Narrative:

Women often take stereotypically feminine roles, including lower paying jobs, due to societal pressure and systemic misogyny

Supports the Gender Pay Gap Narrative

This narrative is false, in part, because women behave similarly globally

Women prefer genedered jobs globally ,

Even in the most egalitarian countries, women still choose gendered roles

Women choose differently when they have to

Women choose higher-paying STEM jobs more in MORE oppressive countries, suggesting they take the higher paying path when they need money.

===================================================================

A Deeper Look

Differences in male and female occupational and lifestyle choices are often chalked up to societal expectations and oppression. This Edutopia article, for instance, claims that. “Stereotypes and cultural norms dampen girls’ interest in STEM” This Fortune article characterizes the lack of female CEOs in the finance industry as “the result of a thousand tiny interactions and decisions. Some her choice, some not. Some assignments not offered, some cocktail parties not attended, some business trips not booked.”

But are these the primary factors we should be looking for, when trying to assess why women and men end up in separate places?

It’s nearly impossible to address this question if we limit our inquiry to one country. If we take seriously the idea that cultural programming can deeply affect our preferences from a young age, one can respond that they’ve been programmed to either desire sexist norms or ignore sexist behavior.

However, if we look between countries, it’s possible to arrive at tentative conclusions. It’s obvious, for instance, that Algeria is a more sexually discriminatory country than, say, Norway. Thus, if we show that women make more stereotypically gendered choices in lifestyle in Algeria than they do in Norway, we’ve begun to build the case that societal expectations should take the blame.

Surprisingly, data about occupational choice shows the opposite trend. Gijsbert Stoet and David C. Geary’s study, The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education, demonstrates that, in countries with less gender equality, women pursue STEM education more often. The graph above tells the story quite well.

What could explain this? Armin Falk and Johannes Hermle provide some plausible answers in their paper “Relationship of gender differences in preferences to economic development and gender equality.” Comparing survey results from 80,000 individuals across 76 countries, they find that more wealthy and equal countries produce larger gaps in gendered behavior. They conclude that “the critical role of availability of material and social resources, as well as gender-equal access to these resources, in facilitating the independent formation and expression of gender-specific preferences.” In other words: men and women behave more stereotypically when they have the ability to.

This is incompatible with the claim in question, unless we posit some sort of uncanny valley of sexism, whereby countries like Norway are equal enough to enable gendered behavior, but not equal enough to deprogram them. But this is a far more convoluted explanation of the data observed than required.

Takeaway

None of this rules out societal expectations and oppression as potential factors in lifestyle choice. It does, however, rule them out as the exclusive cause. This, in turn, delegitimizes the idea that women are more likely to choose certain professions due to oppression. In other words, there are more females in human-centered fields like healthcare and education because women are more interested in those fields, not because they are forced into them by societal roles and expectations.

What do you think? At Slug, YOU are the peer review, so bring your data and let's discuss!