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Gender differences in pay among university faculty in Russia
Author(s) -
Rudakov Victor N.,
Prakhov Ilya A.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
higher education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.976
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1468-2273
pISSN - 0951-5224
DOI - 10.1111/hequ.12277
Subject(s) - gender pay gap , wage , unobservable , wage inequality , demographic economics , hierarchy , gender discrimination , higher education , gender inequality , occupational segregation , inequality , university faculty , gender disparity , sex discrimination , gender equality , political science , sociology , economics , labour economics , gender studies , economic growth , medical education , medicine , law , mathematical analysis , mathematics , econometrics
Abstract The study focuses on the issue of gender discrimination in pay among university faculty in Russia, a country with an exceptionally high share of female faculty in higher education. Using a comprehensive and nationally representative survey of university faculty, we found that although women in academia earn considerably less than men, gender inequality among university faculty is lower than in the non‐academic sector. The study shows that gender differences in pay can be mainly explained by vertical gender segregation: women are less likely to achieve senior positions in the university hierarchy, which brings a high wage premium. Another explanation is horizontal segregation, when there is a prevalence of male faculty in Moscow‐based universities, which provide a considerable wage premium compared to regional ones. A decomposition of the gender wage gap shows that slightly more than half of it can be explained by observable factors, while the rest can be attributed to discrimination and unobservable characteristics. Within the unexplained part the major part can be attributed to favoritism towards men and the minor part to discrimination against women. We found some evidence that faculty in research universities, which actively implement performance‐related pay, experience less gender inequality.