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Gender gap economics: una raccolta

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https://www.stradeonline.it/innovazione-e-mercato/1813-l-otto-marzo-e-la-dimensione-politica-degli-assorbenti . La proposta di Civati, da molti presa come una boutade, descrive in realtà due drammi del nostro Paese: quello del gender gap e quello di una tassazione che, come la morte, è garanzia di non-discriminazione. Tartassa senza badare a genere o etnia,

http://www.stradeonline.it/editoriale/498-la-mappa-globale-della-disparita-salariale-tra-uomini-e-donne

Non esiste un solo paese in cui le donne, a parità di mansioni, guadagnino più degli uomini. In Europa il divario è tornato progressivamente ad allargarsi negli ultimi anni, dopo aver raggiunto i minimi storici tra il 2009 e il 2010. Il problema sembra essere più marcato in molti paesi dell’area OCSE di quanto non sia in Italia.

 

https://www.stradeonline.it/9-innovazione-e-mercato/498-la-mappa-globale-della-disparita-salariale-tra-uomini-e-donne

https://www.movehub.com/blog/global-gender-pay-gap-map/

https://www.stradeonline.it/diritto-e-liberta/497-donne-politica-e-quote-di-genere-un-metodo-sbagliato-da-un-risultato-sbagliato

!!!

 

https://www.stradeonline.it/diritto-e-liberta/442-quote-di-vittimismo

!!!

 

https://www.stradeonline.it/terza-pagina/3276-benvenuti-nel-paese-delle-ombrelline Nel Paese delle Ombrelline i magistrati dettano dress code sensuali alle studentesse, e le studentesse dicono sissignore, e diventano a loro volta magistrate, e l’Ombrellinismo si riproduce per gemmazione perpetua. “Fai la brava Ombrellina” dirà la mamma accorta alla figlia che vuole farsi una posizione. E il papà benigno commenterà con gli amici: “Ma guarda come porta bene l’ombrellino”. Nel Paese delle Ombrelline una volta si faceva carriera con lo stile monacale Iotti/Pivetti, oggi persino Giorgia Meloni che ha un partito suo, che è un “capo”, è costretta a photoshopparsi perché se no non funziona. Anche se non sei Ombrellina, un po’ lo devi sembrare.

https://www.stradeonline.it/11-diritto-e-liberta/497-donne-politica-e-quote-di-genere-un-metodo-sbagliato-da-un-risultato-sbagliato

https://www.stradeonline.it/istituzioni-ed-economia/566-nomine-pubbliche-le-donne-ai-piani-alti-ma-fuori-dalla-stanza-dei-bottoni

Nomine pubbliche: i posti riservati alle donne sono stati solo di facciata.

 

https://www.stradeonline.it/9-innovazione-e-mercato/849-un-mercato-del-lavoro-sempre-piu-indifferente-al-genere-anche-senza-la-politica

Quello che emerge è un quadro complessivo di significativo avanzamento della presenza femminile nel mondo del lavoro, corroborato anche da un incremento del numero di donne imprenditrici, ed in modo particolare di under 35. Si tratta di un mutamento che ha molto a che fare con la crescita qualitativa della domanda di lavoro femminile. Rispetto al passato le donne appaiono più in grado – non solo a livello culturale, ma anche di mentalità – di intercettare le necessità del mercato del lavoro ed anche, nel caso, di crearsi da sole il proprio lavoro. Di pari passo è andata, naturalmente, anche un’evoluzione culturale dal lato dell’offerta di lavoro che ha rimosso o comunque indebolito alcuni preconcetti sull’impiego efficiente di donne in determinate professioni.

 

https://www.stradeonline.it/editoriale/560-nel-pd-solo-donne-capolista-il-velinismo-politicamente-corretto

Il femminismo ha prodotto il divorzio, l’aborto, la riforma del diritto di famiglia, contro la resistenza e la riluttanza maschile (anche “progressista”) a considerare imprescindibili queste pretese. La politica “al femminile” ha assistito invece a fenomenali marce indietro e battute d’arresto sui cosiddetti diritti delle donne,

 

https://www.stradeonline.it/diritto-e-liberta/2685-piu-gender-per-tutti-e-per-tutte

La responsabilità di un assassinio è dell’assassino, non della presenza di una donna a cena. L’articolo mi sembra moralisteggiante nel voler dire “la colpa è della società”, ma condivido alcuni concetti, tra cui: una donna non è proprietà, non è oggetto di contesa e la distruzione fisica di un altro maschio non ti rende più maschio

 

https://www.ilfoglio.it/cultura/2017/03/17/news/da-dove-nasce-il-mito-sbagliato-dell-uguaglianza-di-genere-sul-lavoro-125646/

