The gender pay gap is not just a number – it’s a symptom of the larger gender inequalities that continue to shape our societies.
What? Why?
That was my reaction when I found out I was being paid exactly half of what my male colleague earned, despite doing the same job as correspondents at a daily newspaper. I went straight to HR, determined to get answers. Their response?
“We didn’t know your qualifications and experience.”
I was dumbfounded. What? I thought. Were they serious? Did they not believe in reviewing CVs before offering jobs? This excuse was as weak as it gets, but sadly, workplaces have gotten away with this for decades—and they still do.
Fast forward to 2024, and the gender pay gap persists. Women are still working the same jobs as men, but they are being paid less. In fact, in the United States, the gender pay gap widened slightly, with women earning 82% of what men earned in 2022, up from 80% in 2002. According to International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Global Wage Report 2018-19, women across the world were still earning about 20 per cent less than men owing to structural barriers to equality.
The gender pay gap: more than just numbers
My first job in an Indian newsroom paid me around Rs 9,000 per month—a ludicrously low amount, even for 2003. This was despite my solid international experience of four years. Meanwhile, a male colleague who joined just a week later, in the exact same position, was offered Rs 15,000 for the same job. We both had postgraduate degrees and identical levels of experience. That difference in our salaries is the gender gap – when men and women are paid different for the same job.
In 2024, the ILO called gender pay gap the “greatest social injustice.” And it is – because the gap is not just about salaries for the exact same job, but also about how women are often steered or forced into jobs or industries that pay less, or how they get fewer chances for promotions or higher-paying roles. The gender pay gap is a reflection of the male-female stereotype that exists in our societies where women’s caregiving roles—exalted in countries like India but rarely truly valued—often overshadow their potential as providers. Let’s look at some of the structural barriers that help the gender pay gap thrive.
Gender-based occupational segregation
The gender-based occupational segregation, or the unequal distribution of men and women across different occupations and hierarchies, is one of the major factors that drive the gender pay gap. This segregation is, again, a reflection of gender stereotypes in our society – men are providers and women are nurturers so they are also expected to prioritize their caregiving roles . Have you ever noticed how many women work as teachers or nurses or as paid caregivers? In India, we have one million women who work as voluntary health workers at the community level, who played an invaluable role in containing the COVID-19 pandemic. They work on nominal, incentives-based salaries of Rs 6,000 – 11,000 a month.
“Women’s occupations are often a mirror of the common stereotypes associated with women and their supposed abilities- caring nature, greater housework skills etc. Without adequate support for care work from the State or the market, women often end up clustering around occupations that can provide them enough flexibility to manage care responsibilities at home,” Mridusmita Bordoloi, an Economist at the Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality (IWWAGE), had written in a blog.
“Moreover, gendered perceptions of employers can also lead to discriminatory hiring practices. Job roles offered to women tend to have either lower prospects of growth or pay less, as compared to those offered to men. Employers often perceive that women cannot give longer hours to jobs or cannot take up highly demanding managerial roles due to their primary responsibility as caregivers.”
In India, this segregation was 35.3% in 2019-20, with higher segregation in urban areas than rural areas. The Global Gender Gap Report 2024 also showed similar trends worldwide. While women made up most workers in Healthcare and Care Services, Education, Consumer Services, and Government and Public Sector, they had the lowest presence in Utilities ; Supply, Chain and Transportation; Oil, Gas, and Mining; and Infrastructure.In fact, even when women break into these higher-paying industries, they still face a pay gap. Women in finance, for instance, earn about 30% less than their male counterparts for the same work.
“It’s frustrating,” says a finance professional, who’s experienced this first-hand. “I was always told that if I worked hard and proved myself, the pay would come. But I realised, even when I was outperforming my male peers, I was still paid less. It’s like I had to prove myself more to get lesser recognition.”
This segregation begins in schools
This segregation, however, begins much earlier in the life cycle of a woman. Families tend to encourage sons to specialise in fields that have better pay, such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related fields, while girls are usually nudged towards Humanities education – the thinking behind this is simple; girls are never brought up as providers or breadwinners – they are always brought up as caregivers.
For example, findings from the All India Higher Education Survey (AIHES), 2021-22 shows in undergraduate humanities programs, 54% of the 24.16 lakh graduates are women, and in postgraduate social sciences, 58.5% of the 3.87 lakh graduates are women. Therefore, the employability of women for jobs that require technical skills has been relatively low, which eventually contributes to segregation.
The stereotype of “girls can’t do math” has ruined many a girl’s future prospects. There is no scientific evidence that boys are better at math and hence STEM subjects than girls. A 2019 study that boys and girls start out with the same potential for math. Differences in STEM skills and careers seen later in life are likely shaped by experiences, expectations, and opportunities, rather than biology.
For instance, the study said, “4- to 7-year-old boys show an advantage over girls in tests of spatial skills, but parents also report more-spatial play with their boys compared with their girls,” adding that teachers also devoted more time to explaining concepts to boys than girls. “This is important because teachers’ perceptions of children’s math ability predicts later math achievement scores. Parents’ expectations about their children’s success also correlate with children’s own self-concepts of their abilities and their performance on math tasks,” the research said. These social influences shape children’s interests and self-beliefs, and right from the word go puts girls at a disadvantage.
