Sunday, December 20, 2015

Gender Studies: Income Inequality And the Glass Ceiling




Guiding Question: What is the Beijing Declaration and why is it important? Why is the market unfair to female workers in terms of unequal pay? Can you predict which countries or regions of the world have better gender wage equality? What do you think are the most important factors promoting wage equality?

 

The Beijing Declaration (Notes:)

1. Date:

2. What was is the Beijing Declaration? 123 page mission statement signed by 189 countries about...

 

3. Its importance?

4. 20 years since:

Reading: Gender pay gap will not close for 70 years at current rate, says UN (Vocabulary)


 


The income of female workers across the world will lag behind men’s for another 70 years if the gender pay gap continues to reduce at the present painfully slow rate, the UN is warning in a report that lays bare global inequality in the workplace.

More than half a century after the United States passed the Equal Pay Act, and 45 years after similar legislation in the UK, women across the world earn 77% of the amount paid to men, a figure that has improved by only three percentage points in the past 20 years, according to a report from the UN’s International Labour Organization (pdf) (ILO). 
Over and above the pay gap, women face a “motherhood pay gap”. Women with children can expect to earn less when they return to work than childless women, with the difference increasing for every child they have, according to an ILO analysis.

The report, released ahead of International Women’s Day on Sunday, also shows that the gender gap in work participation has barely shifted in two decades. Since the Beijing Declaration on women’s rights was signed by 189 governments in 1995, the difference in men’s and women’s labor market participation rates has dropped by only 1%. Today 50% of the world’s women work, compared with 77% of men. In 1996, the figures were 52% and 80% respectively.

 “The overriding conclusion 20 years on from Beijing is that, despite marginal () progress, we have years, even decades, to go until women enjoy the same rights and benefits as men at work,” said Shauna Olney, chief of the gender, equality and Diversity branch of the ILO.
The report  (舉例,引) an 11-country analysis carried out in 2005 showing that women with two children in the UK can expect to earn 25% less than a childless woman. The gap was less than 10% in Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain and Portugal. In France, Italy and Denmark, women with two children could expect to earn slightly more than their childless counterparts.
Women who start families before the age of 25 “suffer a larger wage penalty ()”, while in general – and perhaps not surprisingly – the longer the period of time away from work, the larger the hit, according to the ILO.

But the report found that government policies (政策,方針,策) also had a significant effect. A 2009 study by Pettit and Hook, for example, found women in the US were penalized for even short periods out of the labor market while, in Sweden, women only had a drop in wages if they took more than the normal 15 months of statutory paid leave. 
Fathers, on the other hand, are likely to earn more than childless men, according to ILO – an influential 2010 report from the University of Massachusetts that it cites found fathers in the US earn 11% more than non-fathers. 
Mothers were more likely to have career breaks, switch to part-time work, choose jobs that help to reconcile (調和;調) work and family – which are usually lower paying – and miss out on promotions (提升,晉升;升), said Kristen Sobeck, an economist at the ILO. But lower pay for mothers was also linked to other factors such as discrimination and undervaluation of women’s work, as well as government policies on parental leave, labor rights and childcare. Asked if the gender pay gap was inevitable (不可避), she said: “I think a gender pay gap will persist insofar as societies and policies shift care responsibilities disproportionately (不成比, 不相) to women.”

There has been some progress according to the ILO. The percentage of countries offering some form of maternity leave has increased from 38% in 1995 to 51% today – although 41% of all women don’t have “adequate protection”.

States are also increasingly giving men paternity leave – up from 28% two decades ago to 56% today. But the ILO says that, while men are “beginning to take on more care responsibilities”, women still shoulder the majority of the burden. In the EU, women spend 26 hours per week on care and home activities, compared with nine hours for men.

Naomi Wolf, a consultant at the Athena Center for Leadership Studies, said: “Sexism in the workplace pumps untold revenue (稅收,歲) into the coffers (資金,金) of global business ... this situation will never yield to reasoned appeals, too much money is at stake. It is past time for women to organize both as a movement in the labor force and as a political powerhouse to close this nightmarish gap in fairness and equality.”