Attenzione. Le diversità esistono. Le quote rosa rischiano di essere uno strumento di disprezzo del merito

Nessuno nega che si debba fare qualcosa per migliorare le condizioni delle donne, come di altre minoranze, ma questo dovrebbe essere fatto assicurando loro un’eguaglianza nelle opportunità offerte dal contesto, e non nei risultati finali. Quando un’istituzione come la Banca Mondiale adotta sistemi di quote rosa persino per assumere i dirigenti – su tre candidati, se il terzo è donna ottiene il posto – è evidente che siamo di fronte a un problema di disprezzo del merito e, in fin dei conti, di discriminazione: proprio nei confronti delle donne che si vorrebbe aiutare. “La soluzione sta nell’adattarsi al contesto e a quello che ci dice la scienza. In Svezia, per esempio, c’è una stagnazione del gap salariale tra uomo e donna e il tasso di promozione femminile è rallentato. Le aziende, a questo proposito, potrebbero tenere in conto di certa letteratura che rivela che le donne faticano più degli uomini in contesti competitivi incentrati sulla reputazione, e provare ad agire di conseguenza”.

http://www.brunoleoni.it/le-malpagate

Le cause della differenza di salario tra uomini e donne risiedono non tanto nella discriminazione quanto nelle scelte personali, nell’istruzione, nella formazione, nell’esperienza, nelle scelte lavorative (Cosa fare, come farlo, fare il part time o il tempo pieno…). Negli Stati Uniti il gap esiste di più laddove le donne lavorano meno ore, privilegiano lavori più flessibili o protetti (come il lavoro pubblico in Italia). Interrompono più spesso la loro carriera, per motivi biologici o scelte personali e vengono quindi inserite in posizioni per cui il turnover è meno costoso. Investono inoltre (loro o le aziende) meno in capitale umano. Gli studi nei settori più remunerativi, come scienze dure, sono scelti con meno frequenza dal genere femminile. Queste scelte derivano dal ruolo familiare della donna. In effetti il differenziale è più basso pe rle donne non sposate e/o senza figli minorenni. La principale causa della differenza retributiva è data dalla maternità e dal ruolo in famiglia delle donne. Oggi, però, le donne, in molti paesi, possono scegliere. E ogni scelta ne scarta altre. Il gender pay gap è globalmente in diminuzione, ma esiste. Il gender pay gap non può essere risarcito a colpi di legislazione. È la conseguenza di ruoli sempre meno diversi ma ancora diversi. Ruoli che possono essere messi in discussione e che le donne stesse, almeno qua, possono scegliersi o cercare di cambiare.

http://www.brunoleoni.it/uomo-e-donna-uguali-attenti-alle-ideologie

Femminismo liberato

 

http://www.brunoleoni.it/le-quote-rosa-sono-inutili-meglio-lasciar-decidere-al-mercato

Ancora una volta si fa confusione tra uguaglianza di condizioni e uguaglianza di risultato. Se l’uguaglianza è lo strumento con cui attribuire le medesime posizioni e possibilità a tutti in maniera radicale e incondizionata, appare corretta la politica delle quote rosa, prescindendo da ogni elemento di valutazione nel merito. Se, invece, essa è il criterio con cui offrire parità di occasioni in partenza, allora ne sarà garanzia una assenza di legislazione sul punto. L’opzione per l’uno o per l’altro modello sembra comportare la scelta tra l’affermazione dell’indifferenza rispetto a situazioni di merito diverse, da un lato, e il riconoscimento delle differenze nelle capacità individuali (e non solo nel sesso) dall’altro.

 

http://www.brunoleoni.it/quote-rosa-nei-cda-sono-inutili

 

http://www.brunoleoni.it/pari-opportunita-ambiguita-e-contraddizioni-delle-quote-rosa

 

http://www.brunoleoni.it/quote-rosa-nei-cda-non-per-legge

Il pluralismo non si impone per legge. Il sistema farebbe bene a cooptare gli outsider, di sesso femminile e no. Se non lo fa, pagherà un prezzo. Se ci pensa una legge, rischiamo di metterci su un piano inclinato. Diversi gruppi sociali, a vario titolo, potrebbero volere la propria “quota”: il 30% donne, il 5 di immigrati… Magari un cda così composto farebbe benissimo. Ma non lo si può imporre agli azionisti che con i loro amministratori debbono avere un legame fondato sulla fiducia. Non sulla costrizione.

 

https://phastidio.net/2013/11/20/salario-minimo-contratti-e-democrazia/

https://phastidio.net/category/contributi-esterni/page/21/

Sarah palin e le quote rosa. sono la passione politica, l’intelligenza, la determinazione e l’energia vitale che portano le donne ai vertici del potere, di qualunque potere si tratti.

