William Atkins
Monday, 22 September 2008 20:51
Science -
Biology
Page 2 of 3
The authors state in the abstract to their paper,
“This implies that traditional men are rewarded in the workplace for seeking to preserve the social order, whereas traditional women seeking to do the same are not necessarily penalized. Indeed, women in general tend to make less than men, regardless of their gender role orientations.”
Beth A. Livingston, one of the two authors for the study, stated,
"When we think of the gender wage gap, most of our focus goes to the women side of things. This article says a lot of the difference may be in men's salaries." [The Washington Post]
Livingston added,
"We actually thought maybe men with traditional attitudes work in more complex jobs that pay more or select higher-paying occupations. Regardless of the jobs people chose, or how long they worked at them, there was still a significant effect of gender role attitudes on income." [The Washington Post]
Dr. Timothy A. Judge, the other author of the study, stated,
"Some would say, 'Of course traditional men earn more than traditional women -- they are both fulfilling their desires to play different roles in the home and workplace.’ Our results do not support that view. If you were a traditional-minded woman, would you say, 'I am fine working the same hours as a traditional-minded man in the same industry with the same education but earning substantially less'? I don't think traditional-minded women would say that." [The Washington Post]
The study was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology under the title “
Is the Gap More Than Gender? A Longitudinal Analysis of Gender, Gender Role Orientation, and Earnings.” [A pdf file, the entire article is available for reading.]
Its authors are American organizational psychologists
Timothy A. Judge (a professor from the Warrington College of Business Administration, Department of Management) and
Beth A. Livingston (a doctorial student in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management), both from the University of Florida, Gainesville.
The authors used data collected by the U.S. government between 1979 and 2004 using the U.S. Labor Department’s
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.
The survey began collecting data on 12,000 people in the United States between the ages of 14 and 22 years, and continued to collect information over the next 25 years.
The conclusions of the research follows on page three.
