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how have changes in women's employment affected their role in society
how have changes in women's employment affected their role in society
how have changes in women's employment affected their role in society
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Separate but equal was a phrase used often to explain discrepancies in treatment between peoples, even when the reality was nothing so fair. However, this was not always the case in the United States of America. Since the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the wages of women versus men have been steadily converging, with a decrease in the rate of convergence since the 1990s (Blau 2000). In fact, since wage inequality has been in existence since the creation of the United States, it wasn 't until the early 1900s that gender inequality was even a bad thing (Coontz 2013). During World War 2, women were hired in mass to do jobs traditionally for men, as the men were off fighting the war. It was in 1942 that the National War Labor Board recommended for employers …show more content…
As late as 1962, a survey done by the University of Michigan found that two-thirds of women believed that decisions that were important to the family should be decided by the man of the house (Coontz 2013). Thus, most Americans didn 't believe that gender equality was necessary or good, and most of the information they learned had stated that women couldn 't pursue careers and be a proper mother. (Coontz 2013). Feminists and women 's right 's activists began the task of challenging women to question the assumption that all women are to be used for is to watch children, maintain the house, and make the food. It was a slow, but steady progress, with two-thirds of Americans believe that it was better for men to be the breadwinners and women to be the bread makers in 1977, but only one-third of Americans believing this was the case in 1994 (Coontz 2013). In the 1970s and onward, there was a shift in American 's beliefs in the qualifications of women in the workforce and in the political atmosphere. For example, Myra Marx Feree found that, in the 1970s, the amount of Americans who would vote for a well-qualified woman for president increased only with the continuation of the women 's movement and protests of the time (Cotter 2011). A trend was noticed, however, that the progress …show more content…
However, with regard to women and electoral politics, there was not a huge change accomplishments of women until the 1960s and onward (Anderson 1, 1996). Today there is a record number of women in congress, with 20 serving in the Senate and 82 serving in the House of Representatives, which is still below 25% of members of the government (CAWP 2014). Women are underrepresented and less likely to be involved with or run for local or national levels of government. A popular belief, while unproven, is that women are less likely to run because they are concerned about their family responsibility (Fang 2014). Women are less likely to seek government positions because women are less likely to be encouraged to seek government positions, and are therefore less likely to be seen as a candidate for an open government position. Despite this, a Gallup poll in 2014 showed that 63 percent of Americans say that the U.S. would be more well governed if there were more political leaders who are women. So while women need to be more involved in political affairs to reduce the wage gap, the barrier isn 't that women are not wanted in office, nor that they are too focused on their families, but instead that there is very little encouragment for women to enter the political arena at
Women are taught to only speak when spoken to, and to be housewives while their husbands take care of the family financially. These ideals trace back to the day of the caveman era. Over the years women have become more tired of not being treated equally compared to their male counterparts. So to combat this problem the women have fought to gain equal rights as men. One way they did this was to fight for equal rights and respect in the workforce because at one point women were completely absent in the workplace. This finally changed between the years of 1966 and 1982 when the amount of women in the workforce increased by 119.4% (Lips & Colwill,
In our own country, out of the more than 12,000 Senators and Congressman that have served in Congress, only 276 of these representatives have been women (Women in Congress: An Introduction). This in and of itself is an extremely small ratio. In modern times, women only make up about 15% of American Congress, also a very minute proportion in comparison to the approximate 85% of Congr...
The American Government was designed to represent the people who are voting members of society. When analyzing the makeup of government, one could find that women have become an integral part to American politics. With the rise of female politicians, minority female political leaders still tend to come in low numbers. One could argue that the inclusion of minority females in politics is solely up to women. The responsibility of representing the American population as a whole should not be solely placed on one designated person or group but rather a collective effort of all. Minority females are typically seen at the negative end of statistics rather it is in education, health care, employment and the economy.
Women are numerically underrepresented in United States politics. Though people may see famous faces of women in politics around them, a mere 17 percent of leaders of the Federal government in the United States are women. Not only, at the Federal level are women underrepresented, but also at the state and local levels. Only in six states are there female governors, and members of city hall are predominately male in 92 out of the 100 largest cities in the continental U.S. Since the 1970’s the percentage of women in high political offices had been increasing, but in the last several election cycles there has been no net increase. The United States House of Representatives has plateaued in its percentage of female representatives and Senate suffered the first net decrease in the percentage of women serving since 1979. In terms of progress of women’s representation in politics, the United States is falling behind many nations. As of 2011, 90 nations have a higher percentage of women in office. (Lawless and Fox) Women in the United States have not achieved political parity, and are falling behind many nations in the election of women to office.
The study called the Citizen Political Ambition Study was created to try and figure out why a gender gap still exists between men and women in politics. It offers a first-of-its-kind examination of three study groups with two opposite sexess dividing the groups in two. The focus groups were groups that worked in jobs that were more likely to end up running for office. The three occupations were within law, business, and education. The results were based on 3,765 participants of those were 1,969 men and 1,796 women. The study found that gender does play a role in the decision of whether or not to run for office, which I will also argue determines who wins and loses based on sex.
