10 Worst Industries for Women

[The Straight Story]

10 Worst Industries for Women

Women continue to make less money than men, earning on average about 80% of male salaries. According to the website 24/7 Wall St., the disparity in wages is even greater in some sectors, as seen in the list of 10 worst industries for women in terms of pay:

1. Finance and insurance (62.2%)
2. Professional and technical services (65.9%)
3. Health care and social assistance (71.8%)
4. Nondurable Goods (73.8%)
5. Durable Goods (74.9%)
...

According to Charles Stockdale and Douglas A. McIntyre of 247wallst.com, the finance and insurance sector has retained its place as the worst for women despite a series of sex discrimination lawsuits. In fact, Citigroup, AIG, First American Financial Corporation and INTL FCStone Inc. (International Asset Holdings) have a grand total of zero female officers.

http://www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/ViewNews/10_Worst_Industries_for_Women_110418

[P. Galore]

1. Wait! I was told in '08 that we live in a post-sexist society!!! nt

[Odin2005]

2. Wall Street is an Old Boys' Club, no new news there.

[loudsue]

3. And like all the other old boy industries, sexism is rampant.

Oil & gas is one of the worst.

[seabeyond]

4. seems like it hit about everything, hm. lol. basically everything is the "worst

industry" for women

[Yavin4]

5. Fox News Stereotypical Blonde News Personality is Still Pretty Good

That is until you reach age 30.

[seabeyond]

9. maybe, and maybe a chuckle. but i gotta wonder what their pay is compared to their male counterpart

for whatever reason, lol, rollin eyes.... i am pretty confident they are not getting what shepard, oreilly, cavueto?, is getting

[houstonintc]

6. What is the reason for the pay gap?

With the Equal Pay for Equal Work act it would be illegal to pay less simply for being a woman employee... isn't it possible there are other factors contributing to this gap?

From my understanding it is a federal crime to reduce pay simple because of anatomy.

[Lithos]

7. I dunno

Ask Walmart...

[houstonintc]

8. Well big corporations...

Are likely able to skirt any law they want... Wal-Mart is more powerful than many countries.

I would still want to see the fullness of the statistical data, and a full list of causes for these factors. Though looking at that list I note some of those industries are pretty time consuming and demanding on anyones time. In a country where many women are single mothers or just mothers in general and thus in need of flexible working hours. This flexibility might not be readily received in fairly fast paced and time consuming fields like the financial services industry.

[seabeyond]

10. it is true, that men that hve a wife at home to take care of all, does better professionally. nt

[houstonintc]

11. Cousin tried financial industry...

She tried to get into it and pretty much her reason for getting out of it was the working hours and the time consumed.

[smirkymonkey]

16. Also, it's like working in a frat house.

That's one of the main reasons I left. Besides it being a pressure cooker.

[houstonintc]

17. Yeah she mentioned that as well...

Not so much that it was a frat house but the cutthroat competitiveness and the men could just afford to throw more time into it.

Didn't help that she had a kid though. Again an issue of needing flexibility in a market that is totally a time sink to be successful in.

Not sure about the frat house aspect. I'm way to moral to get involved in Wall Street. :D

[ieoeja]

12. One possibility. Low skill male = manual labor. Low skill female = office clerk.

I work for a place that has more women than men in management, and has often had more women than men in senior management. But women still had lower average pay in part because the lowest grades were overwhelmingly female thus skewing the average against them.

[Spike89]

13. Very complex issue

Part of the variance is willful and illegal sexism, the majority of the variance however isn't as easily pinned down. Much depends on methodology, i.e., what are you measuring. Are they comparing all the wages of men, vs. women? If so, how do they factor in the non-working, and the part-time workers. Do they look at "like" demographics and how are the criteria set? For instance, comparing 25-30 year old college graduates might show one picture, comparing college graduates (of any age) with 0-5 years job experience would show something else (the question is do you attempt to equalize for maternity leave?)
Other murky factors are job/career choice...traditional "women's" jobs (teacher, secretary, nurse) tend to be lower paying than traditional men's jobs, even when the men's jobs require less or the same level of qualifications. Social factors also very much figure in. Traditionally, a man's worth has been very much tied into how much he makes--whereas women have had a number of other "markers of worth"--this may make it easier and more common for a man to pursue a risky/disgusting, but high paying job (miner/sewage worker?)
The short answer is that yes, there are tons of other factors contributing to the gap, the longer and more interesting answers come when deciding what (if anything) should be done to address each of the factors.

[houstonintc]

15. I think the complexity...

I think the complexity makes it unsolvable. It exists in such a murky tangled web that to solve it might make for a more unfair employment market. Not that the big corporations and chamber of commerce interests aren't working feverishly to that end, still I'd be hesitant to pin this on any one factor but I'd say one should look more to what sorts of jobs each gender tends to work in. What hours on average each gender earns as well and one might find ample reasoning for these pay gap statistics.

Sexism is illegal, though certainly would happen, however the risk and cost would be significant enough that most businesses like shy away from and viciously stamp that sort of thing out. Legally it would be a disaster and the PR would be a nightmare for most businesses.

[Odin2005]

18. I suspect corps use things like time off for "mom issues" as an excuse to deny pay raises.

Because God forbid a woman is not docked for having a baby, or taking a sick kid to a hospital. :eyes:

[houstonintc]

21. Well is that...

Well honestly I wouldn't require a business to eat that cost up. If so then businesses might think twice about hiring female workers for fear that maternity and other things will bog them down in costs. While a big Corp. can eat that cost most smaller end businesses would either need exemption or subsidization to afford that.

EDIT: It is Equal Pay for Equal Work... taking time off for whatever reason would decline the amount of time one is working. That is the law.

[Keith Bee]

14. How about the military?

I mean, hey, earning less money sucks, but not as much as getting raped.

[MindPilot]

19. I think IT is pretty good for women.

Every place I've ever worked in an IT job the upper managers have all been women. Can't speak to the pay though...I've never been privy to that.

[uponit7771]

20. management level but not at technical management level, IMHO that's been horrible

[thelordofhell]

22. 1. Professional Sports

You are unfairly labeled as a freak and make significantly less than your male counterparts.