If you’re a woman and you were perceived as “headstrong” as a child, your earning power as an adult might be compromised.
A new study from economists at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University has found that whether someone is perceived as “headstrong” or “dependent,” can lead to associations with early adult income, depending on your gender.
The research, titled “Headstrong girls and dependent boys: Gender differences in the labor market returns to child behaviour” suggests that expectations for gender behaviour learned in childhood may contribute to differences in earnings in early adulthood.
Children deemed “headstrong” were likelier to argue, be disobedient at home, lose their temper, or exhibit stubborn characteristics and nervousness.
Those deemed “dependent” demanded more attention, clung to adults more frequently and were more likely to cry.
A young woman who was deemed “headstrong” as a child was found to earn US$2,431 (AUD$3,407) less per year than men in similar employment positions.
This young woman will also make US$2,092 (AUD$2,933) less if she was one level higher than another woman on the “headstrong” scale created by child psychologists.
A man however will earn US$339 (AUD$475) more compared with a male employee who is lower on the headstrong scale.
Robert Kaestner, a research professor at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago who co-authored the research with associate professor Ofer Malamud from Northwestern, said being headstrong is not compensated for men, while it is penalised for women.
“Women are being penalised for being headstrong relative to men, but they’re also being penalised for being headstrong relative to women who are less headstrong,” Kaestner told CNBC.
“Men are being penalised for being dependent where women are not.”
Dependency appears to be a compromising trait for men — those who as children were perceived to be more dependent were paid about US$1,632 (AUD$2,288) less than their male counterpart who were seen as less dependent.
For women, the researchers found no significant difference in income based on their level of dependency.
The research, based on data from the 1979 Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, compared associations between childhood behavioural issues between ages 4-12 to early adult earnings between 24 to 30.
Kaestner added that these latest results are “only suggestive” that the gender wage gap might be due to views of how men and women in similar positions are expected to behave and how people who do not exhibit a certain characteristic can have their wages reduced.
Kaestner insists that further research is required to determine whether gender behaviour actually contributes to the wage gap, including assessing employees and their behaviour, as opposed to publicly available data.
This kind of research can help identify whether the behaviours contribute to reduced productivity, and thus reduced pay, or whether employees are treated differently for the same performance.
“My intuition, supported by evidence, is that our views of gender are changing over time,” Kaestner added.
In 2020, the Pew Research Center found that women earned just 84 percent of what men made, a figure which has remained consistent for 15 years.
This pay gap has historically been attributed to differences in occupation, experience and education. This latest research is proving that other reasons, such as the deviation from gender norms and stereotypes in the workplace, might be contributing to this gap.
You can read the full report here.