Pourquoi les femmes gagnent-elles moins que les hommes ?

One of the most important socio-economic changes over the course of the last few decades has been the massive influx of women into the workforce. While men still maintain a higher participation rate in paid work, the gap has diminished over time. Women's headway in the workforce is closely linked to the remarkable progress they have made in education. But women's advantage in education does not translate into the wages they receive. While, on average, the gender pay gap has diminished over the last 25 years, women continue to earn less than men, even among younger and better-educated generations. Why is this the case? This synthesis examines the contribution of numerous statistical studies using Statistics Canada's microdata and shedding light on the relative merits of four hypotheses that have been posited to explain the presence and evolution of the gender wage gap.