26/10: A Kenyan journalist recently examined the Gender Pay Gap in Kenya’s entrepreneurialism, looking at the role of men and women in vegetable vending.
He shows, in the Daily Nation, that that men own the farms, women tend the farms, men are the wholesalers and women are the vendors at the tail end of the chain. It is women who suffer losses from the perishable goods. It is also women who lose out on competitive advantages due to cultural and social factors, such as being expected to be at home in the early evening to prepare the family meal – when this is the best time to sell produce. And not being able to work late, for fear of rape or violence. This leads to gender wage inequality, and contributes to the gender pay gap statistics in Kenya.
Gender Wage Inequality
Women in many countries on average have hourly wages way below those of their male colleagues. These wage differences vary as widely as 10 - 40 percent, comparing and averaging the whole working population split by gender. Formally these differences are accounted for. But are these fair? No, not really. In practice women seem to be short of time to earn (much) more.
They often have more jobs to do than just work for money, if one adds in domestic responsibilities. And they are sometimes sexually harassed by men, with career consequences including leaving a job due to the stress of this. There are many reasons for the different career choices that women make. Both men and women consider these differing choices quite normal however. Yet, the (long term) consequences of their choices hold women's income levels down. They contribute to pay discrimination and pay inequality.
With increasing age the Gender Pay Gap widens. This seems to be caused by more than just (choice of) education. Generally today women are just as well educated as men, which is quite different from a decade or more ago. It would appear that wage differences are also caused by the twin facts that women frequently and for longer periods work less hours than men, and that they tend to interrupt their careers.
Men by contrast tend to have longer working hours and try to avoid career breaks. Such unbroken longer working experience contributes to higher incomes. The big differences emerge when men opt for longer working hours and are promoted, whereas women reduce their working hours and refrain from building their careers.