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Gender wage gap smaller in science and technology

Women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) jobs earn less than men — but the gender gap is not as wide as it is in other fields, according to a report released on 3 August by the US Department of Commerce.

The report, titled “Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation”, compared the average hourly earnings of full-time, year-round male and female workers in the private sector. In non-STEM occupations, men made 21% more than women. In STEM jobs, however, that difference was a bit smaller, with men making 14% more than women on average.

When the data were adjusted to control for other factors such as education, the STEM gender gap for college-educated workers shrank to 12%, with physical and life sciences coming in at 8%, engineering at 7%, and computer science and math at 12%.

Why the difference between STEM and non-STEM? No one knows for sure, but Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank speculated that the underrepresentation of women in science and technology could mean that those who choose to stay are particularly talented or motivated. “You have to perhaps be a little more strong minded, a little more devoted” to be a woman in STEM, she says. Linda Rosen, CEO of ‘Change the Equation’, a non-profit that strives to improve STEM education, agreed, saying that women in these fields could sometimes bring “some intangible talent to the job that may be impacting wages.”

To back up that speculation, Alice Popejoy, a public policy fellow for the Association for Women in Science, based in Alexandria, Virginia, points to studies showing that women have to meet higher standards than men to succeed in the workplace. A 1997 study, for example, found that female applicants for a Swedish medical research fellowship had to have more publications and citations than male applicants in order to receive the same reviewer rating.

So for all of you lady STEMmers out there, congratulations: you are the few, the proud, the survivors. Now go ask for a raise. Because 14%… seriously?

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    DNLee said:

    Great post. The smaller gap may also be due to better mentoring and professional development, at least among students who had female or feminist male mentors. I was very lucky to have had several female professors at my graduate institution – all of them heavy hitters, including the department chair. She gave a special seminar discussion about negotiating salary/start up money with a particular emphasis that female students should be firm.

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