Exploring how the gender pay gap is affected by choices in the places we work
The capstone from my work towards my B.S. in Anthropology from Oregon State University. An ethnographic paper from my own fieldwork looking at libraries and why women choose to work therein.
March 17, 2020
Librarian Belle da Costa Greene (1883-1950)
The Study
Using primary ethnographic data, I have worked to bring understanding to why women (and some men) choose to work in businesses typified by being female-dominated despite knowledge that they pay less than businesses that are typically male-dominated.
Various reasons for the gender pay gap exist, including the number of women in management roles, maternity leave and child care, occupational choices, and even unequal pay for men and women in the same jobs. The factors I am addressing in this study focus on how wages are substantially lower in occupations that are dominated by women, which are also generally considered to be of less value (Hultin & Szulkin 1999, 453-454). While there have been many studies on the gender wage gap using empirical data, there have been less ethnographies based on understanding the decisions people are making that fit into these models and why they are making them.
Children's Librarian Betty Welles - CC-BY-SA-4.0One such workplace is the library. Libraries have been dominated by a female workforce for more than a century (Golub 2010, 1). As early as 1900, women made up 75% of the library profession (2). However, despite the female-domination of the field, a study at that time found that men were much more likely to have better pay, as well as the majority of management positions (3). Though much was done in the feminist movements of the 70s and 80s toward ensuring decent wages and positions for women, the profession as a whole still earns less than male-dominated fields (5). Today's librarians, a job that typically requires a master's degree, earn a median of $59k, which is significantly lower than the median of $70k for all jobs with master's degrees (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2019; Torpey 2019).
Through looking at the case study of two mid-sized libraries, I have worked to help determine the logic and reasoning behind why people (both women and men) choose to work at a library, and how gender inequalities and their perception of them might have shaped this decision. Through a better understanding of the actual thoughts and practices of people who choose to work in this female-dominated field, we can get a better understanding of why they are making the choices they are making, and thus have the knowledge needed to come to better solutions as we work to equalize pay gaps.
Methods and the Field Studied
Fieldwork for this ethnographic project was conducted in two mid-sized library systems in Northern California, both of which conformed to the typical female-dominated environment seen in most libraries. One of these systems had a workforce of over thirty people, of whom seven were men (but four of these worked in IT or janitorial). Fieldwork consisted of both participant observation and a number of interviews among the employees.
Five interviews were conducted among people working for one of the library systems in order to get more in-depth reactions and thoughts. The interviews were composed of a number of open-ended questions designed to get at the reasons behind the choices in work environments. Three of these interviews were with women and two with men. All interviews were chosen based on a spread of ages and positions in order to get a view from multiple angles. Ages ranged from the mid-twenties to the late sixties. Of the interviewees, one of each sex had the title of librarian, but all worked in and with the public. Moreover, only one person chosen for an interview was of known feminist leanings. Education levels among the participants ranged from a high school education, to a bachelor's, to multiple master's degrees. A master's degree in library science is the norm for librarians in the field. Through these interviews, along with the participant observation, a decent understanding of a number of the reasons why many women choose to work in female-dominated workplaces was achieved.
I have been in and around this community for a number of years, and most of the people involved in the project were people I have worked with, either in the past or the present. However, I feel there was no conflict of interest in the research conducted or the findings found herein. Also, know that all names and identifying factors in the study have been changed to ensure privacy.
Literature Review
Many people and organizations have worked to bring us understanding about the gender pay gap. Most of these studies seem to have relied heavily upon statistical data, but there are far fewer ethnographic studies. Three published ethnographic studies seem relevant to the question of why women choose certain careers more than others by looking at women's choices leading to majors and careers in college. Carol Mukhopadhyay looks at the issue from both a cross-cultural, as well as a feminist cognitive perspective, whereas, Linda Stone and Nancy McKee, and Laura Montgomery have sought an understanding of the issue among American university students.
Mukhopadhyay's ethnography works to show how the use of a feminist cognitive anthropology approach can help bring out important aspects when looking at gender theories for science and mathematics (2004, 488). This has been an important area of study due to the low representation of women in the fields of mathematics, engineering, and science. Her ethnography was conducted in India, the better to get cross-cultural data that can be used to help test and expand gender theories in anthropology (463).