 

http://noisefromamerika.org/articolo/femminicidio

Non c’è un’escalation di femminicidi e l’Italia non è un’eccezione rispetto al resto del mondo. Gli omicidi delle donne avvengono per motivi cosiddetti passionali. Anche quando a uccidere sono le donne. Calano le altre forme di omicidio, per cui sembra che aumentino i femminicidi. In realtà sono stabili nel tempo. La notizia che mi ha più colpito è la tabella inclusa. Quasi il 63% delle donne vengono uccise da coniugi, conviventi o fidanzati, nell’ambito dei delitti passionali.

http://noisefromamerika.org/articolo/grafico-settimana-17-05-17

http://noisefromamerika.org/articolo/letture-fine-settimana-28-07-2017

http://noisefromamerika.org/articolo/quote-rosa-nelle-imprese

http://noisefromamerika.org/articolo/modesta-proposta-aumentare-loccupazione-femminile

https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2011/11/21/meno-tasse-donne-inefficace-ingiusto/172137/

http://noisefromamerika.org/articolo/donne-televisione

http://noisefromamerika.org/articolo/donne-italia

Fra le cause del fenomeno viene proposta la mancanza di donne fra le classi dirigenti del paese, dovuta a sua volta alla mancanza di attenzione della società italiana alle esigenze delle donne (pochi asili per i bimbi, nessun negozio aperto a tutte le ore, niente epidurale negli ospedali..

 

http://noisefromamerika.org/articolo/fisco-lavoro-donne-italiane

 

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/10/specialization-personality-choice.html

Maggiore è lo sviluppo economico e maggiore è l’uguaglianza di genere, più alta è la disuguaglianza di genere per una varietà di scelte e di preferenze individuali. In altre parole una disponibilità maggiore di risorse materiali e sociali sia per gli uomini che per le donne facilita lo sviluppo indipendente e l’espressione delle preferenze specifiche individuali che possono diventare “di genere”. Queste preferenze conducono all’espansione di differenze individuali nei paesi più sviluppati e ugualitari. Così è proprio nei paesi più sviluppati ed egualitari che si notano certe disuguaglianze di genere, derivanti dalle preferenze individuali.

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/01/spousal-wage-boost-working-together-beat-gender-wage-gap.html

Gli individui che svolgono la stessa occupazione dei loro compagni hanno redditi più alti di quelli che svolgono un’occupazione differente. Un avvocato sposato a un’avvocatessa guadagna di più di un avvocato sposato a una fisica. Questo effetto reddito non si verifica per gli uomini maschi meno istruiti, mentre vale al crescere del livello di istruzione (o nel caso di altri gruppi) ed è più forte per le donne che per gli uomini. Quindi un’avvocata donna guadagna di più se è sposata a un avvocato uomo piuttosto che se è sposata ad un fisico o a un insegnante. Questo effetto si è verificato negli ultimi decenni negli Stati Uniti e non può essere spiegato da altri fattori come le ore lavorate, l’istruzione, il lavoro autonomo e così via.

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/02/women-in-economics.html

marginal revolution whats the pill got to do with gender gap

 

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/07/gendered-language.html

. Languages use different systems for classifying nouns. Gender languages assign many — sometimes all — nouns to distinct sex-based categories, masculine and feminine. Drawing on a broad range of historical and linguistic sources, this paper constructs a measure of the proportion of each country’s population whose native language is a gender language. At the cross-country level, this paper documents a robust negative relationship between the prevalence of gender languages and women’s labor force participation. It also shows that traditional views of gender roles are more common in countries with more native speakers of gender languages. In African countries where indigenous languages vary in terms of their gender structure, educational attainment and female labor force participation are lower among those whose native languages are gender languages. Cross-country and individual-level differences in labor force participation are large in both absolute and relative terms (when women are compared to men), suggesting that the observed patterns are not driven by development or some unobserved aspect of culture that affects men and women equally. Following the procedures proposed by Altonji, Elder, and Taber (2005) and Oster (2017), this paper shows that the observed correlations are unlikely to be driven by unobservables. Using a permutation test based on the structure of the language tree and the distribution of languages across countries, this paper demonstrate that the results are not driven by spurious correlations within language families.

Gender languages appear to reduce women’s labor force participation and perpetuate support for unequal treatment of women.

That is from a new World Bank working paper by Pamela Jakiela and Owen Ozier, via the excellent Kevin Lewis.  Kevin also points us to a new study indicating that East Asians smile fifty percent less than Americans.

