One Way to Close the Gender Wage Gap? Get Her a Better Job
Credit: Drew Hays on Unsplash
For this project, I conducted research to adapt a complex scientific text into a concise and understandable format for a general audience.
STEM jobs pay well and the market is growing, yet for many women, getting from college to career is half the battle. Breaking down societal barriers for women in STEM could unleash the United States’ untapped skilled workforce.
In 2019 women earn just 79 cents, on average, for every dollar that men make. That figure may not surprise you, unfortunately, since the gender wage gap is a frequent soundbite in the news. But what does not often get reported are the hidden factors contributing to gender income inequality.
A key contributor to the gender wage gap is the underrepresentation of women in high-paying STEM fields—jobs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Over the past decade, STEM jobs grew three times faster than those in non-STEM fields. Not only are these jobs on the rise, they pay well too. In fact, women who major in STEM in college earn $840,000 more over the course of their careers than women who major in the liberal arts.
Additionally, the United States currently faces a growing STEM labor shortage that foreign workers alone are unable to fill. Attracting American students to these fields is key to increasing the pool of domestic skilled labor.
Yet despite the growing demand for STEM workers and the attractive pay these positions offer, women account for only a quarter of graduates in these fields.
So why aren’t there more women in STEM?
Previous studies point to underlying differences in motivation (in terms of balancing costs versus benefits), rather than competence, for this gender disparity. That is to say, even though women often perform as well as or sometimes even better than men in STEM coursework, many eventually decide to pursue a different major or career due to the negative social climate surrounding women in STEM.
A 2018 study published by researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz builds upon this existing research to look at how sexual harassment and STEM-related gender bias negatively impacts a woman’s STEM motivation. This is the first study to consider both factors together.
The research team analyzed motivation based on the expectancy-value theory of achievement. According to this model, individuals are most motivated to achieve in areas in which they have a personal interest and expect to succeed.
This study differs from earlier research because it analyzed a relatively large and ethnically diverse sample of college women. The student participants in the study were enrolled in entry level biology courses for life science majors. The researchers controlled for GPA in order to rule out poor academic performance as a reason for low STEM motivation.
In the study, the researchers asked participants if they had experienced at least one incident of STEM-related gender bias from classmates, friends, or instructors (defined as faculty, teaching assistants, or graduate students), and/or at least one instance of sexual harassment from an instructor, within the past year.
Shockingly, over 60 percent of women reported at least one experience of gender bias, and over 78 percent of women reported at least one instance of sexual harassment, within the past year.
Since the researchers only asked whether at least one instance of bias or harassment occurred, the data does not capture how many women experienced bias or harassment more than once. The total number of incidents could be even more staggering than the initial data suggests.
The researchers found that the two greatest detriments to a woman’s STEM-motivation and career aspirations were STEM-related gender bias from classmates and sexual harassment from instructors. In contrast, the study demonstrated that STEM-specific support from friends was especially effective at bolstering a woman’s motivation.
College women are at a unique time in their lives where they are trying to balance social acceptance and academic success. It is important for women to feel accepted by fellow classmates, because their experience as students foreshadows how their future co-workers might treat them.
Even in cases where women perform well in and enjoy their STEM studies, the costs of putting up with a culture of bias, harassment, and discrimination can outweigh their motivation to stay in STEM fields.
So how can institutions of higher education foster a welcoming and supportive environment for women in STEM?
University faculty and administrators must first recognize that these issues exist and understand their role in fostering a welcoming environment for women. Institutions can help empower women for careers in STEM by promoting inclusionary and supportive networks, such as student organizations and faculty mentorships, that help women buffer the tide of STEM-based gender discrimination and harassment.
Yet universities must go beyond empowering women and also educate those in positions of power, specifically men, about how their words and actions create an exclusionary climate for women. Institutions of higher education owe it to their students to put words into action and foster an empowering academic environment that is inclusive and equitable for all.
This work is important now more than ever, especially in the current political climate. Recent proposals to rollback Title IX, the federal legislation that prohibits discrimination in education on the basis of sex, could make it more difficult for women to get the support they need when issues arise.
A woman’s motivation to study in STEM fields, and whether she chooses to continue on to a career in STEM, is of societal importance because gender pay disparity affects her lifetime earning potential and that of her family. Not only that, but increasing access for women in STEM will help boost the supply of domestic talent needed to fill the high-tech jobs of the future.
The challenges facing humankind over the next century are great. If there is any hope of solving the world’s most pressing problems, we will need all of our top minds—and not just our top men—on the job.