, cognition and emotion)
• Poorer standards of living during retirement
• Increase their likelihood of being jailed
• Affects ability to leave violent domestic
  situations
• invasions of their privacy not experienced by
  others
• Women's poverty and economic inequality are not
  only violations of women's economic, social and
  cultural rights. They restrict women's enjoyment
  of their civil and political rights.
• reduce their likelihood of voting,
• Reduce likelihood of standing for public office,
• Reduce likelihood of influencing political
  decision-making.

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Cost of crime in Canada 46 billion/year, of
which 9.7 billion is direct government
expenditure on criminal justice system
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Poverty quite literally kills people.
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Bend and s-t-r-e-t-c-h

• A single mother of one child in Ontario receives
  957 per month of assistance before deductions,
  spends 675 on rent, 200 on groceries, and has
  82 left to pay bills (electricity, telephone,
  heat), laundry, transportation, school needs for
  her son, emergencies, aspirin, haircuts,
  clothing, sanitary napkins, soap, birthday or
  Christmas gifts, visits to grandma, repair or
  replacement of appliances, medical expenses not
  covered anymore by medicare, and anything else

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Please, try it onShe has to explain to her son
why he cant go on school trips like the other
kids, why he is teased for being dressed in
shabby third-hand clothes, why he cant go to a
friends birthday party because theres no money
for a little gift, why he cant participate in
hot dog day at school because it costs money, why
the milk tastes different because shes had to
water it down, why by the end of the month they
have to go down to the food bank because theres
nothing left to eat.
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Social DarwinismShe has to cope with
well-meaning higher income individuals who give
her suggestions like buying in bulk when she has
neither a car nor the financial means to buy
large quantities. All of a sudden, how she spends
her money and who she dates becomes everybodys
business, and she is criticized if she splurges
on a treat to relieve her depression or make her
child happy. Being poor limits your choices and
is not simply a matter of bad budgeting.
Managing on a very low income is like a 7-day
per week job from which there is no vacation or
relief.
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Poverty grinds you down, body and
soul.Poor-bashing erodes the spirit just as
malnutrition erodes the body.
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The United Nations Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has
issued its Concluding Comments on Canada. It has
singled out B.C. for criticism because of the
negative impact on women of cuts to welfare and
legal aid, among other things.
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31 January 2003
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35. The Committee is concerned about a number of
recent changes in British Columbia which have a
disproportionately negative impact on women, in
particular Aboriginal women. Among these changes
are the cut in funds for legal aid and welfare
assistance, including changes in eligibility
rules the cut in welfareassistance the
incorporation of the Ministry of Womens Equality
under the Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and
Womens Services the abolition of
theindependent Human Rights Commission the
closing of a number of courthouses and the
proposed changes regarding the prosecution of
domestic violence as well as the cut in support
programmes for victims of domestic violence.
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49. The Committee notes with concern the lack of
womens de facto equality in the labour market,
including the fact that, owing to their unpaid
tasks in the family, alarge percentage of them
work in part -time jobs, marginal jobs and
self-employment arrangements, which often do not
carry adequate social benefits.
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45. Despite the commendable measures taken by the
State party to combat violence against women and
girls, including criminal law reforms, the
Committee notes with concern that violence
against women and girls persists. The Committee
is particularly concerned about the inadequate
funding for womens crisis services and
shelters.46. The Committee urges the State party
to step up its efforts to combatviolence against
women and girls and increase its funding for
womens crisiscentres and shelters in order to
address the needs of women victims of
violenceunder all governments.
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27. The Committee is concerned that, within the
framework of the 1995 BudgetImplementation Act,
the transfer of federal funds to the provincial
and territoriallevels is no longer tied to
certain condit ions which previously ensured
nationwideconsistent standards in the areas of
health and social welfare. It is also concerned
about the negative impact that the new policy has
had on womens situation in a number of
jurisdictions.
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65. The Committee requests the wide dissemination
in Canada of the present concluding comments in
order to make the people of Canada, and
particularly government administrators and
politicians, aware of the steps that have
beentaken to ensure de jure and de facto
equality for women and the future steps required
in that regard. It also requests the Government
to continue todisseminate widely, in particular
to womens and human rights organizations, the
Convention and its Optional Protocol, the
Committees general recommendations, the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action and the
results of the twenty-third special session of
the General Assembly, entitled Women 2000
gender equality, development and peace in the
twenty-firstcentury.
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To help end wage inequities, the U.S. National
Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) coordinates an
annual Equal Pay Day. For exmaple, Equal Pay Day
was observed on Tuesday, April 3, 2001. Tuesday
symbolizes the day when women's wages catch up
to men's wages from the previous week.
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• In 1995, 57 percent of all persons living in
  low-income situations in Canada were women. In
  absolute numbers, this is 2.059 million women.
• Single mothers and other "unattached women" are
  most likely to be poor, with poverty rates for
  those groups reaching as high as 57.2 percent for
  single mothers under 65, and 43.4 percent for
  unattached women over 65 years of age6.
• Single mothers with children under seven had
  poverty rates as high as 82.5 percent in 1995,
  and single mothers under age 25 had a poverty
  rate of 83 percent
• single mothers are also living in the deepest
  poverty, with incomes 8,851 below the poverty
  line in 1995

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Difference

• Aboriginal women, immigrant women, visible
  minority women, and women with disabilities are
  more likely to be poor than other women.

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Will men be tomorrows second sex?

• Boys are doing worse than girls at every age in
  school
• Women dominate the jobs that are growing
• For some reason (?), men are not even trying to
  do womens work
• They are failing at school, at work, and in
  families. Their failure shows up in crime and
  unemployment figures. It is more than a matter
  of mere economic adjustment.

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• Women and Fortune 500
• Canadas Failed Commitment