Today, fewer than half of all high school students have had sex: 47.8 percent as of 2007, according to the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, down from 54.1 percent in 1991.
We analyze the female-male gap in starting-salary offers for new college graduates using data from the annual surveys of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), unique (and proprietary) data that have not previously been used for this purpose. A major advantage of working with a data set on salaries for new college graduates is that we can remove the possible influence of gender differences in experience, promotions, job changes, and other factors on the salary gap. We find that as much as 95 percent of the overall gender gap in starting-salary offers can be explained by differences in college majors selected.
Perceptions of wage entitlement differ between women and men such that men are more likely to feel worthy of higher pay. Based on a combination of status-related theories and evidence from two studies of 120 undergraduate men, we examined men’s reactions to gendered threats to their task abilities. When told that women typically outperform men, men responded with elevated projections of their own competence without reducing their self-pay. These effects were not related to endorsements of masculinity ideology. Instead, exaggerated competence was related to individual men’s heightened legitimate entitlement, and resistant high self-pay was linked to narcissistic entitlement. These patterns demonstrate that what appears to be a gender-based phenomenon is explained more accurately by men’s internalized status beliefs.
The gender wage gap is among the most persistent and durable characteristics of labor markets and women's lives. Despite differences in focus, almost all studies of the gender wage gap focus on the adult labor market; however, almost every teenager in the United States works before adulthood. Therefore, an overwhelming majority of the population experiences the labor market, and possibly the gender wage gap, well beforehand. This article focuses on the early labor market experiences of youth and analyzes the gender differentials in earning in the youth labor market. The findings show there are no gender differences in wages for twelve- to thirteen-year-old youths. However, we see the emergence of the gender wage gap around fourteen, which widens with age. The wage differential in the early labor market is explained mostly by occupational factors such as types of jobs in which boys and girls are employed. In this way, the "cost of being a girl" still remains.
Previous work suggests that occupational sorting and differences in starting salary play a large role in race and gender wage gaps. This study uses unique data from the human resources department of a financial company to examine the role of occupational sorting in race and gender differences in initial salary offers. While this company exhibits large race and gender differences in salary offers, controlling for occupational differences accounts for all of the race effects and reduces the gender effect to substantive insignificance. These findings underscore the importance of occupational sorting mechanisms in creating race and gender differences in wages.
We assess the impact of the welfare state on cross-national variation in the gender wage gap. Earnings inequality between men and women is conceptualized as resulting from their different locations in the class hierarchy, combined with the severity of wage differentials between and within classes. This decomposition contributes to identifying the relevant dimensions of welfare states and testing their impact on women's relative earnings. Our empirical analysis is based on income and occupation-based indicators of class and utilizes microdata for 17 post-industrial societies. We find systematic differences between welfare regimes in the components of the gender gap. The evidence supports our claim that the state molds gender inequality in labor market attainments by influencing women's class positions and regulating class inequality.
The figure below, borrowed from U.S. News and World Report, shows that the wage gap between women and men, for nearly all age groups, has narrowed significantly between 1979 and 2008. It also shows that the wage gap is smallest for men and women aged 20-24, grows for men and women aged 25-34, grows even further for men and women aged 35-44, and remains steady after that.
Lempert, David (2007) "Women's Increasing Wage Penalties from Being Overweight and Obese"
This paper first utilizes annual surveys between the 1981 and 2000 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to estimate the effect of being overweight on hourly wages. Previous studies have shown that white women are the only race-gender group for which weight has a statistically significant effect on wages. This paper finds a statistically significant continual increase in the wage penalty for overweight and obese white women followed throughout two decades. A supporting analysis from a cross-sectional dataset, comprised of the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey and the 2000 and 2004 waves of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, also shows an increasing wage penalty. The bias against weight has increased, despite drastic increases in the rate of obesity in the United States. Alternatively, the increasing rarity of thinness has led to its rising premium.
Like so much about gender and the workplace, there are at least two ways to view these trends. One is that women, faced with most of the burden for taking care of families, are forced to choose jobs that pay less — or, in the case of stay-at-home mothers, nothing at all.
If the government offered day-care programs similar to those in other countries or men spent more time caring for family members, women would have greater opportunity to pursue whatever job they wanted, according to this view.
The other view is that women consider money a top priority less often than men do. Many may relish the chance to care for children or parents and prefer jobs, like those in the nonprofit sector, that offer more opportunity to influence other people’s lives.
Why aren’t they getting it? Michael Kimmel, author of Guyland and a leading writer on men and masculinity, sees the male psychology on orgasms as comparable to housework: “Men don’t pull their weight on either front because no one makes them.” But he also sees sexual asymmetry as an impoverished view of sex. “The grown-up version [of sex] is certainly not thinking about giving oral sex as akin to some kind of community service, but that it gives me pleasure to give you pleasure. I know that’s certainly true for me personally.”
