THE COST OF BEING FEMALE:REJOINDER TO SAYERS

Walter E. Block ()
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Walter E. Block: Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans

Review of Social and Economic Issues, 2014, vol. 1, issue 1, 37-69

Abstract: A number of economists maintain that (discounted marginal revenue) productivity determines wages; since women have less of this characteristic than do men, on average, their wages are lower. This is not necessarily because of any intrinsic “failure” on the part of females. Rather, it stems in large part from the fact that they do a disproportionate share of household and child rearing tasks. Since there are alternative costs of these time expenditures, this accounts for their lower level of productivity. According to the marital asymmetry hypothesis (MAH), never married males and females should have equal wages, and they roughly do, since their household time investments tend to be equal. Sayers, 2012 takes sharp issue with this explanation of the pay gap. The present article is a rejoinder to Sayers, 2012. It points out errors in her critique of the marital asymmetry hypothesis and in her general condemnation of the free enterprise system.

Keywords: Feminism; discrimination; pay gap; wage differentials; sexism; marital asymmetry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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