Other facts are bleaker still: according to the ILO, a third of all women are “victims of physical and/or sexual violence that affects their attendance at work”. According to the latest figures from the World Bank, 700m women are victims of either physical or sexual violence – in the Middle East and Africa, 40% are victims, in south east Asia the figure is 43%.
Asked whether working women were better off than they were 20 years ago, Guy Ryder, the ILO’s director general, gave a qualified yes. “Has this progress met our expectations (期盼;盼)? The answer is decidedly no,” he added. “We need to be innovative (, ), to reframe (表達,)the debate (談論,討) and to intensify the focus on ensuring the rights of women at work, and promoting(促銷,推) gender equality and women’s economic empowerment (授權;使自).”

Questions

1.     Why is sexism in the workplace profitable for global business?

2.    How are men and women treated differently when they become parents?

3.    What does the ILO stand for?

4.    What is maternity/ paternity leave? What is Taiwan’s policy on such leave?

5.    What is the most significant effect for improving gender equality in the workplace?

6.    Imagine you are an adult at work. If you are male, how does it make you feel that your female coworker with the same education and experience background as you, earns less than you? If you are female, how does it make you feel that you earn less than your male coworkers?



The gender pay gap in the Western world is back in the spotlight, after the British government announced all large businesses will have to publish details of the difference between earnings for men and women. About time, many will say. Although this year marked the 45th anniversary of the country’s Equal Pay Act, women still earn on average 20% less than men. That makes the UK’s pay gap the sixth largest in the European Union.
1. The gender pay gap increases with age
There is a gender pay gap across all age groups, but it starts off narrower: in the US, between the ages of 25 and 34, female employees earn around 90% compared with their male counterparts. As women get older, that gap gets bigger. Women over 65 who work full time make just 72.5 cents for every dollar earned by men.
2. When workers are unionized, the gender pay gap shrinks
Research from the National Women’s Law Center reveals that the gender pay gap for unionized workers is half the size of that among non-unionized workers. It also found that unionized women earn on average $200 a week more than women who are not a member of a union.
3. Women expect to earn less than men
There isn’t just a gender pay gap; there’s a gender pay-expectation gap. In a recent Glassdoor survey of the British labour market, 40% of men said they were confident they will receive a pay rise over the next year; just over a quarter of women said the same.
A study from researchers at Columbia University put this expectation gap down to two factors: overconfidence and competitiveness. According to their research, men have a higher level of competitiveness and are twice as likely as women to overestimate their true ability; they calculate that these two factors account for 18% of the expectation gap.
The authors conclude that the expectation gap also goes some way to explaining the difference in real earnings: “Individuals with low earnings expectations are more willing to accept a low-paying job offer because it is in line with their beliefs, and they are also less likely to negotiate for a higher salary since the offer is consistent with their benchmark.”
4. Women pay a ‘motherhood penalty’ – while men get a ‘fatherhood bonus’
“While the gender pay gap has been decreasing, the pay gap related to parenthood is increasing.” Those are the findings of Michelle Budig, a professor who has spent years researching the issue and how it plays out in the US.
Fatherhood, it seems, is highly valued in the world of work: fathers are more likely to be hired than their childless counterparts and men tend to see their earnings increase – by around 6% – after having children.
Women, on the other hand, pay a penalty of around 4% per child. The penalty is higher for low-paid workers.
5. It could be another 80 years before we achieve gender parity in the workplace
The Forum started measuring the global gender gap back in 2006. At the time, the gap for economic participation stood at 56%. Today, it’s 60%. While that’s progress, it’s too slow – if we continue at the same pace, we won’t achieve gender parity at work until 2095. That means most of us reading this won’t live to see workplace gender equality.
While statistics on the gender pay gap – and the slow pace at which things are changing – can seem depressing, moves like the UK’s mandatory gender pay audits are steps in the right direction. As David Cameron, the British prime minister, said when he announced the new measure, transparency will go a long way to closing the gap: “Casting sunlight on the discrepancies will create the pressure we need for change, driving women’s wages up.”
  

