There was a brief moment 150 years ago when it looked like women might get equal pay for equal work. But they didn’t—and that set the standard for decades to come. On this episode of the Pay Check, Rebecca Greenfield revisits a Civil War-era sex scandal that set the stage for the pay gap debates we're having right now. She talks to Claire Suddath about how a century of rules and laws saying what women can and can’t do have made it easy for companies to pay women less. 

One big reason the gender pay gap still exists is because of a phenomenon called "occupational sorting"— the idea that some jobs are dominated by women, and those jobs often pay less. That didn't just happen. Claire and Rebecca sort through how history determined the market value for women. Then Claire talks with Lilly Ledbetter, whose fight for gender equality at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. seemed like an open and shut case—until a loophole in the law denied her justice.

Visit us at https://www.bloomberg.com/the-paycheck

There was a brief moment 150 years ago when it looked like women might get equal pay for equal work. But they didn’t—and that set the standard for decades to come. On this episode of the Pay Check, Rebecca Greenfield revisits a Civil War-era sex scandal that set the stage for the pay gap debates we're having right now. She talks to Claire Suddath about how a century of rules and laws saying what women can and can’t do have made it easy for companies to pay women less. One big reason the gender pay gap still exists is because of a phenomenon called "occupational sorting"— the idea that some jobs are dominated by women, and those jobs often pay less. That didn't just happen. Claire and Rebecca sort through how history determined the market value for women. Then Claire talks with Lilly Ledbetter, whose fight for gender equality at Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Co. seemed like an open and shut case—until a loophole in the law denied her justice.Visit us at https://www.bloomberg.com/the-paycheck

You spend more time at your job than just about anywhere else. Game Plan, a weekly show hosted by Bloomberg reporter Rebecca Greenfield and editor Francesca Levy, takes a close look at the way we live our lives at work. Greenfield and Levy dive into everything from how we started speaking in office jargon to the strategic value of being nice to your colleagues. It turns out that there’s a lot more to say about the office grind than you may have realized.

Rebecca Greenfield and Francesca Levy dive into everything from how we started speaking in office jargon to the strategic value of being nice to your colleagues.

Game Plan

The Surprising Origins of the Gender Pay Gap

BONUS: The Pay Check, Episode 2

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/b2eb4c0b-020e-4bc9-b376-ae390051d8cf/transcript