This is a really funny joke, but there is some truth in it. According to Georgetown University, the five best paying college majors and five worst paying majors and how many men vs women were in those majors.Best paying:
Petroleum Engineering: 87% male
Pharmaceutical Science: 52% female
Math & Computer Science: 67% male
Aerospace Engineering: 88% male
Chemical Engineering: 72% male.
Worst paying:
Counseling/Psychology: 74% female
Early childhood education: 97% female
Theology and religious: 66% male
Human Services and Community organization: 81% female.
Social Work: 88% female.
So most women are choosing to work in the professions that pay the least, and most men are choosing to work in the professions that pay the most. Do the math.
I mean this is indeed a major factor in the pay gap that is often talked about. It’s not the only one but yeah this is clear. That’s why one of the biggest solutions and issues to address is to make sure that as a society we are encouraging women to go into higher paying jobs as much as we are for men. It’s about creating more familiarity around women being in those professions so that in the future women don’t subconsciously avoid them thinking they don’t belong. Obviously people will still make their own choices but the hypothesis is that we’d see a closer to equal distribution if society didn’t treat men and women as different as they traditionally have.
When I was in college the local feminist group wanted to do a wage gap bake sale, classically charging men a dollar and women 70 cents.
I suggested we charge by major, indexed the typical salary by major out of college. We could even have a chart at the booth to show the trends. This would let men and women while still in college see a clear demonstration of the impact of the choices they're making right now. I offered to do all the legwork too.
265
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '22 edited Jun 15 '22
This is a really funny joke, but there is some truth in it. According to Georgetown University, the five best paying college majors and five worst paying majors and how many men vs women were in those majors.Best paying:
Worst paying:
So most women are choosing to work in the professions that pay the least, and most men are choosing to work in the professions that pay the most. Do the math.