Even in 2016, there are still gender stigmas and wage gaps in almost every job field.

By Briana Delbuono

BBC

Even in 2016, there are still gender stigmas and wage gaps in almost every job field.

You just graduated college with your Bachelor’s degree and you don’t know what jobs to apply to that relate to your field. Here’s what you should know before applying.

If you are a nursing major and you’re a man, you are still likely to make more than women even though you are in a mostly female-dominated field.

“Even in nursing, which is dominated by women—male nurses are outnumbered almost 10:1—men make more,” Dan Diamond, Managing Editor at advisory.com said. “The average salary per year in 2011 was nearly $61,000 for a male nurse, and just $51,100 for a female nurse.”

Don’t let this discourage you – you can still benefit from having a passion for nursing. You will never have to search for a job because there will always be a need for nurses. As far as moving up the ranks, opportunities come to those who work for them, regardless of gender.

Although, if you are a woman and you are an aspiring journalist, you might have an advantage.

“A landmark survey in 2011 of more than 500 media companies worldwide found that women made up only about one-third of the journalism workforce,” John Wihbey said on Journalistsresource.org.

Setting aside the wage gap, if this is your field of choice, there is nothing to fear. This line of work always forces you to step out of your comfort zone and allows you to get your name out there. Who wouldn’t want that? Plus, the actual wage gap is smaller if you compare women and men doing the same job.

And, although this is typically rare, female social workers actually make more than males in the same field – averaging $1.08 for every male dollar. This career is also especially satisfying because of the field’s increasing demand and flexible hours.

If you think extra schooling will eliminate the wage gap issue, however, you’re wrong. Even careers that typically require more schooling fall victim to the dreadful wage gap. “An AAUW analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey data found that overall, women in computer and mathematical occupations were paid 87 percent of what their male counterparts were paid. And in engineering and architecture, women were typically paid 82 percent of what their male counterparts were paid,” Renee Davidson wrote on aauw.org.

In the college sphere, the same is true. Female professors tend to make less than their male counterparts in the same field, with the issue tending to be worse in Ivy League schools. However, that is not necessarily true for other schools.

“The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, which came in at No. 10 on gender wage disparity, also paid the highest average salary for female faculty — $271,000. New York Law School and Harvard likewise paid some of the highest average salaries for female faculty,” Tyler Kingkade said on Huffingtonpost.com. “Another one of the 10 best paying schools for female faculty, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, actually paid female professors over $7,000 more on average than male professors.”

Try not to be discouraged; there is hope – especially for women. Times are changing. Even Donald Trump has pushed to end the wage disparity, saying women should get “equal pay for equal work,” as quoted by Ariana Eunjung Cha on Washingtonpost.com.  

“According to a March “Women at Work” report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the gender wage gap continues to narrow. Women earned 81 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2010, (which is) up from 76 cents in 2000,” Jenna Goudreau wrote on Forbes.com.