Unconscious bias: leveraging social and cultural stereotypes
Another significant contributor to the pay gap is unconscious bias and discrimination. Biases—whether in hiring, promotions, or pay decisions—often result in women being offered lower salaries, overlooked for promotions, or passed over for high-status roles. These biases can be so subtle that they’re often invisible to those who perpetuate them.
“I was always told I was ‘too aggressive’ when I asked for a raise. Meanwhile, my male colleagues, with less experience and fewer skills, would be praised for their assertiveness,” a journalist friend once told me.
These biases aren’t always intentional. But whether it’s because of gender, perceived productivity, or personal preferences, the result is the same—women are paid less for the same work.
Many women also face barriers to salary negotiations. Research has consistently shown that women are less likely to ask for raises or promotions compared to men. When they do, they may be penalised socially or perceived as “difficult” or “aggressive.” This reluctance to negotiate often leads to women accepting lower starting salaries, which compounds over time.
And while there have been new research that claims that this is not true and that women are now asking for higher salaries than they did before – I am not sure if it’s not just happening in pockets. After all, this research also had two interesting conclusions. First, they were not sure if this increase in female negotiation was happening in other professions, too, and second, while women might be asking for higher salaries, they are still earning less than men. So, we are back to the basics again. The gender pay gap is real and remains unaddressed.
A woman in her early thirties, who works in a top-tier tech organisation in Delhi says when she was offered a position at her company, she didn’t negotiate the salary. “It was a mix of feeling lucky that I got the job—the gratitude that they chose me, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Even when they straight-out asked me what my expectations were, I told them I was sure they would offer me a competitive salary,” she remembers. “I cringe everytime I think of that! And I feel angry at myself for underselling my qualifications and experiences because I didn’t want to risk seeming ungrateful. Looking back, I realise I probably could have negotiated a higher salary, but I didn’t even try. I’ve been trying to play catch-up ever since.”
Me too.
There is, however, a very practical reason behind this attitude: there is a severe lack of decent job opportunities for women. We are held back by fears for our safety, and the need for flexible hours so we can balance caregiving duties with work responsibilities. This has been well-documented by research. A 2021 World Bank paper found that female students from Delhi University often made college choices based on safety concerns. They were more likely to select lower-quality colleges located along safer travel routes and were willing to pay significantly more to ensure safe commutes. This willingness to pay for safety resulted in a 17% reduction in the present discounted value of their post-college salaries.
“While this study focuses on the role of street harassment in explaining women’s choice of college, the findings are relevant for other economic decisions made by women that could be affected by their propensity to avoid harassment such as the choice of where to live, where to work or even whether to work or not,” noted author of the study, Girija Borker, an Economist and Gender Programme Coordinator in the Development Impact Evaluation at the World Bank, in the study’s conclusion.
The motherhood penalty: how caregiving burdens penalise women
One of the more insidious causes of the gender pay gap is the issue of workplace flexibility, particularly when it comes to caregiving responsibilities. Women are more likely to take career breaks, work part-time, or reduce their hours to manage caregiving responsibilities—whether raising children or caring for ageing relatives. These interruptions in employment inevitably lead to lower lifetime earnings and fewer career advancement opportunities.
The “motherhood penalty” is a perfect example of how this plays out. When women have children, they often experience a wage decline.
Gender pay gap increases when women are between the ages of 35 and 44, a Pew Research Centre study had found in 2023. “In 2022, women ages 25 to 34 earned about 92% as much as men of the same ages, but women ages 35 to 44 and 45 to 54 earned 83% as much. The ratio dropped to 79% among those ages 55 to 64. This general pattern has not changed in at least four decades,” the study said.
The study had pointed out that the increase in the pay gap “coincides with the age at which women are more likely to have children under 18 at home.”
“In 2022, 40% of employed women ages 25 to 34 had at least one child at home. The same was true for 66% of women ages 35 to 44 but for fewer – 39% – among women ages 45 to 54. Only 6% of employed women ages 55 to 64 had children at home in 2022,” the study had said.
A 2020 study reviewed research on the “motherhood wage penalty,” analyzed 208 studies about wages for mothers with one child and 245 studies about wages for mothers with multiple children and found that on average, mothers earn 3.6-3.8% less than childless women. The main reasons for this wage gap include lost work experience and career breaks after having children, which reduce skills and career progression. Mothers also often choose flexible or family-friendly jobs, which may pay less, but this plays a smaller role than lost career growth.
The study also found that the wage penalty is lower for highly educated mothers and those in supportive work environments, like Nordic countries or regions like Belgium and France, where policies make it easier for women to combine work and family. In countries like Germany, the Netherlands, and Anglo-Saxon nations, mothers face an unexplained wage gap of 3–6%. In Central and Eastern Europe (Poland and Ukraine), this gap rises to 6–14%, likely due to limited family support and fewer mothers in the workforce. In India, the motherhood penalty is multi-layered. It often forces women out of the workforce for longer than the mandated maternity leave owing to social norms and expectations that places an exploitative mother halo around women – which is really just another way to make them believe that only they can provide child care. “A child needs its mother” – how many times have we heard that?
