“This Would Never be Possible if Not for Our Team Play”: An Analysis of Icelandic Doctorate Earnings from a Gender Perspective

At the international level, Iceland is faring well on gender assessments concerning economic status, political position, education, and health. However, these rankings fail to assess what is happening within the private sphere regarding gender equality. We argue that research on the interplay between the domestic and public spheres is important because these overlapping fields affect the lives of women and men differently. By focusing on the earnings of doctorate holders in Iceland, we aim to obtain a better understanding of the gendered meaning and implications of found earnings inequalities. Relying on longitudinal population register data, as well as 32 in-depth interviews with doctorate holders, we find that the men earn significantly more than the women. While the quantitative model only explains a small part of the inequality, the qualitative findings indicate that decisions made within the household, referred to as team play, negotiation, and choices, play a defining role in post-doctorate career development. We conclude that, despite the male breadwinner model being outdated in Icelandic society, some of its pillar thoughts still persist beneath the surface, keeping gender inequality within the household in place.