Gender gaps in employment exist in every country in the world. Men, on average, make more money, have more positions of leadership, and are more active in the workforce than women. An article last month by economists in the Wall Street Journal suggests that women freely choose lower-salaried jobs with fewer working hours that earn them less money and that any other explanation is “a myth that won’t go away.” That is, if women were to simply make choices that funneled them into leadership positions and higher paying jobs, or to choose to work as many hours and days as men, then they would make as much money as men do.

Those who make these conclusions fail to appreciate the power of psychology and the fact that behavior cannot be reduced to choices made in a vacuum. They forget the context in which women are making these “choices.” Missing from this analysis of gender employment gaps are at least two fundamental forces that psychology can address. The first has to do with social expectations of men and women that create legitimate barriers for women in the choices that they can make. The second has to do with what are called “masculine defaults” in the workplace. This blog will tackle the first assumption about expectations placed on women; a future blog will cover masculine defaults.

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