 

https://www.nber.org/papers/w24219#fromrss

Despite considerable gender convergence over time, substantial gender inequality persists in all countries. Using Danish administrative data from 1980-2013 and an event study approach, we show that most of the remaining gender inequality in earnings is due to children. The arrival of children creates a gender gap in earnings of around 20% in the long run, driven in roughly equal proportions by labor force participation, hours of work, and wage rates. Underlying these “child penalties”, we find clear dynamic impacts on occupation, promotion to manager, sector, and the family friendliness of the firm for women relative to men. Based on a dynamic decomposition framework, we show that the fraction of gender inequality caused by child penalties has increased dramatically over time, from about 40% in 1980 to about 80% in 2013. As a possible explanation for the persistence of child penalties, we show that they are transmitted through generations, from parents to daughters (but not sons), consistent with an influence of childhood environment in the formation of women’s preferences over family and career.

 

Qui una discussione: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/01/denmark-gender-estimate-day.html

Tra il 1980 e il 2013 in Danimarca è aumentata la disuguaglianza di genere causata dall’avere e crescere figli. La disuguaglianza dovuta a una minore istruzione si è ridotta

It looks like a good news if the other causes of gender inequality have been reduced.

Exactly.This is great news.

Prejudices like “women can’t lead”, low hanging fruit kind of problems, are disappearing. What stays is the hardest problem to crack: children rearing. Anyway, a great improvement.

C’è anche una discussione sul caso svedese, con l’obbligo di paternità. Io stato ti obbligo a fare come voglio: cioè devi prendere la maternità o paternità se no ci rimettete tu e il tuo partner. Oppure: prima ti prendo soldi in tasse e poi te li restituisco se hai figli.

 

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2017/09/gender-gap-stem-not-think.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+marginalrevolution%2Ffeed+%28Marginal+Revolution%29

Alla luce di quanto emerge da un paper il gender gap vero all’uscità dell’università non è che le donne prendono meno lauree STEM degli uomini, bensì che gli uomini hanno difficoltà a competere ovunque tranne che nelle lauree STEM.

 

https://www.econjobrumors.com/topic/the-gender-gap-in-stem-is-not-what-you-think-mr

 

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/08/economics-behind-math-gender-gap.html

Non è chiaro perché i ragazzi ottengano risultati migliori delle ragazze nei test di matematica. Dato che molti ragazzi “non capaci” preferiscono abbandonare (perché magari hanno più opportunità fuori dalla scuola), quelli che restano sono “i più bravi” e quindi quelli in grado di ottenere risultati migliori. In sostanza il gap sarebbe determinato dalla selezione del campione di riferimento. Qui il paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387818304917?via%3Dihub

 

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/09/boys-comparative-advantage-math-science.html

 

Intanto un fatto, il cosiddetto gender equality paradox. I paesi coi più alti livelli di uguaglianza di genere (Finlandia e Svezia, per esempio, dove è alta anche la performance del sistema scolastico) hanno una disuguaglianza di genere più marcata nel numero di laureati in materie STEM. Il paradosso si verifica anche in altre misure di comportamento e personalità e di istruzione, come nei mooc.

Possibili spiegazioni:

Uno. Dato il livello di ricchezza e di welfare in questi paesi, le persone sono più libere di perseguire i propri interessi più dei propri bisogni, per cui può semplicemente essere che alla maggior parte delle ragazze di quei paesi non interessi il maggior guadagno (ma non così maggiore) conseguente all’ottenimento di lauree STEM.

Due. In tutti i paesi analizzati in base ai test PISA  le ragazze ottengono risultati migliori dei ragazzi in “lettura” rispetto a “scienze” o “matematica”. Però, anche laddove le ragazze sovraperformano rispetto ai ragazzi in scienze, come in Finlandia, le ragazze hanno risultati ancora migliori in “lettura” e in materie umanistiche come storia o lingue. Questo significa che quello è comunque il loro punto di forza principale, più che per i maschi. Quindi le ragazze saranno propense a sceglire materie umanistiche più di quanto lo siano i ragazzi. La differenza tra capacità letterarie e numeriche degli individui risulta statisticamente più marcata proprio nei paesi con maggiore uguaglianza di genere.

La differenza di rendimento tra ragazzi e ragazze in matematica e scienze potrebbe essere spiegata quindi dalla teoria dei vantaggi comparati. I maschi potrebbero essere peggiori in media in tutte le materie rispetto alle femmine ma si specializzano nelle materie in cui sono meno peggio. In altre parole hanno uno svantaggio assoluto in tutti i campi, ma un vantaggio comparato in matematica e scienze.

