The gap in wages between men and women has been a topic of debate for years. With candidate Hillary Clinton shining light on the issue with promises for a Paycheck Fairness Act, Diana Furchtgott-Roth has addressed what’s not being addressed in conversations about the wage gap: choice.
Furchtgott-Roth notes that the differences in wages for men and women have a lot to do with the majors they choose and the jobs they up in, with men more inclined towards the higher-paying fields of math and engineering and women more inclined towards the lower-paying fields of history and language. She writes:
“What would President Hillary do about this? One step toward eliminating the wage gap would be to require that women take more math, and that half of engineering majors be female.
That idea is not as far-fetched as it sounds. Title IX of the Civil Rights Act (put in place with the Education Amendments of 1972) already requires that the proportion of women playing college varsity sports be equal to the proportion of women on campus, even if fewer women want to play varsity sports. That has led to the closure of many men’s teams. Without additional legislation, Clinton could simply extend Title IX to math, engineering, computer science, chemistry and physics.
Such a solution, although perhaps effective in closing the wage gap, would not be popular with most women, who value the opportunity to choose their own fields and excel in them.””]
You can read the whole article over at Economics 21.