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Frank Butler VS Annie Oakley: Anything
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The gender gap refers to
the differences in pay between men and women, who are doing the same or
comparable jobs. It is argued that in the USA women are earning anywhere from
0.77 to 0.95 cents for every dollar men earn. Until recently I believed the
gender gap was factual and non-debatable. Until however, celebrity actress
Kristin Bell starred in a two-minute satirical video on the topic called
“Pinksourcing.”
Bell brings up issues
for women around maternity leave, working conditions, and promotions. It wasn’t
this Huffington Post video that shocked me, rather it was the reviews. I
understand that reading the comments on any article or video online is surely
to offend me in ways I didn’t know I could be offended, but it wasn’t the
comments section either. It was the journalists, the professionals, and the
reputable online news sources that disagreed that the gender gap is real.
Check out Pinksourcing
video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_m5AlsQqcs
Google “Pinksourcing
video” for a selection of reviews to chose from.
The first argument you
will likely come across is that the gender gap isn’t real, because if it was, companies would only hire women. That argument can be shut down pretty quickly
with the Civil Rights Act/Canadian Human Rights Act that prevents gender discrimination
in the hiring process. Then there’s the argument that the gender gap has made
significant gains (in other words, the gap is closing in to nothingness), in
part to there being more women in the workplace and women earning a higher
level of education. This argument has some weight to it, but it’s still missing
some critical information. One of my favourite arguments however comes from
Forbes, they argue that both the video and the gender gap are misleading
because neither consider the different choices men and women make around
education level, years of experience, type of job, and hours worked (Agness, 2016).
Agreed, men and women
are definitely making different choices around these things, but it's important
to acknowledge what is influencing these decisions. For example lets exclude
education and look at years of experience, type of job and hours worked. In
most developed countries it's women who are offered a substantial amount of
maternity leave in comparison to men. The one province in Canada that offers
fathers notable paternity leave is Quebec, which gives fathers 5 weeks of leave (Raphael, 2016). In this situation it's
public policy that dictates one's choice around being at home or being at work.
Dennis Raphael (2016) points out that we're also
seeing political ideologies that are influencing one's
"choices." There is a greater push towards neoliberal
priorities, which means putting more and more responsibility on the
individual and less involvement from the state (ex: fewer social services).
This is particularly an
issue around early childhood education. At the moment childcare in Canada
is neither funded or regulated until the age of 5 when children attends kindergarten – and in many places across the country it’s only half-day. Until
then single mothers are to either
pay unscrupulous amounts of money for childcare, or stay at home and live on
social assistance, or for some partnered mothers they may continue their time
away from work, should they be lucky enough to have a partner who can provide
for the family on a sole income.
The longer women are out
of the workforce taking care of the family, the fewer hours they put in
working; the fewer years of experience they gain in the workforce, the lower
level jobs they are likely to have; and finally, the longer they’re unemployed
caring for the family, the greater risk they’re in of losing their labour
market job skills. Perhaps women could choose to work and build
experience, work more hours, acquire more responsibilities at work, rather than
stay at home, if men had more funded paternity leave and
if there was national childcare which was both funded and regulated across
the country.
Looking to our Nordic counterparts for influence, Canada could be doing more to integrate women back into the workplace with flexible work hours, create family-friendly policies, subsidized childcare, provide fathers with longer paternity leave, and give access to job-training programs (Raphael, 2016). These choices men and women, have to make around employment and
building a family is called the gender
trap which I acknowledge and argue, creates the gender gap.
Raphael, D. (Ed.). (2016). Social determinants of health: Canadian perspectives (3rd ed.). Toronto: Canadian
Scholars Press, Canada.
Agness, K. (Sept 16, 2016). Another Celebrity Wrong on the Pay Gap. Forbes. Retrieved from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/karinagness/2016/09/16/pinksourcing-is-the-latest-misleading-equal-pay-
effort/#5a0994f170d9
Raphael, D. (Ed.). (2016). Social determinants of health: Canadian perspectives (3rd ed.). Toronto: Canadian
Scholars Press, Canada.
Agness, K. (Sept 16, 2016). Another Celebrity Wrong on the Pay Gap. Forbes. Retrieved from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/karinagness/2016/09/16/pinksourcing-is-the-latest-misleading-equal-pay-
effort/#5a0994f170d9
