Who is holding the glass ceiling in place?
Topic: Compensation, Organizational Justice, Motivation, Rewards
Publication: Journal of Human Resources
Article: Who is holding the glass
ceiling in place?
Author: N. Fortin
Featured by: Benjamin Granger
Many 21st century women still earn less
than their male counterparts. However,
this injustice may not be due fully to chauvinists and stereotypes. In her article, The Gender Wage Gap among Young Adults in the United States: The
Importance of Money versus People, Nicole Fortin investigates influences
that women themselves exhibit which may contribute to their smaller paychecks. As women more often choose to volunteer
with organizations that are altruistic in nature, and tend to place more
importance on workplace success rather than rolling in the dough, it is easy to
follow Fortin’s argument that such noncognitive factors inevitably influence
the gender wage gap.
Using
data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 and
the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988/94, Fortin explores the
possible impacts on the gender pay gap by examining four noncognitive
functions:
· The importance of money and work
· The importance of people and family
· Self-esteem
· Locus of control (the extent to which a person feels they- rather than their environment have control over their own success).
In
addition to human capital and cognitive factors, Fortin argues that these
noncognitive qualities significantly influence the discrepancy in wages among
men and women.
Fortin finds that lower locus of control and higher importance of people and family tend to widen the gender wage gap, while higher self-esteem and importance of money and work tend to lead to more equitable wages for workers in their early thirties. Although the research shows that the differences due to these noncognitive factors are largely insignificant over time, the importance of work and money should not be overlooked, as it plays the largest role of the four noncognitive factors.
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