The gender wage gap is an issue in America and many other countries. We can apply many solutions to fix this– and surprisingly, Chinese philosophy could provide some insight. 

The gender pay gap is obvious. It’s a gaping hole in America’s workforce– supposedly the land of freedom and equality. People like to come up with numerous shallow reasons as to why this happens– such as “women just choose lower-paying jobs.” Maybe this is true– but it still doesn’t explain why the women in those higher-paying jobs are getting paid less than their male counterparts– 79 cents to a dollar on average. But it doesn’t cover the complexity of the issue, such as how the wage gap changes over the course of a woman’s career, or how some jobs have large gaps and others have small ones. It’s not a cookie-cutter explanation. 

It’s no secret that at least some sexism remains in the workplace. But it’s not as blatant as managers putting up a sign with no women! Or discriminating just because of someone’s gender. According to a study by three economists in 2009, It’s way more subtle. The basic gist of it is: higher-paying jobs reward those who can work long, inflexible hours, so people who have to take care of kids (primarily women) are at a disadvantage. So it’s not as much of a “women’s pay gap” as much as it is a “mother’s pay gap.” 

This is known as the “motherhood penalty.” Basically: when a woman’s pay decreases when she has kids, on average “a per-child wage penalty of approximately 5%” (Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?). In Vox’s “The truth about the gender wage gap,” a study of business school graduates was conducted. Right out of school, men had slightly higher salaries than equally qualified women, but the gap was very small. But then nine years later, men were earning 60% more than women. So what happened? Those women had kids. Women are expected to stay home and take care of the kids. If she goes to work– she’s seen as “less dedicated” or “distracted.” And chances are, she’s the one who’s going to have to take care of random kids’ problems that arise and have to leave work. So her employers will think she’s not doing a good job if she’s not there when others need her, which will cause her pay to decrease. So how do we fix this?

Usually Chinese philosophy is not something you think of when you are trying to solve sexist issues– a lot of it is promoting the same ideas. But Daoism in general promotes equality more. The concept of balance and harmony is prevalent– and extremely important to keep things going right. Most people have heard of the Yin and Yang. Yin is equated with femininity and Yang is equated with masculinity. It represents opposite, but equal and connected forces, and “neither Yin nor Yang are superior in any way. They are both utterly amoral, in that neither is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’” (BigThink). Without the other the balance is thrown off. In the gender wage gap issue we are tipping the scale towards men, causing imbalance. It is not balanced or equal when women are still getting the short end of the stick for doing the same work. We need to realize that by closing the wage gap, and promoting equality, we would actually be helping the economy and help the population of working women substantially. 

The wage gap means lower lifetime pay for women, less income, which leads to higher rates of poverty for women. According to an article by Status of Women Data, “If working women were paid the same as comparable men, the poverty rate among all working women would fall by more than half in 28 states.” The United States would also have $482 billion added to its economy from women’s earnings.

As far as solutions go: giving more flexible hours could work, as well as paid paternity leave so that women don’t feel like they have to take all of the caregiving responsibilities. So– like the Yin and Yang– women and men may have different responsibilities in most cases but they both produce equal work and should be paid accordingly. 

References

Thomson, Jonny. “Lao Tzu only wrote a single sentence about Yin and Yang, but it changed philosophy forever.” Big Think, 25 November 2022. bigthink.com/culture-religion/wisdom-daoism-yin-yang-tattoo/

“The Economic Impact of Equal Pay by State.” Status of Women Data, n.d. statusofwomendata.org/featured/the-economic-impact-of-equal-pay-by-state/

Kliff, Sarah. “A stunning chart shows the true cause of the gender wage gap.” Vox, 29 February 2018. vox.com/2018/2/19/17018380/gender-wage-gap-childcare-penalty

Correll, Shelley J. Benard, Stephen. Paik, In. “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?” American Journal of Sociology: 1297–1338, 2007. jstor.org/stable/10.1086/511799?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents