【媒库文选】常春藤联盟的性别收入差异问题

【媒库文选】常春藤联盟的性别收入差异问题

2017-03-09 00:54:02 来源：参考消息网 责任编辑：王天僚

核心提示：20岁出头的时候，常春藤女性与男性并驾齐驱。她们毕业的平均成绩较高，起步时的薪酬差不多。但是，在26至34岁之间的某个阶段，她们的男同学以她们无法匹敌的速度实现了职业发展。

The Ivy League's Gender Pay-Gap Problem

Caroline Kitchener

Across the United States， 34-year-old women， on average， make between 10 and 18 percent less than 34-year-old men. That gap isn't surprising—it's actually been slowly improving in recent years. What's striking is that， when you only consider Ivy League graduates， the gap is significantly wider. This wage disparity came to light in a study by The Equal Opportunity Project， recently featured in The New York Times. The study showed that female Ivy League alumni make 30 percent less than their male peers.

In their early 20s， Ivy League women keep up with men. They graduate with higher GPAs and start at similar salaries. But somewhere between age 26 and 34， their male classmates advance professionally at a pace they don't match.

Let's take two of the industries with the widest gender wage gaps as examples: finance and management consulting. These sectors， taken together， employ the largest group of Ivy League graduates. Every fall， swarms of representatives from top investment banks and consulting firms come to Ivy League campuses to recruit seniors， ultimately selecting a new “class” of employees that hails almost exclusively from Ivies and other elite schools. By and large， these students make more money than anyone else in their graduating class， earning between $60，000 and $110，000 in their first year.

By the time these women were 34—the age used in the Equality of Opportunity study—two things had happened. First many women had attached themselves to a romantic partner. As careers developed，the woman was usually the one expected to be flexible， and move to accommodate her partner's career. Even more importantly， people had started to have kids. And， again， more often than not， the woman was the one forced to adjust.

When a high-powered female executive at an investment bank has a kid， knowing that part-time work isn't an option， she feels like she has to downshift her career. Women with jobs that require a fixed number of hours and little attention outside of the office， on the other hand， don't have that same degree of pressure. They're much more able to stay on their chosen professional track after they have kids.

These demanding， high-paying jobs disproportionately benefit male employees for other reasons， too. Promotion practices are generally more standardized at the lower end of the wage spectrum for any given field. As you advance within the workplace， you have to become more of an advocate for yourself—something women struggle with more than men.

It's also certainly worth noting that Ivy League grads， in addition to making a lot of money themselves， tend to be surrounded by wealthy people. Ivy League students come from families with median family incomes that range from $150，900 to $204，200. Many also marry wealthy partners—students from their own university or others like it. When women have children，they're more able to leave the workplace—or take a lower-paying part-time job—if they have alternate sources of financial support.

When a woman has both a high-demand，low-flexibility job， and a wealthy spouse—a position many Ivy League women find themselves in—she is far more likely to take a significant step down in the workplace， or step out altogether.

Generally， society assumes that students will be better off financially if they graduate from college—and even better off if they graduate from an elite college. Overall， that's true. But it's far truer for men.

在美国各地，34岁女性的平均收入比34岁男性少10%至18%。这一差异并不令人意外——近年来的形势其实在缓慢改善。不寻常的是，如果你只看常春藤联盟毕业生，差异要大得多。《纽约时报》最近报道“机会均等项目”在一份研究报告中揭示了这种工资差距。研究表明，女性常春藤毕业生的收入比男性校友少30%。

20岁出头的时候，常春藤女性与男性并驾齐驱。她们毕业的平均成绩较高，起步时的薪酬差不多。但是，在26至34岁之间的某个阶段，她们的男同学以她们无法匹敌的速度实现了职业发展。

以性别工资差异最大的两个行业为例，那就是金融和管理咨询。这两个行业加在一起雇用的常春藤毕业生人数最多。每年秋季，顶级投资银行和咨询公司的代表们就成群地涌到常春藤院校招聘毕业生，最终选中几乎完全出自常春藤院校和其他精英学校的新一“级”雇员。总的来说，这些学生挣的钱比毕业班的其他学生多，第一年的收入在6万美元到11万美元之间。

等这些女性到了34岁、也就是机会均等研究采用的年龄时，已经发生了两件事。首先，许多女性已经有了婚恋对象。随着事业发展，人们通常指望女方采取灵活态度，作出改变以迁就伴侣的事业。更重要的是，大家开始生儿育女了。然后，多半又是女性被迫作出调整。

如果一家投资银行的一位很能干的女性高管有了孩子，她知道做兼职不是办法，觉得自己必须放慢事业节奏。另一方面，工作时间固定、离开办公室就不需再操心的女性则没有那么大的压力。在生儿育女之后，她们留在自己选定的职业轨道上要容易得多。

这些累人的高收入工作格外有利于男性雇员还有另外一个原因。在任何领域，工资光谱低端的晋升惯例通常都比较规范化。随着你在职场步步前进，你必须更善于推销自己，女性在这一点上比男性吃力。

当然，同样值得一提的是，常春藤毕业生除了自己挣钱多之外，身边往往也是有钱人。常春藤学生出身于中位数家庭收入在15.09万至20.42万美元之间的家庭。许多人的结婚对象也是有钱人，是同一所学校或类似学校的学生。当女性生儿育女时，如果有其他经济支持的来源，她们就更容易离开职场，或者找一份收入比较低的兼职工作。

如果一位女性既有高要求、低灵活度的工作，又有个富有的伴侣（许多常春藤女性都是这种处境），那么她在职场后退一大步或者彻底退出的可能性就会大得多。

通常说来，社会认为如果学生是大学毕业，在经济上就会比较富裕，如果他们毕业于名牌大学，就会更加富裕。总的来看，这是准确的。不过，对男性而言这更加准确。（葛雪蕾译自美国《大西洋》月刊网站2月2日文章）