Gender Inequality at the Crossroads In The Digital Edge
Sankar Pal
The disparity in earnings is stark, with one study showing that women earn just 77 cents for every dollar earned by men worldwide. As a result, women earn less than men throughout their lives. Developing countries are leading the way in income inequality.
The gender pay gap or gender wage gap is the average difference between the wages of working men and women. Women are generally considered to be paid less than men. There are two distinct numbers related to the pay gap: unadjusted versus adjusted pay gap. The latter usually takes into account differences in working hours, chosen profession, education and work experience. For example, in the United States, the unadjusted median female annual salary is 79% of the median male salary, compared to 95% for the adjusted median salary.
A 2015 meta-analysis of studies of experimental job simulations found that "men were preferred for male-dominated jobs (ie, gender-role congruent bias), whereas no strong preference for gender was found for female-dominated or congruent jobs.
A meta-analysis found that men applying for strongly female-stereotyped jobs were two to three times more likely than women to apply for these jobs, and that women applying to male-dominated jobs experienced lower levels of discrimination than men applying to female-dominated jobs.
A 2018 study found the most extreme form of gender discrimination, with a woman being denied a promotion at work for getting pregnant, while high-earning men were called more frequently by employers than equally high-earning women.
Motherhood also affects work choices. Women often leave work temporarily to take care of their children. As a result, women tend to take lower paying jobs because their hours are more likely to be flexible than higher paying jobs. Because women are more likely to work fewer hours than men, they have less experience, causing women to lag behind in the workforce.
Another explanation for such a gender pay gap is the distribution of housework. Couples who raise one child tend to designate mothers for a greater share of housework and primary responsibility for child care, and as a result women have less time to earn wages. This reinforces the wage gap between men and women in the labor market.
The gender pay gap picture varies across countries, with Australia having a persistent gender pay gap. Between 1990 and 2020, the gender pay gap was between 13 and 19%. In November 2020, the Australian gender pay gap was 13.4%.The picture is a little more dire in Brazil, a developing country, with a study revealing that working women earn an average of 24.4% less than men. It also cited that 6.0% of the employed were male employers, while the proportion of female employers was only 3.3%.
in India only 65% of women received a pay rise or bonus for taking on extra responsibilities or a new role compared to 70% of men, according to a study by global payroll solutions provider ADP.According to the Monster Salary Index (MSI) published in March 2019, women in the country earn 19% less than men. The survey revealed that the median gross hourly salary for men in India in 2018 was ₹242.49, while ₹196.3 for women, meaning men earned ₹46.19 more than women।
In the digital era, this type of discrimination is the manifestation of authority in patriarchal society. Therefore, women's freedom is only a decoration of language and its real foundation is located hundreds of kilometers away today.
In addition to the number of vote banks in the promises of policy making politics, women are neglected today in the consumerist world. Gender inequality is a hard reality today.
