The Gender Pay Gap: Challenging the Rationalizations. Perceived Equity, Discrimination, and the Limits of Human Capital Models

A gender gap in earnings has proven both persistent and universal. This paper relies mainly on U.S. data, but a gap between women’s and men’s earnings exists in every country. There is a continuing debate as to the extent to which the gap reflects merely the inevitable and reasonably fair result of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sex roles 2013-02, Vol.68 (3-4), p.169-185
Main Author: Lips, Hilary M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Comparable worth
Discrimination
Employment Discrimination
Equity
Females
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gender Studies
High School Graduates
Human Capital
Inequality
Males
Medicine/Public Health
Original Article
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Rational Choice
Rationalization
Sex
Sex discrimination
Social psychology
Social role. Sex role
Sociology
Working Women
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Summary:A gender gap in earnings has proven both persistent and universal. This paper relies mainly on U.S. data, but a gap between women’s and men’s earnings exists in every country. There is a continuing debate as to the extent to which the gap reflects merely the inevitable and reasonably fair result of differing work patterns and behaviors by women and men or the impact of employment discrimination against women. The human capital approach, in which various explanatory variables are used to shrink the perceived size of the gap, is often used to argue that much of the gap is due, not to discrimination, but to differing investments in employment by women and men. However, neither “investments” nor “outcomes” can be assessed in gender-neutral ways and the model’s underlying notion of rational choices made against the backdrop of a gender-neutral playing field is flawed. Discrimination appears to be entwined with gendered work patterns and behaviors; many of the human capital “explanatory” variables themselves require explanation. Understanding the gap requires recognition of the limitations of human capital models, and a willingness both to take a more sophisticated approach to such models, and to think beyond this approach.
ISSN:0360-0025
1573-2762
DOI:10.1007/s11199-012-0165-z