Gender wage gap in project management

All--the May issue of PM Network, coming out on 1 May, will feature a cover story on women in project management and the gender gap.

All--the May issue of PM Network, coming out on 1 May, will feature a cover story on women in project management and the gender gap.

On the contrary Lenka, women do work hard but your reference to "not high enough" is not quantifiable. Women do take less qualified jobs than men as a direct result of the fact that they choose to take time off to raise children, or value a balanced home/work life more than men. We haven't even factored in high risk / high pay jobs (ie. oil rigging) where men are far more likely to accept jobs for, thus raising the average wage for men. Conversely, many of the lower paid jobs admittedly through socio-economic factors such as domestic help or factory work using "cheap" labor have a high percentage of women who get paid a lot less, lowering the average salaries for women. Further, women are more likely to be a teacher, a nurse, care-giver and the list goes on, again lowering average salaries. Having said all of this, we are all on the same side here, meaning we all agree men and women should be paid the same. But what I am saying is when you compare apples to apples (men and women with similar experience, skills, qualifications, regional location, etc) they get paid basically the same, and any data that claims there is a gender gap must compare apples with apples, not skew the data by including the extreme end of the bell curve. If you examine another man who has very similar experience, skills, qualifications, located in your area, and you both go for the same PM job, are you telling me he will get paid more simply because he is a man? I would venture to say no, and in fact if it were the case, there would be swift and easy legal recourse, in which the women would get paid a bunch of money and then be earning more than the man who was wrongly offered a higher salary :-)

All--the May issue of PM Network, coming out on 1 May, will feature a cover story on women in project management and the gender gap.

Hello All,
My personal job history is an illustration of a gender Gap pay of about 20%. Qualification and job performance: MS in Engineering, PMP certification, great work history. Never took time off to raise children, never took any sabbaticals, until I was laid off. Right now my company offers 20% higher salary to the identical PM job than mine after my 4 years on the job. Clearly, a single person's case might be considered a "black swan". Due to secrecy of salary levels, you always find out after you leave.

I’m so happy to hear that we are on the same page Sante. Look at the link below, interesting findings there.
https://womenintheworkplace.com/Women_in_the_Workplace_2017.pdf

Anyway, this is probably not the best forum for gender diversity discussion. I did not wanted to make it general. I was interested in the PM sector only. On the salary report there are no teachers, nurses, stay at home moms, it’s just about people doing project management jobs. Thanks for your view! I’m working on a project creating women empowerment support network. It’s crucial to understand views of men and women to make it right. And let’s hope the gap will be closed one day. Because it’s not only about ensuring that women stand the same chances as men or get the right pay. It’s also about supporting men to be able to spend more time with their families and kids without worries about family income and other things.

I think over the coming years you will find the gap closing and don’t be surprised if you see it reversed in favor of the female Gender. Do you see that coming ?

Hello All,
My personal job history is an illustration of a gender Gap pay of about 20%. Qualification and job performance: MS in Engineering, PMP certification, great work history. Never took time off to raise children, never took any sabbaticals, until I was laid off. Right now my company offers 20% higher salary to the identical PM job than mine after my 4 years on the job. Clearly, a single person's case might be considered a "black swan". Due to secrecy of salary levels, you always find out after you leave.