Professor Sarah Smith visited GIIS Punggol Smart Campus in April 2019, to talk about economics as a career option and evoke an understanding in the students about the gender pay gap. She is the current Chair of the Royal Economic Society women’s committee which works to promote the status of women in the UK including encouraging more girls to study economics.
Professor Sarah went on to highlight the gender pay gap between men and women. The two main reasons for the gap are standard economic perspectives and behavioural perspectives. The gender pay gap reflects different conditions in the labour market for female and male workers. Women lag behind men due to employment gap, gender pay gap and unequal opportunities.
Factors that impact the gender pay gap are labour demand that is, women and men do different types of jobs which is called occupational segregation and labour supply wherein the male population is more than the female population since women in general play a greater role in taking care of children which restricts them from taking up jobs that require intense travelling. In addition, there is unconscious bias towards women which results in men taking higher paying jobs compared to women, for example, company boards are typically dominated by men.
Professor Sarah then concluded the topic by stating reasons why women don’t study economics such as, lack of exposure in the schools, lack of role models, lack of interest in the subject. Although economists are the major influencers in determining what advices are given or what economic choices are made in determining government policies, women often think that economics is not an interesting subject.
With this insight, our students realised the importance of economics and the role of economists in the society at large which motivated them to explore various career options available in the field of economics such as market research analyst, economic consultant, actuary/risk analyst, credit analyst financial analyst and policy analyst.
Professor Sarah’s talk inspired our students to review various career options in the field of economics.