Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T05:15:25.669Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

20 - Gender inequality by choice?

The effects of aspirations on gender inequality in wages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2014

By
Silke Aisenbrey  and
Hannah Brückner
Edited by
Ingrid Schoon  and
Jacquelynne S. Eccles
Silke Aisenbrey
Affiliation:
Yeshiva University
Hannah Brückner
Affiliation:
New York University-Abu Dhabi
Ingrid Schoon
Affiliation:
Institute of Education, University of London
Jacquelynne S. Eccles
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Get access

Summary

Abstract

Focusing on the role of occupational choices in maintaining gender stratification, this chapter analyzes occupational aspirations and attainment among those born in the United States between 1942 and 1964. Although male and female life course patterns have strongly converged among younger cohorts, the gender wage gap is still significant. In scholarly and public debates, the differences in choices and characteristics of men and women are seen as one of the main driving forces in gendered wage inequalities. This chapter is structured around the question of whether gendered choices are the driving force for the gender wage gap. We start out with a longitudinal analysis, showing the development of the actual gender wage gap and what we refer to as the aspired gender wage gap. We then demonstrate that, for the youngest cohort, gender differences in human capital, family obligations, and work-life characteristics do not account for the gender wage gap. We also show that it is not – as assumed by human capital theorists – gendered aspirations and expectations that drive the gender wage gap. Our findings support structural demand-side theories that hypothesize that inequality in wages is mainly generated by the different evaluation of women and men in the labor market.

Type
Chapter
Information
Gender Differences in Aspirations and Attainment
A Life Course Perspective
 , pp. 456 - 474
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aisenbrey, S., & Brückner, H. (2008). Occupational aspirations and the gender gap in wages. European Sociological Review, 24(5), 633–649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brückner, H. (2004). Gender inequality in the life course: Social change and stability in West Germany, 1975–1995. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Correll, S. J. (2004). Constraints into preferences: Gender, status, and emerging career aspirations. American Sociological Review, 69, 93–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
England, P. (1992). Comparable worth: Theories and evidence. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Fields, J., & Wolff, E. N. (1995). Interindustry wage differentials and the gender wage gap. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 49, 105–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldin, C. D. (1990). Understanding the gender gap: An economic history of American women. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hakim, C. (2000). Work-lifestyle choices in the 21st century: Preference theory. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Institute for Women’s Policy Research. (2013). At current pace of progress, wage gap for women expected to close in 2057. Retrieved August 19, 2013, from .
Jacobs, J. A. (1989). Revolving doors: Sex segregation and women’s careers. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Kim, M., & Polachek, S. W. (1994). Panel estimates of male-female earnings functions. The Journal of Human Resources, 29, 406–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marini, M. M. (1978). Sex differences in the determination of adolescent aspirations: A review of the research. Sex Roles, 4, 723–753.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marini, M. M., & Fan, P.-L. (1997). The gender gap in earnings at career entry. American Sociological Review, 62, 588–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marini, M. M., Fan, P.-L., Finley, E., & Beutel, A. M. (1996). Gender and job values. Sociology of Education, 69, 49–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maume, D. J. (2004). Wage discrimination over the life course: A comparison of explanations. Social Problems, 51, 505–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, K. U., & Aisenbrey, S. (2007). Variations on a theme: Trends in social mobility in (West) Germany for cohorts born between 1919 and 1971. In Gangl, R. P. M., Otte, G., & Scherer, S. (Eds.), Social stratification, education and the life course (pp. 125–156). Frankfurt: Campus Verlag.Google Scholar
Mincer, J., & Polachek, S. (1974). Family investments in human capital: Earnings of women. The Journal of Political Economy, 82, S76–S108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, R. L., & Bridges, W. P. (1999). Legalizing gender inequality: Courts, markets, and unequal pay for women in America. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okamoto, D., & England, P. (1999). Is there a supply side to occupational sex segregation? Sociological Perspectives, 42, 557–582.CrossRef
Petersen, T., & Morgan, L. A. (1995). Separate and unequal: Occupation-establishment sex segregation and the gender wage gap. The American Journal of Sociology, 101, 329–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polachek, S. (1981). Occupational self selection: A human capital approach to sex differences in occupational structure. Review of Economics and Statistics, 58, 60–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polachek, S. (2006). How the life-cycle human capital model explains why the gender wage gap narrowed. In Blau, F. D., Brinton, M. C., & Grusky, D. B. (Eds.), The declining significance of gender? (pp. 102–124). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Polachek, S., & Siebert, W. S. (1993). The economics of earnings. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reskin, B. F. (1993). Sex segregation in the workplace. Annual Review of Sociology, 19, 241–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reskin, B. F. (2003). Including mechanisms in our models of ascriptive inequality. American Sociological Review, 68, 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shu, X., & Marini, M. M. (1998). Gender-related change in occupational aspirations. Sociology of Education, 71, 43–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sørensen, A. (2004). Economic relations between women and men: New realities and the re-interpretation of dependence. Advances in Life Course Research, 8, 281–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomaskovic-Devey, D. (1993). Gender & racial inequality at work: The sources and consequences of job segregation. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×