Men as well as women working in the fields that feature more women faculty have lower salaries than those working in male-dominated fields, but even in those fields men are earning 4% more than their female colleagues.
One caveat: the first comments on the article suggest that this pay gap arises because women allegedly don’t bargain for higher salaries when they’re hired. False! Trust me–Historiann has tried, but there’s that icky gender thing that happens then, too. Whereas men are respected for being assertive and having a high opinion of themselves, women who take the same approach get less, because, well, who the hell do those pushy and obnoxious broads they think they are, anyway? Mary Ward’s research demonstrates that in some cases, it does hurt to ask for more. This is all of a piece with Historiann’s theory that across time and space women are expected to volunteer their labor, and only (some) men can expect to get paid for their work.
← Somerby: incomparable! Ehrenreich: now comparable to Dowd.
Also, even if women do negotiate, the starting salary offered to them might have already been lower than the salary offered to a male professor. So, if everybody is bargaining for an increase of 5 to 10 percent of the inital offer, women will still end up lower.
I’ve seen differences as large as $10K. 3 hires I’ve witnessed in last decade at the same place (not my place, though): a bullying man, negotiated heavily, got offer upped very much and also more respect for his attitude; a woman, tried to negotiate nicely, almost got offer rescinded because of it, did not get offer upped; a non bullying man, negotiated nicely, got offer upped a little.
Your calculation is fine, except that it escapes the wonder of compounding: that $3,600 in the first year, assuming it was saved compounds at a rate that makes it work a lot more after 30+ years.
Now maybe we should have bargaining workshops at the Berks?
Oh noes–you’re totally right, Susan! Duh–I was looking at it as though it were a lottery cash prize. Of course, smart broads would have diverted that $3200 into TIAA-CREF or some kind of investment.
Does anyone else remember that “talking Barbie” of infamy in the 1990s that said “Math is hard”?
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No apologies needed, Ann! I like your style.
Your calculation isn’t fine, at least to the economist in me, because it ignores present value. Assuming a discount rate of 5% then at the end of a 30 year career it’s “Brother, can you spare $220,000”, while at the start of one it’s “Brother, can you spare $49,000”.
Halfway through it’s $105,000, or a bit less if you adjust for the chance you have of losing your job for strangling an insufferable economist.
U can haz mah mad skilz if u gibe mah a hawt name liek historiann.
Economistah N? DJ DangerWonk? The Invisiblenathand?
Since Corporate University (TM) is all about the money, honey, why haven’t colleges and universities figured out that it’s a lot cheaper to have/be an outstanding Liberal Arts college?
Because the corporate university has a 50% overhead rate, meaning that the administration gets $250,000 to spend when the science prof gets a $500,000 grant.