She found that in Indian society, their beliefs and education created a scientific community that was stratified both by gender and by class (459). This was due to education being linked to family status, and educational decisions being based on family welfare (468). Moreover, education in the sciences, especially engineering, exposed women to social dangers such as coeducation or traveling after dark, and thus could impact the family's reputation as well as the girl's marriageability (469). However, there was conversely, no belief of math being a masculine domain, or that women were less skilled in math (476).
Mathematician Katherine Johnson (NASA)In America the major psychological models for math and science view that an individual's education decisions, though self-selected, conformed to a gendered pattern where girls felt it was inappropriate for them to pursue fields such as mathematics (462). Moreover, studies show that peer groups can factor in women focusing on traditionally female careers instead of math or science (464-465).
Mukhopadhyay found the American models and what she found in India to differ significantly. However, she also found that tests based on American ideas of psychologically rooted ideas of gender-identity were easily translated by students in India to reflect their family-centered gender ideals (477). In both America and India cultural factors worked to limit the number of women in mathematics and the sciences, but these cultural factors and beliefs can vary widely in different cultures. By looking at the data cross-culturally, as well as from a feminist cognitive perspective, Mukhopadhyay was able to help separate out the embedded cultural beliefs that dominate our popular cultural models, and with which we examine gender's effects on education and job choices.
Stone and McKee researched why female college students positioned themselves differently from men in determining their major (2000). Their research led them to believe that the majority of the gender pay gap is due to gender segregation in workplaces, with women concentrated together in low paying occupations (67).
Currently, more women than men are attending college, and they generally get better grades too (67). However, despite this, female graduates still tend to earn less than male graduates do (67). One fact seen in universities is the majors that men and women are choosing. They saw that almost a third of women tended to choose service careers such as teachers, social workers, or nurses, whereas only 8% of men did the same. Conversely, around half of men chose engineering, architecture, physical sciences, business, or economics, whereas only a quarter of women did the same (73). These types of degree choices generally coincide with careers that support the pay gap between men and women.
Generally, Stone and McKee did not feel that women were positioning themselves toward having a long-term, successful career despite the higher number of women in college or going towards advanced degrees. Unlike the men in the study, women did not seem to take an interest in the salary levels that various careers earned, or in trying out the field on summer breaks (73-74). They ultimately attributed this to women's desire for raising children superseding their desire for a career (85). However, when looking at their findings from Mukhopadhyay's perspective of different cultural values, I can easily see these traits and actions arising from cultural values socially taught to women in America.
Stone and McKee's research ultimately focused on an aspect that is not particularly relevant for my research's demographics or focus, that being motherhood, nevertheless, it had many applicable ideas, aspects of research, and findings. One fact is that in the U.S. many women, especially when compared to men, tend to go into careers in which they can help people (2000, 73). Also woven throughout their research you can see how socially accepted mores affected many of the decisions these women were making.
Montgomery's ethnographic study focuses on why male and female college students still made stereotypical gender choices when they were considering their future (2004). Similarly to my study's findings, she found people to use the rhetoric of individualism when describing why they have made the choices they have made (797). That is, people believing that they are picking a major because they like it. Ultimately, Montgomery questions this belief, as their career choices invariably follow the lines of stereotypical gender role patterns. These patterns include almost half of women choosing the majors of education, English and communication studies (789). Interestingly, the dominant major for those working in my study's workplace, library science, falls within these majors. However, unlike Stone and Mckee, Montgomery seems more aware of how gender issues and biases can subtly affect the choices we make.
Following stereotypes, most people still see women as mothers and men as wage earners (797). Likewise, while parents seemed supportive of their daughter's educational decisions, they still thought it more important that they marry than have a career (796). Montgomery, however, found this ideology as tending to create conflicts between what women were capable of and the jobs they believed were suitable for marriage and family (797). While both men and women seemed to find liking the major as important, more men than women also seemed concerned with how this would fit into a practical future job (789). Possibly this is because women feel that ultimately their career will be put on hold while they raise their children and are supported by their spouse (785).
Throughout this study, we can see how easily biases and stereotypes can work into the degrees and ultimately the careers that women choose to pursue. Montgomery feels strongly that to help free women from careers based on the stereotype that workplaces need to become more family-friendly, and that our social structures and rhetoric of what is acceptable for men and women in both universities and society need to change (800). With the cultural bias of seeing women, and not men, as nurtures, the ability for women to truly and freely pick a career on what they like is unlikely to happen yet.
