Ligi: Women Expect Husbands to Earn a Higher Salary
During Parliament's question time on April 16, Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi said that in his opinion, the gender pay gap is evidence of a social stereotype that is reproduced by both men and women.
According to Ligi, there should not be a gender pay gap in Estonia, but it has been statistically proven to be a fact of life, just as it is a fact of life in all the European countries. However, Estonia's 26.7 percent gender pay gap, as cited by Ligi, is wider than average.
"My own subjective opinion is that we are dealing with a social stereotype that is reproduced by both men and women. It is no secret that the salary figure is more crucial for men's self-esteem and that, unlike women, men rate salary more highly than other factors when it comes to employment opportunities. It is also no secret that a situation in which the man holds the purse strings is beneficial for family relationships and that women actually expect their husbands to earn a higher salary," said Ligi.
"That is not to say that I approve of this or consider it to be some kind of a goal. It is simply a fact of life and there is no need to be hypocritical about it, it seems to me. If we were to change our attitudes, then the first thing that we should do away with is this hypocrisy."
He added that there are several sides to the gender pay gap issue.
"It is no secret that men's greater efforts in the name of a higher salary, however they manifest themselves - I am not suggesting it is job quality, rather, it is a willingness to ask for a higher salary when interviewing for a position - they have their dark side as well in that we do not only have the widest gender pay gap in Estonia, but also one of the widest gender gaps in life expectancy," noted Ligi.
According to Ligi, it has also been noted that men's social vulnerability is greater and they are in bigger danger of dropping completely out of society due to economic reasons than women. 'There is no point in burying our heads in the sand about a thing like that. These social mechanisms were not established by one gender and definitely not by the government."
Sigrid Maasen