Why the Gender Gap Won't Go Away. Ever.

I saw a summarized version of Why the Gender Gap Won't Go Away. Ever. over on LAF/Beautiful Womanhood the other day.  Honestly, I didn't make it through the original article because it is quite long, but I did read the summary on LAF.  I remember, I think it was in a stats class, or perhaps it was an international-development-type class, discussing why women earn less per dollar than men.  It all made a lot of sense. This article also explains why.

Here's just a snippet:

Here’s what the authors found: right after graduation, men and women had nearly identical earnings and working hours. Over the next ten years, however, women fell way behind. Survey questions revealed three reasons for this. First and least important, men had taken more finance courses and received better grades in those courses, while women had taken more marketing classes. Second, women had more career interruptions. Third and most important, mothers worked fewer hours. “The careers of MBA mothers slow down substantially within a few years of first birth,” the authors wrote. Though 90 percent of women were employed full-time and year-round immediately following graduation, that was the case with only 80 percent five years out, 70 percent nine years out, and 62 percent ten or more years out—and only about half of women with children were working full-time ten years after graduation. By contrast, almost all the male grads were working full-time and year-round. Furthermore, MBA mothers, especially those with higher-earning spouses, “actively chose” family-friendly workplaces that would allow them to avoid long hours, even if it meant lowering their chances to climb the greasy pole.