 

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/04/gender-pay-gap-update.html

according to a new analysis of 2,000 communities by a market research company, in 147 out of 150 of the biggest cities in the U.S., the median full-time salaries of young women are 8% higher than those of the guys in their peer group. In two cities, Atlanta and Memphis, those women are making about 20% more. This squares with earlier research from Queens College, New York, that had suggested that this was happening in major metropolises. But the new study suggests that the gap is bigger than previously thought, with young women in New York City, Los Angeles and San Diego making 17%, 12% and 15% more than their male peers, respectively. And it also holds true even in reasonably small areas like the Raleigh-Durham region and Charlotte in North Carolina (both 14% more), and Jacksonville, Fla. (6%).

The figures come from James Chung of Reach Advisors, who has spent more than a year analyzing data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. He attributes the earnings reversal overwhelmingly to one factor: education. For every two guys who graduate from college or get a higher degree, three women do. This is almost the exact opposite of the graduation ratio that existed when the baby boomers entered college. Studies have consistently shown that a college degree pays off in much higher wages over a lifetime, and even in many cases for entry-level positions. “These women haven’t just caught up with the guys,” says Chung. “In many cities, they’re clocking them.”

Chung also claims that, as far as women’s pay is concerned, not all cities are created equal. Having pulled data on 2,000 communities and cross-referenced the demographic information with the wage-gap figures, he found that the cities where women earned more than men had at least one of three characteristics. Some, like New York City or Los Angeles, had primary local industries that were knowledge-based. Others were manufacturing towns whose industries had shrunk, especially smaller ones like Erie, Pa., or Terre Haute, Ind. Still others, like Miami or Monroe, La., had a majority minority population. (Hispanic and black women are twice as likely to graduate from college as their male peers.)

That is not the final word, but here is more from Time magazine.

 

http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2015274,00.html

 

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/11/women-earn-less-men-evidence-train-bus-operators.html

Anche in un ambiente sindacalizzato come quello degli operatori dei bus e dei treni, dove i compiti e le ore di lavoro sono simili, le donne guadagnano a settimana meno degli uomini. Il motivo è legato però alle scelte personali. Le donne sembrano dare più valore al tempo, quindi lavorano meno ore degli uomini, trascorrono più “tempo settimanale non pagato”, scelgono percorsi in strada che sono più a rischio incidente per diminuire il tempo passato in strada e così via.

 

https://www.economist.com/international/2017/10/07/the-gender-pay-gap

https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2017/12/19/women-and-economics

 

https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2017/11/mind-gap.html

https://growthecon.wordpress.com/2014/10/14/why-i-care-about-inequality/

https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2014/01/two-points-on-inequality.html

https://www.wsj.com/articles/john-h-cochrane-what-the-inequality-warriors-really-want-1416442460

 

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/06/this-recessions-gender-gap.html

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2007/10/shrinking-pay-gap.html

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/03/wages-productivity-and-inequality.html

https://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/04/gender-and-economics-education.html

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/01/19/women-are-underrepresented-economics-textbooks-says-new-analysis-implications-fields

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mankiw/files/defending_the_one_percent_1.pdf

https://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2014/07/five-myths-about-the-gender-pay-gap.html

 

Here are the myths described by Vivien Labaton:

  1. The pay gap is closing rapidly. …
  2. Women earn less because they work in industries that pay less. …
  3. Women earn less because they don’t negotiate well. …
  4. Women earn less because mothers choose to work less. …
  5. To close the pay gap, we should focus on deterring discrimination. …

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-the-gender-pay-gap/2014/07/25/9e5cff34-fcd5-11e3-8176-f2c941cf35f1_story.html?utm_term=.c90ad4f47dfa

 

Here are some lingering myths.

  1. The pay gap is closing rapidly.

A Pew report released in December seemed to bring good news: The pay gap is narrowing, and millennial women are nearly at parity with millennial men. Pew calculated that the median hourly wage for women was 84 percent of that for men in 2012, compared with 64 percent in 1980. And female workers aged 25 to 34 in 2012 were making 93 percent as much as their male peers.

Yet in the past decade, the pay gap has hardly narrowed at all; it actually widened between 2005 and 2008, and again between 2011 and 2012. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research estimates that, based on the current trajectory, it could take until 2056 — when today’s young workers are ready for retirement — to reach parity. Even that estimate may be optimistic.

The gap tends to fluctuate with the economy, narrowing in bad economic times and widening in good, when the bonuses and overtime pay that go disproportionately to men kick back in. So if the U.S. economy continues to grow, we may well see progress reversed.

  1. Women earn less because they work in industries that pay less.

In April, when Democrats pushed the Paycheck Fairness Act, the Republican National Committee countered that “there’s a disparity not because female engineers are making less than male engineers at the same company with comparable experience. The disparity exists because a female social worker makes less than a male engineer.”