1. Entrenched 牢固確立的;根深柢固的;積重難返
It's very difficult to change attitudes that have become so deeply entrenched over the years. 要改變多年以來根深柢固的舊看法是很困難的
The organization was often criticized for being too entrenched in its views.
這個組織死守著自己的觀點不變,因此常常受到批評
2.Scaling 爬越;攀
The prisoner scaled the high prison wall and ran off.
囚犯攀越監獄的高牆逃跑了
3.stagnated 停滯不前;不發
The electronics industry is showing signs of stagnating after 15 yearsof tremendous growth. 電子産業在經過15年的飛速發展之後出現了停滯不前的跡象
4.standout 突出的事物,出眾的事
While all the desserts are pretty good, the clear standout is the lemon pie.
所有的甜點都很不錯,不過檸檬派顯然最受歡迎
5.slumped(價格、價值或銷售額)猛跌,突然下
The value of property has slumped.房産價值突然下跌
Car sales have slumped dramatically over the past year. 過去一年汽車的銷售額大幅下降
6.feedback回饋資訊,回饋意
Have you had any feedback from customers about the new soap? 有關新款肥皂你有沒有收到顧客的回饋意見
positive/negative feedback 正面的/負面的回饋意

7.confined局限在,限
Let's confine our discussion to the matter in question, please! 請把討論集中在正題上
Please confine your use of the telephone to business calls. 請注意電話僅限於辦公用途
By closing the infected farms we're hoping to confine the disease to the north of the region (= stop it from spreading to other areas).
透過關閉受感染的農場,我們希望把疾病限制在該地區的北部
8.glass ceiling無形限制,無形頂障(通常指職務晉升中無法逾越的限制
Various reasons are given for the apparent glass ceiling women hit in many professions. 顯然,在很多行業中女性的升遷都受到無形限制,對此人們給了不同的解釋
9.disparity不平等;不等同;差
the growing disparity between rich and poor 正在加劇的貧富懸
10.matriarchal母系社

Asia’s women are taking one step forward, two steps back when it comes to gender equality. Family structures and entrenched notions of what constitutes women’s work are holding back the region’s female population from scaling the corporate ladder, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).
The proportion of women graduates who studied construction, engineering and manufacturing has stagnated or even fallen in some countries, including Malaysia, Mongolia and Japan, UNESCO data show.
A standout is South Korea, where the proportion of female graduates choosing these fields has slumped to almost one in 10 in 2013 from more than one in five in 1998. Korean women also make up a smaller share of construction, engineering and manufacturing graduates compared with previously.
There can be a negative feedback cycle when female graduates in these fields find it difficult to find employment or stay on the job due to gender bias in areas traditionally dominated by men, according to the ILO.
While women own and manage almost 30 percent of businesses in the Asia-Pacific region, female employers are mainly confined to micro and small enterprises, the ILO said in a report. The share of women bosses increased in countries such as Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines from 2008 to 2013, despite many major companies still lacking female voices on their boards.
“The major obstacle we still find is that gender stereotyping is still there, perhaps linked to the fact that family responsibilities are still mainly assigned to women,” ILO Bureau For Employers’ Activities director Deborah France-Massin said. “The glass ceiling is cracked, but it is still far from broken.”
Pay disparity also remains an issue in Asia. Men in India and South Korea make more than 30 percent more than their female counterparts, the ILO said. Yet, there are exceptions: In the Philippines’ matriarchal society, women actually earn more than men on average.


Questions
1.     What factors help create the “glass ceiling” for female workers in Asia?

2.    Which countries are the worst? Why do they have more pay disparity or less women in traditionally male jobs?


3.    Which countries are the best? Why do they have less pay disparity or more women in traditionally male jobs?
 

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