Why the Gender Wage Gap DOESN’T Exist (With EVIDENCE)!

Let’s get straight to the point:

Men and women have structurally different brains, but they also use their brains differently! This may be why men tend to excel with task-orientated projects, but women are better at language processing and multitasking. 

Needless to say, men and women have different brains on a biological level which would explain the differences in psychology and personality, which we’ll discuss now. 

On the psychological front, we are not talking about intelligence or IQ; studies have shown that men and women score equally on IQ and intelligence metrics. Men are not more intelligent than women, or vice versa. 

I’m not saying that at all!

There is no difference between men and women when it comes to cognitive ability, the data is clear on that. Where men and women do differ is on personality traits. 

Psychologists use the Big Five Model to understand personality which identifies 5 distinct personality metrics. 

These are:

1) Agreeableness — Agreeable people are generally trusting, generous, kind, considerate, and very willing to compromise even if it conflicts with their own interests. Agreeable people are often empathetic and have an optimistic view of human nature. Disagreeable people are more selfish, suspicious, unfriendly, uncooperative, and argumentative. Disagreeable people have less concern for other people’s feelings and emotions. 

2) Openness — Openness to experience is defined as having an appreciation for adventure, imagination, curiosity, and unusual ideas. Open people tend to be more creative and aware of their feelings. However, open individuals are more likely to suffer from addiction problems and engage in more risky behaviors. Unopen people have difficulty understanding abstract ideas and have poor imaginations. 

3) Conscientiousness — Conscientious people are extremely hard-working, self-disciplined, and strive for achievement. They are often stubborn and extremely focused on achieving a particular goal. Conscientious people like order, follow a schedule, pay attention to detail, and are always prepared. Unconscientious people are disorganized, impulsive, and lazy. Conscientiousness correlates strongly to success, people who score high on conscientiousness are often extremely successful in their careers. 

4) Extraversion — Extraverted people love to engage with the outside world. They love interacting with people and come across as extremely high energy in social situations. They appear more dominant in a group, love to talk, and assert themselves regularly. Introverts are the opposite, who will come across as very shy and uncomfortable in social situations and prefer to spend time inside and alone.  

5) Neuroticism — Neuroticism is a tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anxiety, anger, and depression. Neurotic people have a low tolerance for stress, let minor difficulties upset them, and are generally perceived as negative or pessimistic. People who score low on neuroticism have a stable mood and come across as relaxed most of the time. 

So, do men and women score differently on the Big Five personality test? 

Yes! The data is in and there is clear evidence of personality differences between women and men. Among college and adult samples with the Five-Factor Model of personality, women score higher than men for agreeableness and neuroticism. 

Women are more agreeable and neurotic than men. 

On the Big Five personality test with openness and extroversion, men and women show very little difference when sampled over a large population.

Men and women also score similarly on conscientiousness on the Big Five test, however over a large sample, men appear slightly more industrious, and women are slightly more orderly. The differences are negligible with conscientiousness though.