Belkis Megraoui
25 Jul 2018
Research shows that students of both genders are pessimistic about their graduate starting salaries, and this is particularly the case with women. Save the Student’s recently published National Student Money Survey 2018 discovered that “while men feel slightly more positive about earnings than a year ago (when they predicted a starting salary of £23,139), women still price themselves a full grand under the average, and four grand less than male graduates.”
his is despite the overwhelming number of female university applicants in comparison to male applicants – as reported by The Independent, recent statistics from UCAS showed that almost 100,000 more women than men are applying to universities in the UK – 367,300 female applicants in contrast with 269,660 male applicants, which leaves an exact gap of 97,640 students.
Are these statistics shocking to me? Unfortunately, not really. Growing up, many women would probably tell you that society has often tried to shove the idea into their heads that no matter how successful they’d like to become when they’re older, they probably never will earn as much as their male counterparts.
Is this because men are the traditional breadwinners and women supposedly aren’t? Or is it that dreaded assumption that all women are expected to ultimately take the part-time route because they are going to become mothers one day, and thus will require more domestic time to attend to their maternal duties and responsibilities? Or maybe it’s just that somehow, men are more capable of doing the very same job that we can and love to do, and thus remain more deserving of a grander reward? At least that’s what society likes to tell us – (curse you, society). Luckily, I have a mindset that has always rebelled against this type of notion – so I’m all well and good?