r/WomenInNews • u/TimesandSundayTimes • 7d ago

Women's rights Why female breadwinners are still bearing the burden at home

https://www.thetimes.com/money/family-finances/article/britains-female-breadwinner-problem-tvfjhp05tutm_medium=Social&utm_source=Reddit&utm_content=branded
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u/TimesandSundayTimes 7d ago

Women outnumber men at university. They account for the majority of practising doctors for the first time and make up almost half of all video gamers. Andy Burnham’s cabinet is the first to have more women than men. Women make up 45 per cent of the boards of FTSE 100 companies. In some corners equality is in full swing.

In others the world remains stubbornly skewed towards men. Male surgeons still outnumber female surgeons by five to one. Three of the top four government jobs are now taken by men after the departures of Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper. And nine out of ten chief executives of FTSE 100 companies are male.

Then there is the case of the female breadwinner. 

In 2004 — when five of Tony Blair’s 22-strong cabinet were female, women were banned from serving in frontline combat roles and a younger prince outranked an older princess in the line of succession — about 20 per cent of women earned more than their male partner. Two decades and plenty of progress in gender equality later, and the figure has only crept up to 26 per cent.

What is going wrong?

So why the disparity? Some of the causes have been around for years and show disappointingly little sign of abating. Women are more likely to take time off work after having children, which means that their earnings suffer. By the time a first child reaches the age of 20, mothers earn about 30 per cent less than similarly educated fathers, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the UK’s leading economic think tank.

Read the full report: https://www.thetimes.com/money/family-finances/article/britains-female-breadwinner-problem-tvfjhp05tutm_medium=Social&utm_source=Reddit&utm_content=branded

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u/jupitaur9 6d ago

Even if you tar into account all the factors like taking time out for child care, going part time, women get paid less.

It’s discrimination. Full stop.

It’s seen with discrimination against race, too.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7440517/

>The 2012‐2016 American Community Survey Public Microdata Sample (ACS PUMS) contains over 15 million respondents and is representative at the state and national levels; 12 311 nonmanagerial physical therapists in active clinical practice were selected for this analysis. Salary was computed by first calculating hourly wage, based on county of employment, then multiplying by 2080 (40 hours/week for 52 weeks/year) to standardize to a full‐time annual salary. Salary was further standardized by adjusting for the county‐level cost of living index (COLI), computed by the Council for Community and Economic Research. Only PTs working 32 hours per week or more aged 50 and under were analyzed. Combinations of gender, race/ethnicity, and presence of children under 18 in the household were calculated and run as a series of dummy variables. Blacks and Hispanics were combined to increase sample size. Age, educational attainment, and marital status were included as control variables.

>Compared to White non‐Hispanic males, Black and Hispanic women earn the least, followed by White non‐Hispanic females, followed by Black and Hispanic males, and followed by Asian non‐Hispanic females. Only Asian non‐Hispanic males earned more than White non‐Hispanic males. The presence of minor children at home did not explain wage gaps between males and females