There are, indeed, more women in low-paying occupations such as social work and education, and more men in high-paying fields such as engineering. Yet that doesn’t go very far to explain the gender pay gap. As Harvard labor economist Claudia Goldin has said: “There is a belief, which is just not true, that women are just in bad occupations and if we just put them in better occupations, we would solve the gender gap problem.” Goldin has found that the pay gap is widest in some of the highest-paying fields. Female financial specialists make 66 percent of what their male counterparts make, female doctors earn 71 percent, and female lawyers and judges make 82 percent. That’s all controlling for age, race, hours and education.

Meanwhile, men, especially white men, tend to make more than women in female-dominated jobs and advance relatively easily into supervisory roles.

  1. Women earn less because they don’t negotiate well.

Women are less likely than men to ask for a raise , and they don’t negotiate as aggressively. But that doesn’t mean they are less-capable negotiators. Rather, women don’t ask because they fear real repercussions.

When women advocate for themselves, they’re often perceived as pushy or unappreciative. Studies have shown that people are less likely to want to work with women who initiate salary discussions, whereas men don’t see the same backlash. “Women are still expected to fulfill prescriptions of feminine niceness,” Harvard researcher Hannah Riley Bowles and her co-authors theorize.

Employers could help correct the gender pay gap with more transparent hiring, promotion and compensation decisions and by more consistently using merit- and performance-based criteria. “Ambiguity facilitates the potential for gender effects and for stereotyping people. It leads people to preconceived notions,” Bowles says. “And transparency has the opposite effect.”

  1. Women earn less because mothers choose to work less.

Men tend to earn more the more children they have, whereas women see their pay go down with each additional child. Some of that reflects mothers taking time off or reducing their hours, and sometimes that’s by choice — but often it’s because their jobs don’t compensate them enough to cover the exorbitant cost of child care or don’t allow flexibility in the hours they can work.

There’s also a “motherhood penalty” that seems to stem from the perception that working moms are less dedicated, less competent and less efficient employees. Investor Paul Tudor Jones got himself in trouble articulating this perception last year. “As soon as that baby’s lips touched that girl’s bosom, forget it,” he said of his experience with female traders. The condemnation of Jones was swift, but studies show that his attitude is widely held. It results in mothers being paid 7 to 14 percent less than women without children for equivalent work. And it makes it harder for moms who lose their jobs to land new positions.

In fact, moms may be more productive employees than women without children. For instance, one study of 10,000 academic economists found that, on average, mothers published more research than childless women and mothers of at least two children published more than did mothers of only one child. Researchers are also testing theories that motherhood makes women better at problem-solving, memory tasks and handling stress.

  1. To close the pay gap, we should focus on deterring discrimination.

Passing laws that make it harder for workplaces to discriminate based on sex is important. But gender discrimination accounts for only 25 to 40 percent of the pay gap, depending on which labor economists you consult. And since discrimination is already illegal, the ways in which it persists are subtle and may be challenging to address directly through legislation.

What could make a big difference would be if workplaces reconsidered how they compensate their employees — and were more transparent about it. Rather than disproportionately rewarding workers for putting in long hours and making themselves available around the clock, they should reward high-quality work and allow employees more of the flexibility they need to balance work and family demands.

For example, when Google increased family leave from three months to five and made it fully paid, the company saw a 50 percent drop in the number of moms who quit. Several states and companies are also moving in the direction of offering paid family leave, recognizing that these kinds of family-friendly policies not only boost morale, productivity and loyalty, they also address the other factors that contribute to the pay gap.

 

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/05/boys-girls-and-teachers.html

In kindergarten, boys and girls do equally as well on tests of reading, general knowledge, and mathematics. By third grade, boys have slightly higher mathematics scores and slightly lower reading scores. As children grow older, these gaps widen….

[Researcher Thomas] Dee finds that gender interactions between teachers and students have significant effects on these important educational outcomes. Assignment to a teacher of the opposite sex lowers student achievement by about 0.04 standard deviations. Other results imply that just “one year with a male English teacher would eliminate nearly a third of the gender gap in reading performance among 13 year olds…and would do so by improving the performance of boys and simultaneously harming that of girls. Similarly, a year with a female teacher would close the gender gap in science achievement among 13 year olds by half and eliminate entirely the smaller achievement gap in mathematics.”

Female science teachers appeared to reduce the probability that a girl would be seen as inattentive in science, though this had no discernable effect on girls’ science achievement. However, female history teachers significantly raised girls’ history achievement. And, boys were more likely to report that they did not look forward to a particular academic subject when it was taught by a female.

