FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog
February 2, 2005
Where the Girls Are
While the gender wage gap gets all the attention, the real news is in the number of fields in which women now earn more than men. Here's a list of 10 areas in which women earn at least 5% more, culled from a more extensive table in Warren Farrell’s new book, Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap and What Women Can Do about It.
(Source: an unpublished table compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics)
The first number is for women, the second for men.
- Sales Engineer -- $89,908 -- $62.660
- Engineering managers -- $82,784 -- $76,752
- Aerospace engineers -- $78.416 -- $70,356
- Financial analysts -- $69,004 -- $58,604
- Radiation therapists -- $59,124 -- $53,300
- Statisticians -- $49,140 -- $36,296
- Tool and die makers -- $46,228 -- $40,144
- Speech pathologists -- $45,136 -- $35,048
- Advertising managers -- $42,068 -- $40,144
- Agricultural scientists -- $41,704 -- $39,156
Of course, lots of those jobs are things like "gaming services workers" -- (croupiers, who get nice tips), and telephone operators -- a declining category if there ever was one. But it's nice to know there are a few jobs where the ladies prevail. I'm looking forward to the day when this list includes things like CFO, CMO, CEO.
Posted by Linda Tischler at February 2, 2005 4:21 PM | Category: career development |
5 Comments
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I love all of the attention from business magazines on gender issues in science. Yes, there should be more women in labs and in these jobs. But what about business? Women still only comprise about 30% of most entering classes in ranked business schools. Why aren't business publications writing about that?
I've talked to a number of admissions directors at top b-schools, and most would love to have more women. But in many ways it's the same story as in science and technology -- many qualified women just don't apply. The reasons? A Simmons School of Management study a few years back said young girls were largely turned off at the thought of careers in business.
Fully 97% of teenage girls expect to work outside the home, but only 9% list business as their first career choice compared with 15% of boys. By the time they get to be old enough to apply to b-school, those attitudes have become pretty deeply ingrained. Those Girl Scout cookie drives might be a good place to start teaching girls the joys of handling a P&L.
But is that 30% = 100% of women who WANT to be in the entering class?
That's the REAL equality game. It's not the numbers in any given comparison, but the access to opportunity for those who desire it that should be the bellweather.
The first stage of a £150m investment in regional museums is praised for boosting visitor numbers.
'it's nice to know there are a few jobs where the ladies prevail'?? Come on! equality should cut both ways, and if its 'good' for women to earn more, but 'bad' for men, isnt that a logical fallacy of special pleading? isnt that SEXISM? isnt that against equality?
if this list was of the jobs where men prevail (often unpleasant eg alaska crab fisherman), the footnote would probably be different.......