Even in the virtual marketplace–long held to be a great equalizer for online entrepreneurs–women make less money than men, according to a new survey. Women on eBay make about 80 cents for every dollar men make, mirroring the labor force where women average 81 cents for every dollar men make. Researchers compared male and female sellers offering identical products, and say the findings are particularly interesting because there is no argument to be made in this case–as is often made in the physical workforce–of difference of performance. Researchers and others hope shedding light on the phenomenon will make people more aware of their purchasing decisions, hopefully narrowing the gap.
qz.com – On the auction website eBay, women are receiving on average about 80 cents for every dollar men earn when selling the same product, according to new research.
We already know that products aimed at women, such as razors and deodorant, tend to be more expensive on the high street, but this research suggests that this seemingly built-in gender inequality persists even when men and women are bidding for the same thing on eBay.
Considering eBay’s policy of not stating the gender of its users, the persistence of sexism—when buyers can identify a seller’s gender—points to greater disparities in other markets when gender is known. In more than half of the evaluations of sellers’ profiles that participants in the study were asked to conduct, the researchers found that buyers were able to identify a seller’s gender.
The research, by sociologist Tamar Kricheli-Katz and economist Tali Regev, looked at data from more than a million transactions from 2009 to 2012 involving the most popular products auctioned on eBay in the US. As well as finding that women sellers were paid less for their goods than men, the research also found that women buyers tend to pay 3 percent more.
Read more here.