Overall, the data suggest that, “a large fraction of boys’ dramatic underperformance in reading reflects the classroom dynamics associated with the fact that their reading teachers are overwhelmingly female.”

 

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/05/women-are-less-happy.html

La felicità delle donne negli Stati Uniti è andata declinando, tra il 1970 e il 2009, sia in assoluto che rispetto a quella degli uomini, mentre le loro condizioni di vita sono migliorate.

https://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2007/06/comeback-for-comparable-worth.html

A Comeback for Comparable Worth

In the first edition of my favorite economics textbook, there was a section on “comparable worth.” Eventually, my editor suggested I take it out, on the grounds that economic logic had finally killed off this bad idea. But like Lord Voldemort in the first Harrry Potter book, the idea was weakened, but not dead.

 

Here is what Fortune is now reporting:

It’s baaaack!! Yes, “comparable worth,” which faded out around the same time the Bay City Rollers were disbanding, is making a comeback, under the euphemism “pay equity”. To wit: the Fair Pay Act of 2007. Introduced by Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) in April (Illionois Sen. and Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is one of 15 co-sponsors) the Act notes the existence of wage differentials between men and women.

This is true; according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2005 female full-time wage and salary workers made 81% of what men did. What is more dubious, though, is the assumption that is the heart of the Fair Pay Act: that discrimination is the reason for all or most of the difference. And the act’s remedies are absurdly misguided, injecting the federal government into the most routine pay decisions.

And here is what I wrote about the topic ten years ago in that first edition:

 

The Debate over Comparable Worth

 

Should engineers get paid more than librarians? This question is at the heart of the debate over comparable worth, a doctrine according to which jobs deemed comparable should be paid the same wage.

 

Advocates of comparable worth point out that traditionally male occupations have higher wages than traditionally female occupations. They believe that these occupational differences are discriminatory against women. Even if women were paid the same as men for the same type of work, the gender gap in wages would persist until comparable occupations were paid similar wages. Comparable-worth advocates want jobs rated according to a set of impartial criteria–education, experience, responsibility, working conditions, and so on. Under this system, comparably rated jobs would pay the same wage. A librarian with a master’s degree, ten years of experience, and a forty-hour workweek, for instance, would be paid the same as an engineer with a master’s degree, ten years of experience, and a forty-hour workweek.

 

Most economists are critical of comparable-worth proposals. They argue that a competitive market is the best mechanism for setting wages. It would be nearly impossible, they claim, to measure all of the factors that are relevant for determining the right wage for any job. Moreover, the fact that traditionally female occupations pay less than traditionally male occupations is not by itself evidence of discrimination. Women have in the past spent more time than men raising children. Women are, therefore, more likely to choose occupations that offer flexible hours and other working conditions compatible with childrearing. To some extent, the gender gap in wages is a compensating differential.

 

Economists also point out that comparable-worth proposals would have an important unintended side effect. Comparable-worth advocates want the wages in traditionally female occupations to be raised by legal decree. Such a policy would have many of the effects of a minimum wage, which we first discussed in Chapter 6. In particular, when the wage is forced to rise above the equilibrium level, the quantity of labor supplied to these occupations would rise, and the quantity demanded would fall. The result would be higher unemployment in traditionally female occupations. In this way, a comparable-worth law could adversely affect some members of groups that the policy is aimed at helping.

 

The debate over comparable worth continues. The courts have usually rejected the claim that occupational wage differences are discriminatory. Nonetheless, the comparable-worth movement has had some political success. For example, in 1985, a government employees union sued the state of Washington for discrimination using a comparable-worth argument. The case came before Circuit Court Judge Anthony Kennedy, who later became a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Kennedy decided against comparable worth, writing that “neither law nor logic deems the free market system a suspect enterprise.” Despite their defeat in the courts, however, the advocates of comparable worth ultimately got what they wanted. The state of Washington eventually succumbed to political pressure and adopted a comparable-worth system for paying state employees.

 

https://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/04/gender-and-economics-education.html

Le donne sono più protezioniste perché non studiano economia. Studiare economia di base permetterebbe di avere degli elettori più intelligenti.

 

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/07/posner-vs-tilghman.html

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115310719538508398-search.html

http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/archives/2006/07/womens_academic.html

Here is legal scholar Richard Posner, in his blog post from yesterday, on the gender gap:

the mean performance of women in college and university is superior to that of the men, but the variance of male performance is greater and as a result there are more male geniuses. There is no reason why the difference in variance should result in higher average male earnings; that higher average is probably the result of women’s spending less time in the work force because of pregnancy and child care. Women’s greater proclivity for child care may well have a biological basis, as may the difference in variance that I mentioned. In the “ancestral environment”–the term that anthropologists use to describe the prehistoric period in which human beings reached approximately their current biological state–women who were “steady” would have tended to have the maximum number of children, while natural selection might favor variance in male abilities because variance would produce some outstanding men who would tend to reproduce more than other men (including the “steadies”) in the polygamous conditions of prehistoric society. If the explanation based on evolutionary biology is correct, women will continue to be “underrepresented” in high-achievement positions in many fields; why anyone should care is beyond me.

