Gender Inequality

liberatomilo
May 5
3 min read

Is legal equality enough?

Even though we are all equal before the law, in many countries of the world there are still structural inequalities between men and women that materialize in differences in their participation in the labor market and in their average income. We know that there are often labor protection laws that prohibit two employees who perform the same task and have the same level of education from receiving different salaries, as this can only be discrimination, but then... How can the wage gap be explained?

Gender Pay Gap

We call “gender pay gap” the quotient between the difference between the average salary of men and women, divided by the average salary of men. In this way, we are left with a result that shows how much more men earn than women. The factors behind this difference are usually many, but in general two stand out: the greater participation of women in lower paid activities; and the lower participation of women in hierarchical positions.

Care Tasks

The existence and persistence of income differences and barriers to access to various activities and positions is based on long-standing cultural phenomena that associate women and men with certain predetermined roles. However, any explanation of gender inequality would be incomplete without incorporating into the analysis the differences that also exist within households: in particular, the unequal distribution of caregiving tasks. In general, women face a greater burden of these tasks within the household, which in turn affects their opportunities in the labor market. The characteristics of these tasks, which demand time, energy, capacity, and are vital for the reproduction of human beings, have led us to start calling these tasks by what they really are: (unpaid) work.

Glass walls

The metaphor of “glass walls” is often used to make visible the hidden obstacles and barriers that women often face when trying to leave certain culturally feminized activities. Thus, in many societies around the world, women are often overrepresented in activities related to domestic work, education and health, while they participate less in other areas such as industry, programming or politics. Coincidentally - or not - feminized activities tend to be lower paid on average.

Glass ceilings

We call “glass ceiling” the difficulties and obstacles (most of the time invisible) that women face to access hierarchical positions of responsibility. This occurs both in activities in which they are a minority and in those where women represent the majority of workers.

What to do?

As mentioned, gender inequalities persist even when there is a wide range of laws granting full equality between men and women. In order to advance towards a deeper equality of opportunities, many efforts of feminist movements today are focused on guaranteeing a better care infrastructure, which allows families -especially the poorest families- to delegate part of these tasks so as not to make their personal development in the labor market impossible.

On the other hand, the use of leave that has historically been granted to women mothers is beginning to be questioned, insofar as it also perpetuates gender roles and makes it impossible for fathers to take care of these tasks in the home during their children's early years. Advancing in a more egalitarian leave system, where fathers are also owners of this non-transferable right, will make it possible to advance in equal opportunities for professional development.