Teacup

In today’s day and age, many would agree that the myth of the gender gap is far from reality in modern society. With the feminism movement pushing for equal rights and pay for women in the workplace, women have many opportunities available at their disposal and yet the gender gap is still a debated topic in many industries, especially at management level.

Fashion: a gay man’s profession

In fashion and beauty, being a female dominated area, one would seemingly think that women would be paving the way in exemplary career moves but this is not the case, accordingly to reporter Eric Wilson for the New York Times. In now days, writes Eric, fashion “is a gay many’s profession” and women, although making up majority of the fashion consumers, face barriers in career advancement in the creative side.

Men’s average salaries are increasing while women’s are decreasing

Does this argument have any merit? Research conducted by Meetingsnet.com found that the salary gap has grown even wider from 2003 to 2005. Where average salary for males in executive management grew from $99,327 in 2003 to $109,042 in 2005, female counterparts’ salary has decreased from $75,129 in 2003 to $71,561 in 2005.

Research from Fortune also showed that from their top 25 best compensated male executives, the highest earning male topped at $350.7 million annually, whilst from the top 25 female executives, the highest earning woman earned a mere $38.6 million. A gap of $312.1 million.

Men have a quicker rise to stardom

In Eric’s article, knitwear designer Liz Collins quotes “There are some really deep-seated tensions and resentment that has existed for a long time about gender in fashion and who gets things. A lot of those things are not necessarily real, or true, and they may be just suspicions. But you can look at certain examples of people who have had a faster rise to stardom, and the percentage of gay men is higher.”

Men receive more recognition and more publicity

Although difficult to prove true, many females designers believe that several of their male counterparts have been presented with more industry awards and been given more prominent coverage in the media. “The Council of Fashion Designers of America, a trade group that vets those who apply for membership, is made up of 121 women and 156 men. Since 1986 its annual Perry Ellis awards for young talent have been given to 8 women and 29 men (20 of them openly gay),” writes Eric.

Women prioritise their life at home over their career

However, some of the differences in career outcomes for men and women results from different lifestyle choices for each gender. “Women still prioritise getting married and having babies,” says influential fashion designer Norma Kamali. “There are fewer women willing to give up the time that is required for this kind of career. It’s about passion, about being so focused that nothing could distract you.”

Men are more objective, Women are more empathetic

Designer Michael Vollbracht, believes that gay men are simply better at designing for women because their design visions are formed by the fantasy of the ideal women, whereas female designers tend to focus on practicality and are “trapped by their own views of themselves”. However, female designers are quick to argue back that if men are more objective in their designs, women were definitely more empathetic. “I wear my own clothes,” says business owner Dana Buchman. “I have lived the life of my customer.”

Women face barriers that men just don’t face

Jeanine Prime, author of a study on women in the workplace by Catalyst in Eric’s article, says ”We can’t explain the gender gap away by differences in qualifications, ambitions or success strategies. A lot of it still has to do with the perception that women don’t have the right leadership stuff. There are a lot of barriers that men just don’t face.”

Men and women face different lifestyle pressures

For many men, including gay men, it is easier to prioritise their career. They have the pressure of being seen as the ‘bread-maker’ in the family. Naturally, they are determined to advance in their career faster to secure an easy lifestyle for their loved ones. Women, on the other hand, although they can focus all of their energy on their career should they wish to, majority de-prioritise their work once they have had children wanting to become good mothers, and thus there are less women entering management level positions as their careers progress.

Is it a fair comparison? Does it really exist?

Although it is easy to compare pay levels and see a drastic dissimilarities between genders, Is this a fair comparison given the difference in proportions of number of people continually determined advance for each gender?