Women have fought for equal pay for a long time. However, workplace inequality among men has become a prominent issue.
Bouncing back
When men lose their jobs, it’s more difficult for them to find better ones. There have been some groundbreaking studies done that show that women who lose their jobs are more likely to find better jobs than men in the same situation.
The numbers definitely prove the theory that women bounce back faster than men when facing job insecurity.
For instance, 7 percent of men lost their jobs in 1979-2007. According to the Dallas Fed study, 4 percent of these men ended up in lower-skill jobs while only 3 percent moved up to higher-skill jobs. For men, losing your job can often translate into a permanent demotion.
In the same period of time, 16 percent of women lost their middle-skill jobs, but rather than taking lower-skill jobs, 15 percent of women found better jobs. Only 1 percent of those women ended up in lower-skill jobs.
While the disappearance of mid-skill jobs impacted women greatly, the majority of women were able to bounce back and find better-paying jobs. Men on the other hand had to settle for jobs that paid less and required less skill.
Complicated family structure
Another study found the connection between a single-parent household and the success of their sons. The study by by David Autor, an economist at M.I.T., followed two types of families with different parental structures; one was a two-parent household, while the other was a single-parent household.
The study concluded that the children in two-parent households showed similar outcomes. However, in single-parent households, the children’s outcomes diverged, boys were found to be performing worse in school than their sisters.
This supports the idea that the structure of a family has more on an effect on boys than girls and could also explain why some men do not become as successful as others.
Saying “I do”
Married men are known to make a lot more money than single men. A researcher at the University of Michigan found this idea to be true through her research.
Nobody really knows why married men make more money, but there are a few theories; either employers are biased against bachelors, or men who are likely to get married are more successful in the first place. A third theory ties marriage and education together, saying that men learn valuable skills from their marriages that can be applied at work.
Either way, marriage is a huge driver of inequality. Those who stay single often get left behind.
Takeaway
While there is still inequality among genders, some focus has been shifting toward inequalities within specific groups.
Workplace inequality is often associated with women and remains a problem, but some men are encountering similar circumstances. Factors such as job loss, family structure and even marriage can all impact a man’s life as well as his income.
This article was originally published on GenFKD.org.