The causes of gender pay gap are discrimination in the labor market, the lack of women in high positions, the conflict between work and family responsibilities, underestimation of women's abilities and work, and also the fact that women end up in different occupations and sectors than men.

"One of the reasons for the wide gender pay gap is that the female students choose different fields of study and professions than their male classmates. These decisions often frame the gender stereotypes that are still strongly present in our society," said Diana Gregorova of the non-governmental organization NESEHNUTI, one of the organizers of a recent roundtable on the gender pay gap in the Czech Republic.

'Sector feminization'

The Czech labor market is highly segmented horizontally. "Women are concentrated mainly in education, health and social care, while men are in information, communication and construction. Sectors where women are concentrated are just the ones less financially rewarding," commented Christina Pesakova, co-organizer of the roundtable.

Increasing the representation of women in a certain sector, so-called sector feminization, is often associated with a decline in the prestige and financial evaluation within that sector.

A new information campaign on the differences in pay between men and women appeared on the streets of Prague and Brno in November. Organizations Open Society Foundations, Gender Studies and NESEHNUTI wanted to highlight together the unfairness in salaries and consequences in the form of lower pensions for women.