This has created a cycle of exploitation for women returning to their jobs – often they have to start again from scratch, settling for lower wages and in jobs beyond their their level of expertise. More caregiving duties also mean women look for less demanding jobs with flexible timing.
However, guess what the fatherhood penalty looks like? Oh! Wait! There’s none – infact there’s the fatherhood wage premium or the “fatherhood bonus”, which is the increase in earnings of men (4-13%) after becoming fathers. A 2022 study had concluded that “the impact of a child on a man is positively related with a significantly higher income comparatively to that on a woman, which can help explain a proportion of the gender wage gap.”
This is again playing into the societal trope that fathers are providers and must be able to provide, while mothers are caregivers and must diminish and invisibilise themselves to provide care. This rigid binary of male-female and productive-reproductive labor is a significant driver of the gender-based pay gap worldwide.
The leadership gap: missing mentors and pay transparency
One of the biggest barriers to addressing the gender pay gap is the lack of pay transparency. Without clear pay scales, employees cannot easily compare their compensation to that of their colleagues. This makes it difficult for women to know if they’re being paid less than their male counterparts, often until it’s too late.
I can’t recall many jobs I’ve applied to in the last two decades where the pay scale was clearly mentioned. However, I distinctly remember numerous times when I was hired for a position, only to later discover that my male colleagues were being paid significantly more for doing the same work. And that’s been every job I’ve held to date.
This lack of transparency allows employers to set salaries based on their biases—consciously or unconsciously—leading to unequal pay. By not publishing salary data, companies perpetuate a system where disparities remain hidden. Salary transparency should be an essential part of being an inclusive and gender-responsive organisation. It would make it harder for biases to go unchecked and give employees the tools they need to advocate for themselves.
Women are also underrepresented in top managerial and executive roles. This lack of female leadership is both a consequence and a contributor to the gender pay gap. When women do not see themselves reflected in leadership, it becomes harder for them to envision a path to the top. They may also lack the same access to mentors, sponsors, or networks that can help them advance.
The Global Gender Gap report found that “top-level positions remain narrowly accessible for women, globally speaking, illustrated by the global “drop to the top”. In 2024, the gap between entry-level and C-suite representation for women remains stark, with a 21.5 percentage-point difference. While nearly half of entry-level roles are held by women, they account for less than a quarter of C-suite positions. Once seen as a positive trend, the hiring of women into leadership roles has declined, dropping from 37.5% in 2023 to 36.4% in early 2024—lower than 2021 levels.
I’ve been lucky enough to have a few female mentors in my career, but they’ve been few and far between. More often than not, I found myself in situations where I had to prove myself more than my male colleagues, despite doing the same work. It’s a long, challenging road to the top when there’s no one who looks like you, thinks like you, or understands (read: ridicules) your unique challenges.
This lack of transparency and representation is not just holding back women – but also economies. Addressing these issues is not just a matter of fairness—it’s an economic imperative. By tackling the leadership gap and ensuring pay transparency, we take the first steps toward unlocking the full potential of our workforce.
But how do we get there?
Fixing the gender pay gap requires bold, systemic change. It involves rethinking workplace policies, challenging ingrained biases, and creating an enabling ecosystem that values and supports women’s contributions. Whether it’s improving pay transparency, addressing caregiving burdens, or increasing representation in leadership, the solutions are clear.
The increasing participation of women in the labour force has been one of the most important economic changes globally over the past century. As countries like India push for economic growth, tapping into the full potential of women is essential. In India, while women’s workforce participation has increased to 37% – yet it is low with a majority of women either not working or working in the informal sector. For example, India has the highest number of women STEM graduates in the world at 42.6% – but they form only about 27% of the STEM workforce. It is time to look beyond the numbers and ask ourselves – what can we do to bring back those 15.6% – over a 100 million women – to the workforce? India’s ambition to become a $7 trillion economy by 2030 hinges on its ability to create an enabling ecosystem that would allow half its population to enter and stay in the workforce.
Addressing the gender pay gap is crucial to this. And the first step to fixing this would be to understand that the gender pay gap isn’t just a “women’s issue.” It’s an issue that affects everyone, especially in developing countries where progress is directly tied to the inclusion of women in the workforce. The second step – and in my opinion one that is not talked about much but is as important – is pay transparency. Pay transparency exposes disparities and gives women the tools to advocate for equal pay. Employers must also address unconscious biases that hinder women’s advancement and establish gender-responsive policies that prioritize inclusion at every level.
And the most important of all steps, and definitely the most urgent for India, would be to address the disproportionate caregiving burden that often falls on women. Policies like affordable childcare, shared parental leave, and flexible work arrangements can help balance responsibilities and prevent women from being penalized for caregiving.
The bottom line? Pay parity isn’t a favor—it’s our right.
