Sociology Assignment: Gender Pay Gap, Theories, and Solutions

This sociology essay examines the gender pay gap, a persistent issue despite some convergence, focusing on key findings from research indicating a significant disparity in hourly earnings between men and women. The essay highlights how the wage gap has narrowed but remains considerable, particularly among older workers, and explores the impact of factors like marriage and childbirth on women's career trajectories. The rational choice theory and human capital framework are applied to understand the individual choices influencing this gap. The essay concludes by proposing solutions, such as enhancing the value of traditionally female-dominated jobs and implementing job flexibility policies, while also suggesting the use of case studies for in-depth qualitative research into the issue of gender wage inequality and its societal implications. The analysis references several academic sources to support its arguments.

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Learn
“The Narrowing, But Persistent, Gender Gap In Pay” by Anna Brown And Eileen
Patten
A) Key Findings
 Disparity in hourly earnings between men and women continue to remain
considerable, in spite of some convergence.
 The gender discrimination in earnings has lessened since the twentieth century,
amongst the young labor sector in particular but still persistent.
 In 2015, it was estimated that in the United States, women working both full time and
part time received more than eighty percent of men’s income (Brown & Patten, 2017).
 It must be noted that based on this estimation, female employees would require an
additional month or more to receive the equal earnings in comparison to men.
 The hourly earnings of women workers are at present about eighteen percent lower in
comparison to male employees on an average rate, having been almost twenty-five
percent less in 2003 and almost thirty percent in early 1990s (Brown & Patten, 2017).
 There is a gradual decline of percentage in income disparity amongst the adult
employees of twenty-five to thirty-four of age. It has been witnessed that female
employees belonging to this group earns ninety cent per dollar in comparison to a man
in the same age category.
 The wage disparity increases widely during late twenties and early thirties. The
income rate of men tend to increase rapidly during this phase, whereas the wage gap
for women widens particularly at this age.
 Marriage or childbirth accounts for the gradual increase of the gender gap pay.
Almost forty-two percent of female employees have been anticipated to reduce their

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work durations after marriage or for child care whereas, only twenty eight percent of
men have been witnessed to lessen their working hours during this phase.
 In a survey, conducted in 2013, almost forty percent women have agreed of taking a
significant break or have quit their jobs because of familial pressures and
responsibilities.
B) Conclusion
Therefore, from the above key findings it can be concluded that the gender pay gap
has narrowed slightly but only with small increments. However, it must also be taken into
account that undefined discrimination between men and women is gradually being controlled.
Theory
A) The gender pay inequality can be explicitly understood from the rational choice
theoretical perspective. The theory of rational choice perceives humans as rational beings,
who are target oriented, apprehensive about own wellbeing and rigorously working on
improving effectiveness. Human capital theory, which draws a framework from rational
action, or rational choice theory argues that individuals prefer to invest in market based
human capital in order to increase their level of productivity and earnings (Blau & Kahn,
2017). The increase in human capital will directly influence the productivity, which is
desirable to the labour force. However, as per comparative advantage theoretical approach,
disparity within the human capital framework between men and women is considered as an
outcome of the division of labour within the household. Women are usually perceived to be
confined within the four walls of the house and expected to perform household chores,
whereas, males are considered the sole breadwinner of the family (Sandberg, 2013). This
notion has significantly influenced the type of jobs women choose and furthermore resulting
to the pay scale. Often post marriage or childbirth, the preferences of women change because

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of certain familial pressure and responsibilities. Thus, the human capital investment becomes
more economically rational for men in comparison to women further resulting in wide wage
gap (Goldin, 2014). Female employees are paid relatively less to the jobs involving similar
amount of expertise, effort as well as working conditions. However, the late twentieth
century, witnessed a decline of wage gap between the two genders, yet it persists (Diebolt &
Perrin, 2013). Though women have started to invest extensively in the market based human
capital, there is still a significant wage disparity between the median hourly income of men
and women.
B) The above findings have suggested that rational choice theory has immense relativity to
the issue of gender wage gap between men and women and furthermore focuses on the
concept of individual choices. However, it must be noted that rational choice theory or human
capital framework cannot solely explicate the pay disparity between men and women.
Solution
A) The solution to curb gender wage inequality is to enhance the value of low paid tasks.
Generally, women tend to engage in jobs such as nursing, caring, cleaning which are
devalued and degraded in comparison to the tasks performed traditionally by men like
construction, skilled trades, production (Cha & Weeden, 2014). Policies should be
implemented to make these jobs more valuable and further encourage employees to pay
living wages and acknowledge women to progress to higher paid jobs through target
achievements (Wolf, 2013). Furthermore, job flexibility can also be considered in order to
narrow down wage gap between men and women.
B) Case study, a renowned method of qualitative research has its prominence in several
disciplines ranging from psychology, political science to sociology. It can be implemented to

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examine in detail the subject of gender wage inequality, its origin and further evaluate its
implications on the society.

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References
Blau, F. D., & Kahn, L. M. (2017). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and
explanations. Journal of Economic Literature, 55(3), 789-865.
Brown, A., & Patten, E. (2017). The narrowing, but persistent, gender gap in pay. United
States Of America: Pew Research Center.
Cha, Y., & Weeden, K. A. (2014). Overwork and the slow convergence in the gender gap in
wages. American Sociological Review, 79(3), 457-484.
Diebolt, C., & Perrin, F. (2013). From stagnation to sustained growth: the role of female
empowerment. American Economic Review, 103(3), 545-49.
Goldin, C. (2014). A pollution theory of discrimination: male and female differences in
occupations and earnings. In Human capital in history: The American record (pp.
313-348). University of Chicago Press.
Sandberg, S. (2013). Lean in: Women, work, and the will to lead. Random House.
Wolf, N. (2013). The beauty myth: How images of beauty are used against women. Random
House.