The Continuing Gender Inequity In Pay

The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce has published a new report (done by Anthony P. Carnevale, Jeff Strohl, and Michelle Melton). It is an interesting report, and well worth perusing. It starts with the fact that getting a college degree will increase a person's earnings by an average of 84% -- not a negligible amount.

It goes on to examine the salaries that can be expected with each of several degrees, and even delves into the salary differences between the races with each degree, and how many in each of those fields go on to graduate school. But the part of the report I found most interesting was where it showed the gender inequity that still exists in this country when it comes to wages paid to each sex.

The chart above was made from information provided in the Georgetown University report. It shows the average pay that graduates in 15 different fields of study make in this country. Note that the average pay for women is less than the average pay for men, in every single one of those 15 areas of study. And my question is -- how can this obvious misogyny still be happening in the 21st Century?

Are our business and political leaders so stupid that they still believe men are worth more money than women when equal work is being done (and equal degrees have been achieved)? They must be that stupid, or they would have fixed this problem by now. Frankly, I don't see how anyone could possibly defend this continuing inequity. It is misogyny, and in this modern world, that can't be defended any more than racism or other forms of bigotry can.