Reflection Paper 1

Reflection Paper

Mallory A. Gusrang

University of South Florida

ECP 3201: Economics of Women and Work

March 10, 2021

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Reflection Paper

1. Introduction

The article “The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations” written by Francine D.

Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn from the National Bureau of Economic Research is an interesting and

informative read. The article consists of discussion on the causes and trends for wage variance between

women and men, and distinctly dissect the possible reasons for this wage gap during the 1980s to the

2010s. There is brief discussion on the wage gap during the 1950s. Blau and Kahn introduce new data

and statistics that address additional factors that contributed to the wage gap between the periods

1980-2010. They choose to focus on less traditional factors and lean towards introducing the impact of

social norms and psychological attributes which is a newer field of research amongst economists who

study gender.

2. Important Notes

Blau and Kahn present a lot of fascinating information and discussion in their article. The four

most important notes that I learned from the article is that the gender pay gap decrease rate was

significantly lower in higher sectors of the labor market by 2010 compared to the 1980s; there is no

significant decline of the wage gap despite women exceeding men in education attainment and labor

market experience in modern day; there seems to be a negative connation for women with marriage

versus a positive connation for men with marriage; and lastly that there is no clear distinction between

psychological attributes and non-cognitive skills and its impact on gender pay since those gender

attributes can be linked to general social construct and norms themselves.

The reason that I highlighted the decrease in convergence for the gender gap in higher sectors of the

labor market is because the decline rate was observed in 2010. In the 1980s, the gender pay gap

convergent rate was at an all-time high as women matched and succeeded men in human capital
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attributes like education and labor market experience. This higher rate of convergence applied to all

sectors of the labor market; high, middle, and low which was great for attaining better equality for the

time period. However, the rate of convergence for the gender gap slowed in the higher sectors as we

approached 2010, which means that men were more favorable in receiving or maintaining their high

sector occupations in the labor market. In both the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the

March Current Population Survey (CPS) express that women in the top sector of the labor market

experience the gender wage gap and experience the least gains relatively compared to other levels in

the labor market.

I emphasized the point of no obvious decrease of the wage gap between women and men despite

the flipped labor experience and education because it is an important point of discussion. In the 1980s,

women were able to flip the disparity of men and their higher rates of education and experience. By

2011, women were more likely to have a bachelor’s degree with adjacent education than men, and they

decreased the length of labor experience from 7 to 1.4 years from 1980-2010. These are substantial

increases for women in the labor market; however, there was no noticeable impact of these factors and

decreasing the wage gap after the 1980s. One main reason this trend has occurred may be due to

women choosing to remain in traditionally female roles which are often accompanied with higher

difficulty in moving up in the job sector.

One of the more important points that Blau and Kahn discuss is the connotations and associations

that occur with women, men, and marriage. Unfortunately, there seems to be a distinct difference in the

way that women who are married and men who are married are treated in the labor market. This

distinction also occurs with the inclusion of children for both men and women. Since traditional roles for

women and men in society have a strong influence in a lot of the institutions of the modern day, the

same connotations between men and women have sustained through the years. Therefore, women who
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are married or have children face a lot of discrimination from the labor market. This trend is due to the

emphasis of women’s traditional roles of overseeing non-market activities. The motherhood wage

penalty is a result of maternity leave, hesitation for specific training, and possible reduction of

productivity due to home and work imbalance. Men, however, do not experience this penalty and

instead experience a premium effect. An experimental study had a group of students evaluate male and

female resumes with varying marital statuses. The study concluded that women with children were

perceived as less able to do the position of hire, and less committed to the job than men. Therefore, the

men’s resumes were evaluated to receive higher salaries due to having children.

The last point of discussion that I found important was that the more recent theories for the gender

pay gap are not significant yet, since psychological attributes and the noncognitive skills are difficult to

separate from current social norms and constructs. The hesitation to clearly define whether these

gender differences relate to the gender wage gap comes from the age-old question: “nature or

nurture?” Currently, there is too much subjective data and experiments that make the credibility of

psychological attributes and noncognitive skills hard to establish. The generalized gender distinctions

and skills such as risk aversion, also prove to support these other gender differences since a lot of the

distinctions are societal-based and can be reformed. At this point in time, the modern explanations are

worth researching further; however, they cannot provide significant explanation for the current gender

wage gap discrepancy.

Although I only listed four things that I found important from the article, I believe that all points of

discussion made by Blau and Kahn were interesting and informative and deserve further discussion.

3. Questions for the Authors

Blau and Kahn discuss and expand on a huge selection of data and information. Although their

explanations and area of discussion are organized effectively, their article also raises a couple of
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questions that I would like them to expand into with some more depth. One such question is: “Is the

attitude of women and men in relation to the gender wage gap different from the 1980s-2010s?” This

question is significant to understanding more in-depth how society and their mentality has changed

through the decades. Another question I would like to ask the authors is “Are there any projections for

the future on the gender wage gap as the traditional factors of family become more obsolete?” Society

is going through a metamorphosis as traditional family structures change throughout generations;

therefore, I would like to know if there is any research being done on the expectations for wage

equality. Another question I have interest in is how the authors view the significance of furthering

research and experimenting with psychological attributes, norms, and noncognitive skills on the gender

pay gap. As these gender differences are newly introduced, I wonder if the authors have a strong

intuition of their importance on the wage gap. The last question I would like to ask the authors is “When

do you believe emphasis will be put on researching discrimination in the workplace, and its contribution

to the gender pay gap?” This is a very important question I would like the authors to address since they

discussed women’s motherhood wage penalty, and men’s marriage premium.

4. Discussion on the Articles’ Relativity to My Personal Labor Market Experience

As a woman in the labor market, the article was very helpful in helping me understand the subtle

barriers that women can face in the labor market. I have already directly experienced the effects of the

gender wage gap. Learning that this is unconscious discrimination to women in higher sectors is useful

information because it will prepare me for my entry into the higher sectors. Also, by learning that there

are societal constructs that have created gender differences between women and men such as

negotiation skills, and interpersonal skills, I will try to strengthen the natural skills I have obtained as a

woman to my benefit. On the other hand, I will also strengthen the more traditionally ‘masculine’ skills

so that I can lessen the experience level between myself and my fellow male coworkers. Mostly, the
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paper has encouraged my desire to pursue high level jobs despite the boundaries since I am aware of

the barriers such as the gender wage gap; therefore, the higher I achieve in the labor market, the higher

my desire is to change the wage gap between women and men for the better.