How the Gender Pay Gap Works

Author's Note: How the Gender Pay Gap Works

Gender pay gaps are interesting. As someone who is self-employed, it's hard to compare my earnings with another writer because our jobs are typically so different. I choose to write for consumer media and not so much for corporations, where the pay is better. I supplement my writing with editing jobs and proofreading; others add speaking and teaching to pad their bottom line. But here's one interesting thing. The freelance writing field is heavily dominated by women. Yet many of the top-paying, most prestigious publications routinely assign their most desirable features to men. An editor at one of these magazines said he was not biased toward men at all. Rather, more male writers were submitting lead-feature ideas than women. In his opinion, women writers were just as skilled as men, but more intimidated to query his magazine. There is likely some truth to that. However, after decades of working in this field and hearing and observing writer-editor interactions, there is definitely some measure of bias against women, at least among some editors and at certain publications.

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