The impact of the gender pay gap in the translation industry

It’s hard to get precise numbers, but it’s accepted that there are more women working as translators than men. That fact makes the perception of this job less “prestigious”, according to a study. That‘s why we need to take consistent action and fight prejudice.

I’ll never forget what a former female co-worker told me in London almost ten years ago when we were both working for the BBC. After turning 30, she said she felt her biological clock ticking and worried about her long-life goal of having children.

Her precarious employment conditions and the uncertainty felt after the 2008 world economic crisis, led her to believe the dream of being a mother could be just that… a dream.

“Well, as they say, you can’t have it all”, I replied with a stupidly arrogant certainty.

After all these years, I changed my opinion. I believed it is each one of us moral duty to claim equal rights for men and women. We have to fight for a fairer society where our gender can’t be an obstacle to our professional success.

The (many) causes of the problem

At home, I always did the laundry and other household chores equally divided with my wife.

You can’t imagine my amazement, when I saw a piece on the TV about gender inequality, stating that only 4% of men in Portugal admit doing the laundry, according to a 2013 survey by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

I knew few men did the household chores. But I never imagined that this percentage was so low. I quickly bragged about how “lucky” my wife was and kept repeating that infamous statistic whenever she commented on my domestic contribution.

The idea women should feel “privileged” because they have husbands who help them, it’s the thinking fueling and perpetuating inequality.

It also helps to prevent both sexes to share the household tasks equally.

This discrimination is so embedded in our society, we can’t blame only men. The messages trivialising women’s role are repeated to exhaustion and assumed as a “cultural thing”.

“It’s just the way it is”, we often hear saying of a man who ignores household chores because he needs to dedicate himself to professional growth.

Ignorance hurts and in this issue is striking. According to the European Commission (EC) only 26% of Europeans know of the legal requirement of equal pay for the same work in their countries.

But the problem gets worst.

There are critics who claim wage inequality is a myth. Lisa Annese refutes these arguments in this clear article:

Women earn less because they “choose” to work part-time or avoid working extra hours as men do

In countries where the rate of female unemployment is low, the gender pay gap is lower, such as in Italy where it’s less than 10%. One hypothesis says this may reflect a lower percentage of unskilled women in the labor market.

But this difference aggravates in countries where there is labor segregation and women are restricted to certain industries such as in the Czech Republic, Estonia and Finland, or a significant portion of women work part-time, like in Germany and Austria.

The wage gap between men and women can reach 30% in these countries, says the EC.

Women “choose” less well-paid jobs

Studies show that when many women work in an industry, all workers are paid less, as showed in this article.

Even worse, another study shows that when more women work in an industry the lower is its perceived “prestige”.

Work-life balance

There are in Europe more women than men choosing to take parental leave. In addition, there is a great difficulty finding suitable places to leave their children while trying to keep up with different work schedules and shifts. These are strong factors that often “push” women out of the labor market.

Only 65.8% of women in the European Union with young children work, compared with 89.1% of men. In Europe, 32% of women work part-time, compared with only 8% of men.

Stereotypes

Segregation is often linked to stereotypes. Although most college graduates are women (about 60%) they are a minority in areas such as mathematics, computing and engineering.

There are fewer women working in high demand and well paid scientific and technical fields as opposed to lower wage jobs.

What about the translation industry?

A 2012 study in the United States reveals that there are over 3000 companies dedicated to translation and that over 60% of people working in the industry are women.

This profession is appealing to women. Freelance work allows them to work from home and gives them freedom to have children if they wish so.

Translation and interpreting jobs require excellent interpersonal skills.

It is widely recognized that women are more intuitive and are empathetic to sensitive cases, such as interpreting a rape case before a doctor or judge, which are tasks usually assigned to women.

Several investigations also conclude that women may be better than men at multitasking, which might give them an advantage in the way they deal with two or more different languages.

Does this mean that women are better translators than men? I don’t think we should focus on that question. Much more important is to find out how the impact of the gender pay gap in the translation industry because of its majority of female workers.

What next?

After all mentioned in this article, does it make sense to continue celebrating International Women’s Day?

Well, most Europeans (58% men and 51% women) think enough attention is given to the wage gap in their companies, although 69% of Europeans think women earn less than men.

90% of Europeans believe it is unacceptable for women to get paid less than men for performing the same duties.

We need to cooperate. The average four hours of household tasks done by women can easily turn into years over a lifetime.

This time poverty prevents most women from following the career of their dreams, to engage in other leisure activities or having more time for themselves.

As a man, I believe gender equality is a pressing issue. Not only for women, but for men as well. I say I wash the dishes, do the laundry, I do grocery shopping and I even give my opinion on which rug color is the best choice for the kitchen.

I believe it’s not expected for men to pay the bill on a romantic date. Men shouldn’t also be ashamed because their wives earn more than they do.

It is time to leave behind our “macho” role and allow us to show our feelings. Men cry and it’s only human to admit our weaknesses. As a man I try every day to stop prejudices and fight against gender discrimination. I don’t do it for women… I do it for everyone’s sake!

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