The Wage Gap

It comes as no surprise to me that, according to Statistics Canada, the wage gap between men and women has not substantially narrowed.

The wage gap is one of those hydra-headed gender issues that never seems to go away. We don't hear as often these days about women being paid less than men for doing the same jobs, but it's still generally legal and acceptable to pay substantially less for jobs that women tend to do (secretarial work, nursing, teaching) than for jobs men tend to do (janitorial work, construction). And why are these jobs so gender-specific, anyway? And would they still be as undervalued if men tended to do them?

So what's the solution? Do we need to work harder on encouraging girls to pursue traditionally lucrative fields? Yes, absolutely. But we also need to work on accurately valuing the work that women are doing now. 'Course, if we paid teachers what they were worth, I bet we'd see an increase in the number of male teachers...