Gender and professional purity - Explaining formal and informal work rewards for physicians in Estonia

How does gender affect work rewards for professionals in a stare-run econom y? Using surveys from physicians in Estonia in 1991, the authors first foun d that the gender of the physician did not affect the level of formal rewar ds. However because the state allocated formal rewards on the basis of prof essional purity which was negatively correlated with feminization, specialt ies that had the greatest proportion of women also had the lowest formal re wards, These findings contrast with the authors' findings for the level of informal "black market" rewards. Women were less likely to receive informal rewards than men, especially if they worked in subfields high in professio nal purity. The authors conclude that the link between professional purity and feminization is critical in explaining pay differences informal work re wards while gender itself is the critical factor in explaining informal rew ard differences.