Why do men still earn more than women? 2024-02-27 12:25:36

Since the 1980s, professional fields have developed and changed. The purple lines mark which occupations have become more segregated over time and thus show increased gender segregation. The blue lines show that a professional field has become a mixed profession in which the ratio of women and men is balanced (approximately between 30 and 70 percent). The proportion of women has increased significantly in most professional groups, which can be attributed to the higher employment rate of women in general. But using the example of the paper and printing industry, it can be seen that this is not only due to the fact that more women have entered these professions, but also to the fact that the fields of work themselves have changed. Occupations in the areas of paper and printing that were previously based on crafts and technology now have a digital focus, including technical media design, graphics, web design and layout, with the proportion of women being particularly high here. So high that this professional field has now become a female-dominated profession.

But what makes a job a “women’s job”? There are basically several approaches to the discussion about “women’s” and “men’s jobs”. On the one hand, when children come into play, women tend to choose careers that allow them to be willing to work as a family and are more flexible or easier to plan. However, these are often lower-paying positions. On the other hand, there is an explanation in history. The fact that women are more likely to work in areas such as nursing, services or cleaning is due, among other things, to the fact that women were already taking care of care and housework before they were even paid for it.

Although this has slowly changed since the 1970s and women have now been able to choose their own career path, classic women’s professions have emerged from this pattern of earlier days. “Women could only be found in these professions, so they only went into them because they didn’t see what else they could become,” explains von Platen.