And here, from today’s Wall Street Journal, is Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman:

There are 25 years of good social science that demonstrate the many cultural practices that act collectively to discourage women from entering and continuing careers in science and engineering. The research is overwhelming, and it is there for anybody to see. On the other hand, the data that would suggest there are innate differences in the abilities of men and women to succeed in the natural sciences are nonexistent.

I think it might be a good idea to get these two together for a debate

 

Job Flexibility and Gender Differences in Labor Market .

http://www3.grips.ac.jp/~econseminar/20101217FlabbiMoro10_2010.pdf

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWDR2012/Resources/7778105-1299699968583/7786210-1315936222006/chapter-5.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327807728_Gender_Differences_in_Perceived_Workplace_Flexibility_Among_Older_Workers_in_the_Netherlands_A_Brief_Report

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/452612

https://ourworldindata.org/female-labor-force-participation-key-facts statistiche

https://data.oecd.org/earnwage/gender-wage-gap.htm

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/employment/oecd-employment-outlook_19991266

http://www.oecd.org/gender/ (mappe e statistiche su occupazione)

 

OECD Tweets related to Gender

http://www.oecd.org/gender/data/gender-wage-gap.htm

https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=54751

https://www.oecd.org/sdd/37962502.pdf

https://www.oecd.org/els/LMF_1_5_Gender_pay_gaps_for_full_time_workers.pdf

https://www.oecd.org/gender/Closing%20the%20Gender%20Gap%20-%20Italy%20FINAL.pdf

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/the-gender-wage-gap_5jfmffgnpk28.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2Fcomponent%2F9789264281318-15-en&mimeType=pdf

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/the-pursuit-of-gender-equality/the-gender-wage-gap_9789264281318-15-en

https://www.market-inspector.co.uk/blog/2017/06/decrease-gender-pay-gap

https://www.ceo.com/miscellaneous/how-you-can-solve-gender-inequality-now

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-43643989

https://www.quora.com/How-do-we-solve-gender-inequality

https://www.forbes.com/sites/shelleyzalis/2018/04/10/5-ideas-for-closing-the-wage-gap-on-equalpayday/

https://hbr.org/2019/01/why-companies-attempts-to-close-the-gender-pay-gap-often-fail 

!!!

https://leanin.org/what-companies-can-do-about-equal-pay

https://www.vox.com/2017/9/8/16268362/gender-wage-gap-explained

!!!

http://www.astrid-online.it/static/upload/ef16/ef1638en_0.pdf

https://www.tutor2u.net/economics/reference/the-gender-pay-gap

https://www.oecd.org/gender/Executive%20Summary.pdf

https://www.workflexibility.org/gender-pay-gap-interview-economist-claudia-goldin/

http://oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/4336/Closing_the_gender_gap_can_boost_the_economy.html

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/employment/oecd-employment-outlook-2016/closing-gender-gaps-in-the-labour-markets-of-emerging-economies_empl_outlook-2016-8-en

http://gap.hks.harvard.edu/getting-job-there-motherhood-penalty

http://gap.hks.harvard.edu/normative-discrimination-and-motherhood-penalty

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/511799?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

https://fairygodboss.com/articles/how-to-fight-the-motherhood-penalty

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3272159/

https://www.vox.com/2018/2/19/17018380/gender-wage-gap-childcare-penalty

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/committees/woman-advocate/practice/2018/motherhood-penalty/

https://www.google.it/search?q=maternit%C3%A0+phastidio&ie=&oe=

https://www.google.it/search?ei=hUmGXOzQF8SgaZ-3nqAE&q=maternit%C3%A0+noisefromamerika&oq=maternit%C3%A0+noisefromamerika&gs_l=psy-ab.3…37343.39771..39955…0.0..0.140.1946.3j13……0….1..gws-wiz…….0j0i22i30j33i160.tiko_RSs6KA

https://www.google.it/search?ei=rUmGXM-eNo3ylwSg5bjgDQ&q=maternit%C3%A0+stradeonline&oq=maternit%C3%A0+stradeonline&gs_l=psy-ab.3…25621.27551..27842…0.0..0.165.1420.3j9……0….1..gws-wiz…….0j0i22i30j33i160.TKsnkvaz2GE

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