Gerstmann Evan, “Dispelling Myths About the Gender Pay Gap,” (2019)
The debate on the gender pay gap tends to take different directions when discussed by various authors. Weight is placed on the fact that women are paid less compared by men on similar job positions. However, several factors that contribute towards the lesser pay are overlooked, with the blame being taken on gender discrimination. Evan Gerstmann discusses in his article, “Dispelling Myths About the Gender Pay Gap,” the exaggerations on various findings concerning the impact of gender discrimination on the pay level for different jobs. Gerstmann differs in opinion from the advocates of equal pay among different genders citing insufficient research on the factors that are responsible for the different payments.
The article by Gerstmann impacts my prior perception concerning the issue of pay-gap depending on gender. The argument has been appearing evident owing to the several researches done on the topic until I read Gerstmann’s article. The arguments by Gerstmann show that the claim has been exaggerated to fit into the interests of a few feminists.
Gerstmann’s article is based on a case presented by Professor Jennifer Freyd against the University of Oregon for alleged gender-based salary. A federal judge had dismissed the lawsuit citing lack of sufficient evidence and inadequate consideration of accompanying factors. The findings by the judge had been in line with the argument by Gerstmann that the difference in salaries between the genders is based on other factors that are always overlooked: “These unsupported claims, along with such claims as women receive smaller first-time research grants than their male colleagues, are not in the best interest of women or men,” Gerstmann (n. p). For example, the professor had been comparing her salary with workmates who had higher qualifications and had been assigned additional duties. Besides, the University had been forced to increase the salary of the workers to keep them from interest from other institutions, unlike the professor who had not been subjected to interest by other institutions.
The article by Gerstmann goes further to give the factors that are always overlooked when arguing the difference in salaries. First, ladies tend to pay less attention to the salary before starting a job, unlike men who are selective on the salary offered by an institution. Also, the comparisons done on the salary levels tend to overlook the specifics of work contracts and end up providing biased conclusions. Gerstmann goes on to recommend that research on the level of salary gap should consider larger groups of men and women and should not focus on smaller groups: “Also, in order to get statistically significant results, studies need to be comparing reasonably large groups of men and women to one another” Gerstmann (n. p). Also, Gerstmann recommends that factors leading to the salary gap should be sufficiently assessed to avoid making misleading conclusions. According to Gerstmann, women tend to ask for fewer grants compared to men, and when the institution pays the grants, the results are compared instead of looking at the application. Besides, most researches do not report whether women receive lesser salaries and grants that what they ask. Generally, the article by Gerstmann presents a countering argument on the claim that there exists a pay gap between men and women.
In sum, Gerstmann differs in opinion from the advocates of equal pay among different genders citing insufficient research on the factors that are responsible for the different payments. Gerstmann’s article is based on a case presented by Professor Jennifer Freyd against the University of Oregon for alleged gender-based salary. Generally, the article by Gerstmann presents a countering argument on the claim that there exists a pay gap between men and women.
Works Cited
Gerstmann Evan, “Dispelling Myths About the Gender Pay Gap,” (2019)