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Wednesday, February 22, 2023 at 07:00

The wage gap is written in feminine

The wage gap is written in feminine The wage gap is written in feminine

Today, February 22, the European Day of Equal Pay is celebrated and the URJC organizes a conference to address the issue of the pay gap and raise awareness of the importance of improving the work and personal environment of women. 

Nora Fernandez Fernandez  

Through the Equality Unit, three professors from the university, Begoña García Gil, Rosa Santero and Pilar Charro, will comment on the most important aspects to understand what the so-called 'salary gap' consists of and the effects it has on the different realities that women live.  

The first intervention will be given by Begoña García, a professor of Labor Law and Social Security, who will comment on the extra difficulties that women have in accessing employment and occupation. “Mainly, I will highlight what I call 'the guiding principles' of access to work, which are traversed by considerable horizontal and vertical segregation throughout the market and which is perceived from minute one”, says García. "The digital divide, the training gap and job insecurity are just some of the factors that affect women more than men."  

Another of the topics that the teacher will address will be the feminization of some sectors, such as care, "where we find a presence of up to 80% of women, but in management positions, there are only men," she points out. . "The same also occurs in politics or in other institutions, but in the opposite way, where the masculinization of employment creates more difficulties for women to access a job, despite their experience or training."  

Next, it will be Rosa Santero, professor of Applied Economics I, History and Economic Institutions and member of the Equality Unit, who will take the floor. Her theme is part of a line of research of the EMERLAB group of the URJC in which she participates, and tries to analyze the gender gaps in the labor market in different aspects. "Specifically, the study of gender diversity in business management has been deepening as an element that facilitates the reduction of the wage gap," Santero points out.  

As he tells us, the most important points of his presentation are; “to convey that when talking about the gender wage gap, you have to know what concepts are included to measure it. The most correct thing is to use what is called the 'adjusted gap', which compares salaries associated with job positions where men and women have the same characteristics”.  

The second fundamental aspect is "to make visible the lack of female participation in management positions in companies that, even today, do not reach 40%". Thirdly, Santero points out the lack of women in decision-making positions as "a fundamental element to be able to incorporate the gender perspective in all actions, and have references and female models for future generations." 

Finally, the professor of Labor Law and Social Security, Pilar Charro, will comment on the role of care, ensuring that "the wage gap and reconciliation are two concepts that feed back and interfere with each other." “The more wage gap there is, the more the tasks of caring for and attending to family members will fall on women because generally, in a family unit, the lowest salary is sacrificed,” she points out Charro.  

“The other side of the coin is that the exercise of these conciliation rights is done, in the vast majority of cases, by women, which increases the wage gap by not meeting many criteria related to permanence, availability, seniority… which would increase the amount received”, explains the teacher. "The final conclusion I want to reach is that the salary gap perpetuates the fact that the reconciliation is written in a feminine way."  

As Rosa Santero comments, these events and "other visibility acts should promote actions and policies, both at a business and institutional level, that fight for their elimination." Although the gender gap in Spain has been narrowing in recent years, there is still a long way to go to achieve effective equality. With conferences like this, the URJC contributes to achieving that goal.