Even though women hold more qualifications than men, they are still generally paid less than their male counterparts, starting from their entry into the workforce. In 2017, women with university and vocational qualifications earned on average 70% of men’s salaries in countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Most research in this area understandably concentrates on issues related to career, professional quotas, or parenthood. Recently, a study by France’s statistics agency Insee showed that 68% of the gender wage gap in full-time, equivalent jobs can be explained by the fact that women and men rarely occupy the same positions.
But the choice of different professions (we sometimes talk about “occupational segregation”) can largely be explained by the specialisations pursued in university and vocational education. According to research, the latter appear highly gendered and rarely balanced between men and women. For example, the percentage of women among new bachelor-level admissions in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is only 30%, whereas it is 77% for health and social welfare.
Drawing on a large French public database, our research shows that what we study goes a long way in determining differences observed on the labour market.
Limited data
As early as 1984, American researchers Thomas Daymont and Paul Andrisani suggested including educational choices in equations analysing the wage gap between women and men in the United States. However, this was easier said than done. Indeed, students tend to gradually specialise in their discipline, and masters degrees that follow may carry thousands of different names. For example, there are stark contrasts between social law, business law and criminal law.
This lack of data means there has been little research on the relationship between education choices and occupation. However, each year, several tens of thousands of master graduates are surveyed upon their entry into the professional world by France’s Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation. This is the data that we used for our research.
Seemingly well-balanced
Gendered educational choices appear to hamper income equality early on. Three years after graduation, female graduates earned lower wages than men and were more often on temporary, part-time contracts. They were also less likely to hold executive-level positions.
Based on a survey of 2013 masters-degree graduates 30 months after graduation, fields’ degree of female dominance appears to be correlated with salary levels.
MENESR-DGESIP-SIES, Author provided
The proportion of women in each sector appears to be related to salary levels. MENESR-DGESIP-SIES; data, survey into career prospects for Master’s graduates in 2013, 30 months after graduating, Provided by the author
Moreover, gender wage gaps appear to be…
La suite est à lire sur: theconversation.com
Auteur: Louis-Alexandre Erb, Doctorant en économie des inégalités, Université Paris-Est
