Trends in the earnings gender gap among dentists, physicians, and lawyers.

BACKGROUND: The authors examined the factors associated with sex differences in earnings for 3 professional occupations. METHODS: The authors used a multivariate Blinder-Oaxaca method to decompose the differences in mean earnings across sex. RESULTS: Although mean differences in earnings between men and women narrowed over time, there remained large, unaccountable earnings differences between men and women among all professions after multivariate adjustments. For dentists, the unexplained difference in earnings for women was approximately constant at 62% to 66%. For physicians, the unexplained difference in earnings for women ranged from 52% to 57%. For lawyers, the unexplained difference in earnings for women was the smallest of the 3 professions but also exhibited the most growth, increasing from 34% in 1990 to 45% in 2010. CONCLUSIONS: The reduction in the earnings gap is driven largely by a general convergence between men and women in some, but not all, observable characteristics over time. Nevertheless, large unexplained gender gaps in earnings remain for all 3 professions. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Policy makers must use care in efforts to alleviate earnings differences for men and women because measures could make matters worse without a clear understanding of the nature of the factors driving the differences.

Gender relations and sexual communication among female students in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam.

Young women's ability to pursue a safer-sex life in line with their wishes is crucial to their sexual health. Although some previous observations have suggested that young women's lack of ability to negotiate safer sex is due to gender power imbalances in the culture of Vietnam, studies that have tested this hypothesis explicitly and quantitatively are few and far between. The present study aimed to test the association between perceived gender relations and perceived self-efficacy in communicating sexual matters among undergraduate female students in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam. The analysis involved secondary data from 260 subjects from a larger survey regarding gender equity. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the study's hypothesis. Results showed that adherence to traditional gender roles and norms was significantly associated with female students' reduced self-efficacy to communicate on safer-sex matters, such as refusing unwanted sex or requesting condom use. This association remained invariant in the cross-validation process between partnered and unpartnered groups. Programmes that aim to promote safer-sex negotiation and practices for this population may need to address the influence of gender relations and power.