While we’re trying to keep up with classes and have a social life, us collegiettes also have to determine what we’re going to do with the rest of our lives. We’re worrying about which major will make be the most lucrative (to pay off those loans!), but we also want field of study that we genuinely like. Unfortunately, it seems that even will all that planning, women, specifically those who attend Ivy Leagues, still fall short compared to men when it comes to yearly earnings.
According to the Huffington Post, the gap between genders on the pay scale is still as problematic as ever, as shown by the US Department of Education’s data, which tracked the income of those who took out federal student loans and enrolled in 2000 or 2001. Ten years after graduating, male Harvard graduates make approximately $53,600 more than female Harvard grads per year. The New York Times also reported that the widest gap between men and women grads was $58,100 per year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a chart they made shows huge differences at many top schools.
Choice of major seems to affect the pay gap. “Women overwhelmingly choose humanities and social sciences. Men choose engineering and computer science. The men are getting the big bucks,” Linda Babcock, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told the Huffington Post. “But that’s not necessarily because of inherent interest in the topics.” After 10 years CMU female grads earn about $76,000, while males earn a whopping $108,000.
When men and women study in the same field, the gender pay gap is cut by half, but nonetheless still exists, Amelia Haviland, one of Babcock’s colleagues at Carnegie Mellon, told the Huffington Post. Even with more women than men declaring math as their major, women often end up becoming teachers, resulting in a lower salary than men, who become actuaries. The cause for the gap after graduating is also attributed to maternity leave, as starting a family isn’t exactly cheap.
Pretty disturbing that this gender gap is still so large, even at the highest levels of education. But it makes sense when you think about the tiny number of female CEOs, or books like Lean In that give advice in the hopes that it will get more women into top positions. This new data just shows that college women still have a lot to fight for!