Before the 1920s men and women were thought to have two separate roles in life. People believed women should be concerned with their children, home, and religion, while men took care of business and politics. In 1920 there were significant changes for women in politics, the home, and the workplace. When the 19th amendment passed it gave women the right to vote. “Though slowly to use their newly won voting rights, by the end of the decade women were represented local, state, and national political committees and were influencing the political agenda of the federal government.” Now a days it’s normal for women to be involved in politics and it’s normal for women to vote. Another drastic change
Initially it was thought that women were underrepresented in politics and elected office because they were underrepresented in the “eligibility pool” (Welch, 1978, 372). The idea was that women were socialized to believe that their duty was in the home raising children so there were very few women in the “eligibility pool,” the typical jobs that have a tendency to lend themselves to a future in public office: law, business, and medicine among others (Welch, 1978). This line of reasoning would suggest that all that has to be done to increase the proportion of women in public office is to increase their presence in such fields and disciplines (Fox, Lawless, and Feeley, 2001). Although women are still underrepresented in the upper levels of these careers, they have
In 1963, President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, making it unlawful to discriminate against a worker on the basis of sex. Since that time, the wage gap between men and women in the United States has narrowed by just 15 cents, now being 74 cents, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.
One major factor in why women did not reach equality in America in the past century was their underrepresentation in local, state, and federal politics. Between 1917, when Jeanette Rankin became the first woman to serve in the United States Congress, and 2000, only 219 women have been elected as US representatives or senators. Of these, only 28 have been women of color. In contrast, in the 20th century over a thousand men served in Congress, and 132 men of color. In the 106th United States Congress (which met from 1999-2001) only 58 of the 535 legislators were women, and only 18 were women of color. As a result, laws that benefitted women faced heavy opposition before they could be passed. In addition, women made up the minority of Supreme Court justices and presidential cabinet members at every point in the 20th century, and of the 15 presidents...
This phenomenon can be explained with feminist theories which focuses on inequality of power between men and women in terms of unequal distribution of political power. The best example of this inequality are numbers that speak for themselves. The US has never had a women president in the history, and even though women comprise majority of U.S population, their number in political offices are significantly lower than men. The reason behind underrepresentation of women in politics lies in the notion that women are not strong enough to hold a powerful position. Because of women 's underrepresentation a lot of men’s issues and policies are over-emphasized, while women’s concerns remain unattended. However, women’s concerns and policies often don’t just affect women, but the entire families. For instance, the issue of child care or maternal leave. In many families, one parent (in most cases women) is forced to leave the job and take care of a child due to the lack of childcare, or very short maternal leave. Strengthening women’s right and addressing barriers to political participation are critical to achieving gender equality and women empowerment. I believe that the issue of low number of women in politics is just a fragment of a much larger issue of inequality relating to political, economic, and social status. Some of the solutions to the problem include increasing women participation and leadership in civil society by providing skill building and leadership training for women. Women should join activists groups advocating for women’s right and equality on many different platforms. Equal pay, equal access to certain job positions would also facilitate equality that would increase the number of women in political positions. Most importantly, more women should vote since we create the majority of US population, and if women unite and vote they will have a
One cannot begin the discussion of gender pay gap without defining it. Simply put, gender pay gap is the inequality between men and women wages. Gender pay gap is a constant international problem, in which women are paid, on average, less than that of their male counterpart. As to if gender pay gap still exist, its exactness fluctuates depending on numerous factors such as professional status, country and regional location, gender, and age. In regards to gender, in some cases, both men and women have stated that the gap does not exist. Due to various countries initiatives to shrink the wage inequality between men and women wages in the work force, the gap has narrowed, respectively, which may have helped form such opinion. However, stating that the gender pay gap does not exist in today’s society, anywhere, is completely unlikely. Seeing that the gap has loosened its grasp in the working world, in other countries, the gap between pay has widen or remained stagnant. One cannot help but wonder why the gap remains consistent even with such substantial progress made in countries where the gap has decreased.
When The Feminine Mystique was published, men's turnout at the polls exceeded that of women by five percent. Since 1980, women have consistently voted at higher rates than men, according to the Center on American Women in Politics at Rutgers University. The number of women elected to office at every level of government has spiraled. In 1963, there were two women in the US Senate and only 12 women in the House of Representatives. Today, 20 women serve in the Senate and 77 serve in the House. Similar shifts have occurred at the local and state levels. Although a rise in women's turnout has spurred these gains, men are now more willing to vote for women candidates than ever before.
As the social system behaves parsimonious to the female group, the gender discrimination distinguished prominently. To be more specific, for the political participation in the United States, according to the report, eighteen percent of congressional seats are held by female and twenty- three of statewide elective offices are held by female officers, which has decreased from the report of 2001. As the "sociological and societal norm discourages women from running", women act less active in political leadership and activities. More commonly, in different workplace employment, since women are less likely to receive levels of appointments and offer of academic positions, it's harder for women to receive a job offer with the comparison to equally qualified male. By contrast, many argue that American female citizens entitle equal rights as the male citizens, which strongly certify that the equal treatment toward genders. However, practically, with regards of the payment gap in the United States, the payment that women earned are nineteen percent less than the male employees. Caused by the replacement of larger percentages of both high-paying and low-paying jobs , the wage inequality kept increasing since 1980s. As the unfair results in education, careers, and politics, women earn less opportunities under the
In the U.S history, women have been treated unfairly for a fairly long time. Even though, people try to attach great importance to women, unfairness still exists. After looking at gender pay gap between men and women, I find both good side and bad side.
Power, defined as "control over resources, people, and things" (Wolf & Fligstein, 1979) is a vital characteristic of social stratification. In this study, I focus on one dimension of power: the relationship between wage inequality and gender power in the workplace. For several decades, the amount of women entering the workplace has increased considerably. While women empower themselves in the workplace, the gap between men and women’s wages has narrowed since the Equal Pay Act. However, there still exists a considerable wage gap that cannot be explained. In addition, I examine this financial dimension of power. This power of inequality shows itself in the relationship between earnings differences between men and women. Moreover, I concentrate