“Women are not paid less than men”

I heard this sentence from a man. It made me wonder whether this is true or false. 

Honestly, I actually hoped that it was true. I hoped that finally in the 21^stcentury women are being treated equally as men at work and that they are paid as much as men.  But unfortunately, gender pay gap is still a major problem.

Nowadays we are taught at the university about gender equity. What surprises me is that even in the academic field there is gender wage inequality! There have been several studies conducted about this. As a female, I was completed disappointed to find out that we are discriminated even at the university!

Facts?

Rudakov and Prakhov (2019) analyzed the wages in Russian universities and found out that that male employees earn 8.7% higher salaries than female employees due to discrimination. Moreover, women are not only paid less, but Rudakov and Prakhov (2019) also found out evidence, which proves that, unlike men, they are selected for lower-paid positions. 

And this is not happening only at Russian universities! An older study from Petrzelka (2004), which analyzed faculty salaries at the American Utah University, shows that gender represents an important factor due to which salaries differ. Moreover, “when women are in higher paying administrative positions, they are most likely in those positions that oversee disciplines perceived to be <<women’s work>>, such as education, health, family life, and social work” (Petrzelka, 2004, p.381). 

The lesson?

We need to get rid of these stereotypes that women should only do specific jobs and be paid less than men. Also, I think that universities should teach the students about gender equity by their own example!