Education Line

Whether it’s in the corporate arena or down to the rank-and-file section, it seems that male professionals are paid more than their female counterparts. Although gender equality has been widely recognized for a long time now, the wage gap between the sexes persists.

In her news article on this issue, Fiona Macrae of the Daily UK reported that a man’s innate instinct to quickly rise to a challenge could be a factor why male workers earn more than women. Macrae wrote in her column that young boys’ inherent desire to compete and win can become their fuel to perform harder and better in the workplace.

This view stems from a social research conducted by the University of Innsbruck in Austria. The research involved experimentation by challenges on two sets of boys and girls, with the first set containing boys and girls between ages 3 to 8 and the second containing boys and girls 9 to 18 years old. In each case, a reward was given to those who were able to complete the tasks.

After the experiments, the researchers concluded that male participants are happier to participate in the challenges compared to their female co-participants. It is also found that the boys are consistently more competitive as they grow older.

Simply put, a boy’s instinctive competitiveness will manifest itself in the workplace once he becomes a professional. Men tend to go for higher education, thus increasing their capability to earn more. Also, male professionals can easily assert themselves when negotiating salary rates and benefits compared to female workers.

Common sense also dictates that there are certain professions a woman will have a hard time excelling in. Particular jobs such as mining, oil drilling, truck driving, security and law enforcement, carpentry, and plumbing are highly dominated by male workers.

That being said, there is no question about the growing number of women working in men-infested industries and areas of expertise. Science and society do play a role in the continued existence of the Gender Wage Discrepancy. But if you look at the bigger picture, there are indeed occupations where women actually earn more than men. According to a report by Forbes Magazine, women works in the following professions earn significantly more than men:  healthcare, teaching, bartending, baking, and bill and account collecting.

But many experts see the gender wage gap narrowing in the near future due to several factors. Economics Professor Candace Howes of the University of Connecticut sees that the unionization will present women with working opportunities in industries dominated by men. Employment researcher Laurence Shatkin believes that job migration will also be critical in closing the discrepancy. Men moving to female-oriented occupations like healthcare and education and women excelling in male-dominated work areas such as financial management and corporate banking will soon equalize the wages, Shatkin says.