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Nowadays,
women outnumber men at universities, overall they get better grades, and
yet women get paid less than men after graduation.
Surprising to many is not the well-documented
existence of the income gap, but that it starts so soon.
According to a new study by the American Association
of University Women, women already earn 20 per cent less than men at the
same level and in the same field one year after college graduation.
Right at the beginning, before taking time off for childbirth or child
rearing, women find themselves behind.
And then it gets worse. Women are paid about 77
cents for every dollar a man is paid, according to U.S. census data, a
figure that has remained steady for about a decade.
Ten years after graduation, women fall further behind,
earning 69 per cent of what men earn.
A 12 per cent gap appeared even when the AAUW
Education Foundation, which did the research, accounted for hours,
occupation, parenthood and other factors known to directly affect
earnings.
The remainder of the gap is unexplained by any other
control factors. That may mean, said Catherine Hill, director of
research for the AAUW, that discrimination is the root cause.
And to discover the deeper root of that ‘root cause’
one needs only to answer the question, “Who benefits by paying women
less?”
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