The research doesn’t bode well for the late-night booty text, one-night stand, or random fornication in the fraternity house as pathways to an orgasm. In the one-on-one interviews included in the study, one man explained that with his girlfriend, “definitely oral is really important [for her to orgasm],” but that with a casual hookup, “I don’t give a shit.”
For four decades, the number of women entering the workplace grew at a blistering pace, fostering a powerful cultural and economic transformation of American society. But since the mid-1990's, the growth in the percentage of adult women working outside the home has stalled, even slipping somewhat in the last five years and leaving it at a rate well below that of men.
For every 100 American women enrolled in college, there are only 77 men. And for every 100 women who graduate with a bachelor’s degree, only 73 men accomplish that, according to data from the Postsecondary Education Opportunity.
Puhl RM, Latner JD. Stigma, obesity, and the health of the nation’s children. Psychol Bull. 2007 Jul;133(4):557-80.
Preventing childhood obesity has become a top priority in efforts to improve our nation's public health. Although much research is needed to address this health crisis, it is important to approach childhood obesity with an understanding of the social stigma that obese youths face, which is pervasive and can have serious consequences for emotional and physical health. This report reviews existing research on weight stigma in children and adolescents, with attention to the nature and extent of weight bias toward obese youths and to the primary sources of stigma in their lives, including peers, educators, and parents. The authors also examine the literature on psychosocial and physical health consequences of childhood obesity to illustrate the role that weight stigma may play in mediating negative health outcomes. The authors then review stigma-reduction efforts that have been tested to improve attitudes toward obese children, and they highlight complex questions about the role of weight bias in childhood obesity prevention. With these literatures assembled, areas of research are outlined to guide efforts on weight stigma in youths, with an emphasis on the importance of studying the effect of weight stigma on physical health outcomes and identifying effective interventions to improve attitudes.
See Table 1. Key Conclusions of Research Evidence Addressing Weight Bias in Youth. p. 573
Puhl RM, Heuer CA. The stigma of obesity: A review and update. Obesity. 2009 Jan.
Obese individuals are highly stigmatized and face multiple forms of weight-based prejudice and discrimination. This paper provides an update of scientific evidence on weight bias toward overweight and obese adults through a systematic review of published literature since the original review on this topic published in 2001 by Puhl & Brownell. Findings of this review indicate that weight bias remains a persistent social problem in settings of employment, health care, and education. Expanding beyond these domains, recent studies also demonstrate the presence of weight bias in the media and in close interpersonal relationships. In addition, the emerging literature shows that weight bias poses significant threats to emotional and physical health of obese individuals. The need for stigma-reduction interventions and other important avenues for future research are highlighted, with attention to key research questions that can help move the field forward.
See Table 1. Summary of key findings and evidence to date. p. 8.
Puhl RM, Andreyeva T, Brownell KD. Perceptions of weight discrimination: Prevalence and comparison to race and gender discrimination in America. Int J Obes. 2008 Mar 4.See Figure 1. Rates of perceived discrimination among Americans aged 25–74 years. p. 5.
Limited data are available on the prevalence and patterns of body weight discrimination from representative samples. This study examined experiences of weight/height discrimination in a nationally representative sample of US adults and compared their prevalence and patterns with discrimination experiences based on race and gender. The prevalence of weight/height discrimination ranged from 5% among men to 10% among women, but these average percentages obscure the much higher risk of weight discrimination among heavier individuals (40% for adults with body mass index (BMI) of 35 and above). Younger individuals with a higher BMI had a particularly high risk of weight/height discrimination regardless of their race, education and weight status.
Andreyeva T, Puhl RM, Brownell KD. Changes in perceived weight discrimination among Americans, 1995-1996 through 2004-2006. Obesity. 2008 Feb 28.See Figure 1. Trends in rates of perceived discrimination among Americans
This study examined trends in weight discrimination over 10 years among a nationally representative sample of adults aged 35-74 years from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States. Reports of weight discrimination were compared to experiences of discrimination based on race, age and gender. The prevalence of weight discrimination increased from 7% in 1995-1996 to 12% in 2004-2006. During this same time period, race discrimination remained stable, whereas the prevalence of weight discrimination increased to levels comparable with those reported for race and age discrimination. In summary, weight/height discrimination is highly prevalent in American society and increasing at disturbing rates. Its prevalence is relatively close to reported rates of race and age discrimination, but virtually no legal or social sanctions against weight discrimination exist.
This TED video by Clay Shirky is a MUST see. As you watch it, think about your organization. How will communication, collaboration and learning happen differently? Or how SHOULD it happen differently?! Why do we ask? Because communication has changed. Just look at the Twitter conversation that has happened around the Iran elections. It changes the way we work, create, innovate, learn – the list goes on…
