A 2010 study on why women with degrees in the sciences earn less than men 5 years after graduation found something startling. Job placement policies in the colleges and universities were the drivers of the pay difference.
Over 70 percent of thousands of schools surveyed admitted that it was school policy to encourage women about to graduate with degrees in the sciences to go into teaching. This stereotyped career guidance led more than 60 percent of women to go into teaching straight out of school.
This career path had lifelong implications on their earnings. Teachers tend to earn less than people working in practical application fields when coming out of school.
Further, people who went into teaching, men or women, after working in industry got better paying teaching jobs than people who had been in the teaching field since school.
All around, going into teaching straight out of school was bad carreer planning advice. Yet many school policies still push women in that direction.
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