One other source that I think is relevant for my study, though not ethnographic in nature, is the Library Journal's survey findings on entry-level positions for new librarian graduates in 2016. They found that 79% of graduates from that year were women (Allard 2017, 28). Also, here we find that even in a female-dominated field that male graduates found jobs that paid on average 18.3% higher than that of women graduates (31). However, although the average pay tended to be higher for men, both the highest salary and the lowest wages reported were earned by women (32). In the Pacific region, which includes California, the average salary rises to 29.6% higher for men, with some regions even higher (29). Similarly, in school libraries newly hired men made 29.2% more (32). However, in public and academic libraries, the type of libraries in which my study takes place, the gap was only 7% (32).
Looking at the information gained from this survey we can see that overall libraries are overwhelmingly hiring women, though there is still a gap in pay between men and women. However, being a female-dominated field, women are more likely than men to get the high paying jobs (though unfortunately also the lower ones).
Why Libraries
Through this ethnographic study, focusing on the setting of a library, I have been able to pinpoint many deciding factors why women, and some men, choose to work in a female-dominated setting. As other studies have found, women tend to believe that their career choices are based on factors such as preferences and fit, despite their dominant choice of careers being ones that are typically considered to be women's jobs (Montgomery 2004, 786).
This is the same in the library. Through conversations and interviews with people working in mid-sized libraries, the resounding fact that I kept coming across as to why work in a library was that they just liked libraries. Some even mentioned how their mother had been a librarian. Liking books was also mentioned, but not as often. However, interestingly enough, skills needed in libraries such as cataloging, or research, were not mentioned, but, interactions such as presenting story time or helping people were.
Of those interviewed, four out of five felt that helping people, or giving back to the community was important. This seems to be an important aspect of many female-dominated jobs, but in public, academic, or school libraries it is especially crucial. Stone and McKee found that over 40% of the female college students they surveyed said that they found helping others to be attractive in a career (2000, 73).
"Is it important to give back? Yes. I find it very important. It's why I went into the library. And the public library specifically. Because I saw a need that I thought we could fill. So, it's very important to be able to give back and help out in whatever ways you can." –Amy
"I have had a lot of jobs along those lines [of giving back to the community]." –Emma
However, it is not just women that find helping others important. While women in the study had many reasons for working in libraries, the only analogous reason that I was able to discover for men was the need to help others. Of the five people interviewed, two were men. And in both cases, this seemed to be the dominant reason that had them working in a library.
"Whereas here I can see, like, the tangible effects of your work every day. Even if the pay is not as good as some other places. I think that's why most people like working in a library. Because they can see the tangible results of their work [in contributing to something positive]." –Chad
"So I would say, beyond any of the dislikes, just being in this service environment is probably the biggest aspect of the work I do [that I get satisfaction from]." –Bert
As Chad mentioned though, salary is not a driving factor when choosing to work in a library, especially a public library as he works for. While the median pay for libraries might be $57k, public libraries pay on average the lowest of any type of library (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2019; Allard 2017, 30). When looking at new full-time librarians a low salary of $17k is not unheard of (Allard 2017, 32).
It is typical for wages in female-dominated business to be relatively low (Hultin & Szulkin 1999, 453). However, Stone and McKee found that most of the female college students they interviewed had little idea of how much the jobs they were considering actually paid, though this was not the case for the men in their study (2000, 73). Regardless, when choosing to work in a library both the men and women interviewed overall held salaries to be of little value beyond the importance of having at least enough to live.
"So salary is kind of down at the bottom of my list." –Emma
"I wasn't so big on salary. But it was like, can I live on this?" –Amy
There are other factors found at a library, that may not be as important at other female-dominated workplaces. First is the importance of education, with a master's degree being important for those who really wish to rise in the field. A second aspect found at these libraries is the relative lack of competition. While competition was not lacking it was definitely not an active part of the environment. A third aspect that was important to some of the interviewees was low hours or flexible schedules.
"... salary wasn't the main deal, ... it was more about availability. I needed something that was flexible" –Emma
When looking at working specifically in a library the importance of helping people and the community as well as not placing too much value on salary seem to be the most important attributes. However having a strong liking for books or libraries, fond memories of libraries as a kid, or even having a mother or other relative that worked in a library can be equally important. However, as far as the issues that influence one to work at female-dominated workplaces there are a number of other reasons that I have found, both historical and psychological.
