Question

We have seen in class that the labor force participation of women has increased considerably in the last 50 years in many countries of the world. Unfortunately, during the same time, in some countries, gender wage gap has increased. Newspapers in these countries have reported this increase in the gender wage gap as evidence that there have been an increase in the number of discriminating firms or in how discriminating they are. Using the model of discrimination learned in class, provide an alternative explanation of what could have increased the gender wage gap. Use a graph.

Answer 1

The labor force participation of women has increased considerably in the last 50 years in many countries of the world. On the other hand, during the same time, in some countries, gender wage gap has increased. It is the gap between the average salary of a male and a female. Newspapers have reported that this increase in the gender wage gap is an evidence showing that the number of discriminating firms have increased in many countries.

Gender wage gap could also increase due to the reason that generally women do not prefer odd working shifts. However, it has been observed that men are more flexible in this work timing context. Due to this, males are paid more as compared to females and the gender wage gap widens. Also, there are multiple household matters and motherhood reasons due to which females have to avoid working. Numerous studies had shown that earlier, the literacy ratio between males and females was very low. But it has improved in recent years.

This graph shows that through year 1969 to 1989, the weekly earnigs of females have increased and the gender wage gap has fallen.