WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2015

Is sexism increasing in New Zealand?

Pay differences between men and women will be examined over summer in the University of Auckland’s School of Psychology.

‘Examining the gender-based pay gap: Are women more likely to be paid less than men in certain occupations?’ will be investigated by five psychology students selected for a Summer Research Scholarship.

They will be among nearly 500 students who will form a community of scholars at the University of Auckland over the next two months conducting research under the supervision of academics.

Their supervisors, Danny Osborne and Chris Sibley from the School of Psychology, say the research will contribute to an understanding of the current state of inequality in New Zealand.

“Recent studies have shown that inequality is on the rise in New Zealand and around the globe, and we know this has negative consequences for everyone’s health. In short, inequality is bad for society. Moreover, in terms of the values that Kiwis hold dear, inequality threatens some of our basic principles of fairness,” Danny says.

The students will analyse data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study, a 20-year longitudinal national probability study of social attitudes, personality and health outcomes conducted by the School of Psychology. The NZAVS is led by Dr Chris Sibley, and is unique to New Zealand.

Using this existing data the students will examine how pay differences between men and women, by occupation, have changed over a six year period. The data analyses will reveal if the pay gap is getting larger over time, and if differences exist in the size of this gap across industries.

Participants in the NZAVS are aged from 18 and all the way up to 80s and 90s, so it will cover inequality at various stages of people’s careers from 2009 to 2015.

“With over 15,000 participants in the NZAVS, data entry is a huge part of the task for our summer research scholars, but they will be contributing to some important understandings about where New Zealand society is at when it comes to gender inequality in the workplace.”

Summer scholar Melissa Sare, 20, says she is looking forward to gaining an understanding of how research is conducted in a university setting, while contributing to awareness of gender discrimination in New Zealand.

“I think this is important work because such research affects all New Zealanders. It was also a great way to fill in the long summer break,” she says.

The other students selected for the research are Sarah Christiansen, Sonali Dutt, Harrison Steiner-Fox and Helena Newton. They will also work with PhD student Yanshu Huang.

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