Historical Issues
History is, of course, an integral part of the decisions we make today. Just as the history of the library brought about a field largely dominated by women, the history of equal rights and equal pay have moved to create salaries in the field that are often not too out of line with the average salaries seen in the U.S, though it can still stand some improvements.
Through understanding history, we can see that we are still dealing with the historic belief that women should be limited to a select few careers. We saw this before in Mukhopadhyay's study where she worked cross-culturally to understand factors that can limit women from the fields of math, science, and engineering, fields that typically are seen as a man's domain (2004, 461). In fact, in 1991, less than 10% of bachelor degrees in engineering and natural science were received by women (460). And in 1995, 84% of elementary teachers were women, as well as 93% of nurses (Joy 2006, 222). It is only in the last forty years or so that other fields have truly started to open up for women.
"And when I went in for my counseling on colleges [in the early 70s] I walked in and they said, so you want to be a nurse or teach school? ... I was talented in science. I was talented in math. But that was not an option." –Demi
However, though career options are opening up, we can tell from the studies by Stone, McKee, and Montgomery that women are not truly seeing this change as culturally viable. In addition, it is interesting that of the three women interviewed in my study, all three had been in stereotypical female careers such as teaching, office managers, and social services before coming to work at the library.
Another historic aspect that is still seen today is the fact that men have more physical, high paying jobs open to them.
"I know when I was in college and all of my brothers were getting these jobs [as firefighters]. And they would work three months out of the summer. Work real hard to have enough money to live the rest of the year. And me I was stuck doing minimum wage jobs, and I had to work twelve months out of the year [because they wouldn't hire women firefighters at that time]." –Demi
While such physical fields are opening up today, there are still a number of inequalities. Faye, who has gone to school and gotten her master's degree in library science, wonders why her brother, who has little drive and has never been to college, gets paid more as a mechanic than she does, enough so that he is able to afford a house.
Although historically closed careers are opening for women, there are not many women that are taking advantage of them as of yet. One reason is that to do so often requires women to have to deal with a number of social issues that can make working in such a job difficult.
Social Issues for Women in Male Fields
While male-dominated fields are opening up, they are still slow to truly accept women. When working in such jobs women typically have had to deal with a variety of negative attitudes including having to work harder than the men to prove their competence, and men assuming they had the right to be over them.
"So, yah you have to work twice as hard sometimes. And you have to know how to act correctly. You have to act like you know what you're doing. And try a little bit harder. " –Amy
According to a study by Carrigan, one female source working in the male-dominated field of computer science found that she had to work at not being seen as different in order to be accepted. However, the same source also stated that over time she just found this to be exhausting (2018, 350). Other studies have found that when women in male-dominated fields make a mistake that they are seen as less competent than a man who makes the same mistake (Tinsley & Ely 2018, 119).
"As a teacher when a young lady walks into a kindergarten classroom they just expect the lady to know what she's doing. But when she walks into a history classroom and they're like, oh you're the teacher?" –Amy
Gina, who works at the library says that she has noticed this in the sports she plays. Because of her skill level, she is on teams that are all guys. She finds that she always has to prove herself until the guys get to know her and accept her skills. However, new guys don't have to prove themselves as much as a woman would.
On the subject of male attitudes toward women, one of my interviewees worked previously at a male-dominated bank and had this to say about the attitudes expected of women in leadership:
"There were women in leadership but, in order to be a woman in leadership you really had to debase yourself, with the men. You had to like, make it known they were so much better than you. They knew what they were doing and you didn't. And all this crap I would hear." –Emma
As Carrigan's source said earlier, dealing with the social issues that are still quite normal in many male-dominated fields can be exhausting. The amount of work that women have to put in to appear competent and to be accepted can be overwhelming. And truth be told, it is often still not enough.
The Benefits for Women in Female Fields
Though the need to help people was important in why people chose to work in a library, especially the men, it seems to be the safe and accepting environment that is the real draw for women. Women have found that in female-dominated businesses they do not have to deal with negative gender-related attitudes nearly as much. In a female-dominated workplace, women can find their competency accepted as normal.
"In a library, it's like, they just accept. I can say, oh I've done this before, and it's just accepted that you know what you're doing." –Amy
It is my belief that the overriding reason that women choose to work in female-dominated industries is due to the norms experienced there that they do not find out in the world of male-dominated fields. Here they find an acceptance of their competency by their coworkers as well as many of their patrons, and they don't have to work twice as hard to get it. Here they also experience the freedom from having to always put on a facade, which is often needed to fit into a male-dominated world. In addition, there is the added benefit of female interaction.
