Career
plans for women have greatly altered over the last 50 years or so. There is
much research to confirm, however, that despite gains in equality for women in
the workplace, there are still disproportionate numbers in education and other
stereotypically female-dominated areas, whereas men still tend to dominate
stereotypically masculine career fields. And men still earn more, even after
allowing for extra hours on the job, education, career choice, and the like.
Despite these inequalities educated women still strive to accomplish their
careers. College students at Brigham Young University also strive for this
success. Being instructed from a young age, however, that women are the primary
nurturers and men are to provide, their career plans and plans to enter the
workforce in the first place may provide insight as to how they plan on dealing
with workplace issues even before they enter the workforce.
Twenty
Brigham Young University undergraduate students (10 female, 10 male) were asked
about their post-graduation plans, social pressures or expectations that
already have, as well as compensation they hope to receive and what role they
expect their spouse to have. One woman was married, and one man and one woman
were involved in a serious relationship.
Most were juniors and seniors, with two of the men being sophomores. The
sample is small and may not be completely representative. It is remarkable,
however, to see such universal answers given in response to a number of the
questions.
It
was surprising to find, for example, that without exception, when asked about
future career plans each woman mentioned a family. When asked about how they
would balance their career with other aspects of life they all stated that they
would stay at home with their children, unless circumstances required or
permitted that they work while they were at school. They mentioned among
expectations for a spouse that he would bring in the majority of the income.
Men, on the other hand, mentioned that while their wives could work if they
wanted, their main focus would be on the children, with one participant adding,
“…I suppose that should be my focus, too.”
Another
interesting finding of the interviews was the fact that nearly across the board
men gave much more detailed career trajectories, suggesting back-up plans,
number of years in the field before they would seek managerial positions, or
why they liked their particular trajectory. Their compensation expectations were also distinct from that
of the women interviewed. While the men, on average, expected to receive a
starting salary of $60,000, with ending salaries being much higher, the women
either had not thought about it at all or expected around $40,000. Only two
women mentioned a starting salary of $60,000, with one of them adding that this
was a hopeful estimate and it was expected that there would be no raise for the
duration of her career.
While
the women had not thought much about their future salaries, what was more
surprising was how little they seemed to have actually thought about a future
career, in comparison to how much men had thought about it. Three mentioned
that they were only going to school in case something happened to where their
husbands could not provide for some reason or another. There is the possibility
that women seemed more unsure about their future careers due to the way in
which they verbally reported their future plans. They would often use words and
phrases like “probably,” and “I don’t know,” whereas the men were much more
definite about what they were doing. This could have led to the impression that
the women were less certain. At
the conclusion of one interview, however, one woman asserted that “for girls
you just have to have a kind of go-with-the-flow plan.”
While
for the most part when asked about social pressures or expectations that they
felt had shaped their particular career paths, the women answered that it was
just something they wanted to do, there were a couple (incidentally, those
expecting higher starting salaries) that indicated that people expect women to
be moms and their husbands to be the breadwinners. One of these two respondents
noted that if she knew she weren’t going to “get married till …35” she would
have gone to medical school. To complement this idea, one man said that there
are other things he would rather do, but they would only pay about $40,000 and
he couldn’t really do that.
Two
males and one female that participated planned on becoming physical therapists.
One male will because he’s interested in it and because it’s a family friendly
job, while the other attributes his interest in it to the pressure of “finding
a well-paying job.” The female noted that it’s a better option for a woman
(mother) than is medical school. Her expected starting salary is between $50,000
and $60,000 (if she’s lucky), with no increase. The men, on the other hand,
expect between $60,000 and $90,000 starting, with lots of room to grow. This
could of course either be due to the high expectations of the males, or the low
expectations of the female.
This
gap in expected pay is interesting. Despite our supposed 21st
century egalitarian society, women are still likely to earn less than men. Among
never-married, childless 22- to 30-year-old metropolitan-area workers with the
same educational credentials, males out-earn females in every category. Women
are less likely to ask for a raise, and also less likely to be given one from a
male superior. And if the women do have children, the gap between their
salaries and men’s widens even further, sometimes because part-time
employment is undertaken to accommodate family life, and
sometimes for no reason at all. Meanwhile,
among men, fatherhood increases earnings.
In
this particular group of students interviewed, many were involved in majors
that are stereotypically male- or female-dominated. According to an article by
Dey and Hill, however, the choice of major is not necessarily the “full story.”
Even among men and women in the same major, a pay gap is found one year after
graduation. In education (a female-dominated major), for example, women earn 95
percent as much as their male colleagues. In biological sciences (a
mixed-gender major), women earn only 75 percent as much as men. Mathematics (a
male-dominated major) leaves women earning 76 percent as much as men earn.
What
is troublesome about these results is not necessarily that the women
interviewed seem to have less direction than the men regarding careers, but
that the lack of certainty seems to be based on the assumption that they will
one day have a family. Their choices should not necessarily be
criticized either. According to “The Hill,” “High-achieving women are forgoing
families at rates not observed among high-achieving men.” So while these BYU
students may or may not have been socialized to feel that they need to conform
their professional pursuits to meet the constraints of motherhood, the reality
of the workplace is that working mothers are discriminated against in the form
of pay, promotions, and even in being considered for the job in the first
place. This is an important form
of gender inequity.
The
presumption of a future lifestyle of which one can never be certain seems to be
the guiding light of those interviewed here. While there is nothing wrong with
planning for the future, it seemed that many were not taking into account
current realities, but rather they were doing things that were seen socially as
conducive to raising a family, and this differed a huge amount according to
gender. Whether the gender differences were simply based on individual
interests, or whether there really were social factors that influenced their
choices would have to be studied more extensively.
Dey, Judy
Goldberg, and Catherine Hill. "Behind the Pay Gap." AAUW Educational Foundation. Washington,
DC (2007): 2-41.
Budig,
Michelle. "Parenthood exacerbates the gender pay gap." The Hill’s
Congress Blog.
N.p., 30 2012. Web. 12 Nov 2012.
<http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-a-budget/121869-parenthood-exacerbates-the-gender-pay-gap>.
Stephanie
Coontz. "The Myth of Male Decline." New York Times Sunday Review [New York City] 29 September 2012,
n. pag. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/opinion/sunday/the-myth-of-male-decline.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.
“The
Family: A proclamation to the world.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. 23 Sept. 1995.
