By Warren Farrell, Ph.D. (www.warrenfarrell.com)
To get a summary of my 2005 book, Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap — and What Women Can Do About It, click here. But here are some tips for women—well, really, for anyone—that I’ve adapted from Why Men Earn More. First, I’ll start with an overview.
Power is not about earning money; power is about controlling one’s life based on one’s values and priorities. Pay is not about power; pay is often about giving up power to get the power of pay. Power and pay are about trade-offs. If you’re getting paid less than a man, before you assume discrimination, look at the 25 things men are more likely to do to get paid more. Women tend to trade income for fulfillment, flexibility, family, and safety. Rather than focusing your binoculars on discrimination, focus them on opportunities, such as the more than 80 fields that pay women more than men, or the 39 large fields that pay women at least 5% more than men. Based on my research for Why Men Earn More, I believe that while men earn more for different work, women today earn more for the same work–when they work in the exact same job for the same type and size of firm, same number of hours, travel and relocate equally, produce equally, have equal years of experience, and so on. You do not live in a world in which men have stacked the deck against you. Both sexes discriminate for and against both sexes.
11 Specific Tips
For women with fewer skills and less education, join the Marines or Air Force. No woman in the War in Iraq has been killed in either, and both offer opportunities that translate well into civilian life, such as training in administrative work, weather, computer fields and health services–which also happen to be the fields that keep one safe.
Pharmacists now earn more than doctors, have far more control over their lives, and do not experience the emotional taxation of being intimately involved with patients as they die.
Investment banking and financial analyst are two excellent choices for women who want to earn a lot, earn more than their male counterparts, but do not like taking major risks with money. Female financial analysts average $69,000 per year, 118% of their male counterparts. CEOs are selected from among those assuming bottom line, financial responsibilities for a company, not human resources or public relations, so these fields also pave the way for women who want to break alleged “glass ceilings”.
Be more willing to take financial risks, whether by selling and working on commission, or working toward being a venture capitalist. Venture capitalists typically earn between $100,000 and $300,000 per year. Here are some other fields that pay women more than men that many women may find appealing:
Speech language pathologists ($45,000 man; $35,000 woman; make 29% more than men)
Statisticians (35% more than men)
Advertising and Promotions Managers
Motion Picture projectionists
If you are a woman, start a construction company. You don’t need to lift a hammer or nail. You do need to be able to organize those who do. All government agencies and universities and many companies are required to hire a certain percentage of female-owned construction companies.
Becoming a dental hygienist is one of the fastest growth fields, it virtually excludes men, has a pleasant environment, no stress, and controlled hours.
In medicine, take your eyes off doctors and consider nursing, or being a medical assistant or physician assistant. All are projected to be among the fastest growing fields in the next decade. Nursing can pay more than $100,000 per year as a traveling (“gypsy”) nurse or as a nurse anesthetist. Only female nurses are allowed to see and touch the bodies of both sexes, giving hospitals an incentive to hire women. Medical Assistant requires nothing more than on-the-job training. Physician assistant, requiring only a Bachelor’s, pays very well.
People who work 44 hours per week make almost twice what people earn who work 34 hours per week. The extra hours, if well used, lead to disproportionately fast promotions, and job opportunities that would not otherwise be available. To get those ten extra hours, hire out your repetitive chores–they cost less than what you’ll be getting paid for your extra ten hours, and you’ll be helping someone who needs the money.
The most important career decision you will ever make is the choice of your spouse. If you want family, well-raised children and a very successful career, there’s a way to have it all. Marry a man who is happy to raise the children while you raise the money. Those men are available if they know you will respect them. Children raised by dads in intact families do extremely well socially, psychologically and academically.
If you want to pursue your dream without being poor, work in computers or engineering for a few years, then take off a year or two to pursue what fulfills more but earns less.
Female sales engineers get paid 143% of male sales engineers. Consider becoming an engineer or computer scientist. They constitute the majority of the highest paying fields now, and will in the future. There are hundreds of scholarships available only to women for female engineers and computer scientists, and women’s pay exceeds men’s until the women choose to work fewer hours, or travel/move less or work for a public agency rather than a private firm.
Hundreds of career opportunities, a radically different approach to work-life balance, and a view of what the future holds, are all available in Why Men Earn More. Remember, it’s a money-back guaranteed book.