"I fit better with women, it's a better interaction." –Amy
It is aspects like these that really have drawn women to seek out the added freedom they can find in female-dominated fields.
Of course, as a woman working in a female-dominated environment, I think you can quickly forget that the conditions experienced therein on a daily basis are not necessarily the norm out in the world. In a library, a woman is normally seen as competent and capable of handling the job. This is especially true among one's colleges, be they male or female. On a normal day inside such an environment a woman forgets that outside this environment, they would often be treated slightly differently. Among some of the management staff, they have seen that this is true. Whereas inside the library these women are seen as competent and capable, sometimes when dealing with people outside such as with the city or county governments, which are still male-dominated, their competency can be questioned once again just because they are female.
But you can only do so much towards creating environments that are truly open and accepting of women, and it is quite understandable that many women once they've experienced such an environment they will find it enticing enough to stay.
Conclusion
Through the information gathered in this study, it is my belief that the overriding reason that women choose to work in female-dominated industries is due to the norms experienced there that they do not find out in the world of male-dominated fields. Here they find an acceptance of their competency by their coworkers as well as many of their patrons, and they don't have to work twice as hard to get it. Here they also experience the freedom from having to always put on a facade, which is often found needed to fit into a male-dominated world. It is aspects like these that really have drawn women to seek out the added freedom they can find in female-dominated fields.
On the other hand men in female-dominated fields such as the library seem to have focused on the importance of helping others or giving back to the community. This is often also an important aspect for women, but not necessarily the most important one. And of course with wages being as they are in female-dominated fields, both men and women must hold salaries to be of little importance beyond, of course, needing to have at least enough to live on.
Bibliography:
- Allard, Suzie. 2017. "Librarians Everywhere: Full-time positions are on the rise, as are those outside of libraries." Library Journal 142(17): 28-34. https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.proxy.library.oregonstate.edu/apps/doc/A509729548/AONE?u=s8405248&sid=AONE&xid=807c77b4.
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- Carrigan, Coleen. 2018. "'Different Isn't Free': Gender @ work in a digital world." Ethnography 19(3): 336-359. doi:10.1177/1466138117728737. Golub, Erin Marie. 2010. "Gender Divide in Librarianship: Past, present, and future." Library Student Journal 5(2): 1-10.
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- Joy, Lois. 2006. "Occupational Differences Between Recent Male and Female College Graduates." Economics of Education Review 25: 221-231. doi: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2005.01.005
- Montgomery, L.M. 2004. "It's Just What I Like: explaining persistent patterns of gender stratification in the life choices of college students." International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 17(6): 785-802. doi: 10.1080/0951839042000256457.
- Mukhopadhyay, Carol C. 2004. "A Feminist Cognitive Anthropology: The case of women and mathematics." Anthropology 32(4): 458-492. https://jstor.org/stable/3651895.
- Stone, Linda, & Nancy P. McKee. 2000. "Gendered Futures: Student Visions of Career and Family on a College Campus." Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 31(1): 67-89. doi: 1.0.1525/aeq.2000.31.67.
- Tinsley, Catherine H. & Robin J. Ely. 2018. "What Most People Get Wrong About Men and Women. Harvard Business Review 96(3): 114-122. https://hbr.org/2018/05/what-most-people-get-wrong-about-men-and-women.
- Torpey, Elka. 2019. "High-wage Occupations by Typical Entry-level Education, 2017." Career Outlook, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, January. https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2019/article/mobile/high-wage-occupations.htm.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2019. "Occupational Outlook Handbook, Librarians." U.S. Department of Labor, modified 16 December. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/librarians.htm.
Of course a great example of the need for understanding and analyzing arguments is the internet. I know you have seen thousand of posts on Facebook that people have reposted without checking the facts of the claim. And if you've browsed any forum at all you've seen the thousands of arguments and counter arguments in the comment section, and sadly many of these arguments can't even hold water. There are a plethora of weak arguments out there on the internet without any evidence at all. And there are others whose facts aren't actually facts. Many of these you can tell are false just from personal knowledge or quickly googling the stated evidence. But it is when the evidence seems good that understanding the building blocks of arguments can really come in handy to understand the flaw that you suspect might be there.
