For traditional gender role, women are viewed as primarily wives and mothers who have underpinned the welfare state (Browne, 2006). Nowadays, Women have higher levels of education, therefore the inequality should decline and the society seems to have a symmetrical equality in the division of work between men and women. However, the inequality still exists and the gender wage gap remains unchanged in some places such as Canada (Oakley, 2002). In 2012, the gender pay difference for both full-time and part-time employees based on median hourly earnings decreased to 19.7% while it was 20.2% in 2011. This was a narrowing of around 8% while it was 27.5% in 1997 (ONS, 2013). The women’s employment inequalities base on the pay, part-time work, horizontal and vertical segregation. This essay is going to talk about and analyse the existing inequalities for female employees by stating different theories and giving examples and statistics from different aspects.
The functionalist Parson argued that the ‘expressive’ role of childcare suits women naturally (Haralambos, 2004). The majority of women are working part-time, in order to interrupt for childrearing (Browne, 2006). Some economists supported the human capital theory; and claimed that the lack of commitment for women is the main reason of the drawbacks that they suffer in the labour market (Haralambos, 2004). Since women have less incentive to take lengthy training programmes; therefore they have less value to employers compared to those highly-trained male. The lack of training, experience and qualifications make women can hardly look for better-paid and higher-status jobs (Haralambos, 2004).
However, the theory was being criticized that ignored the causes of gender inequality. Witz arg...
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...mitment and this is also the reason of their low pays. There are marriage career and career women. Those married women will transfer to work part-time and undemanding jobs because of the fewer responsibilities and convenient working hours, although they involve a lower pay. Besides, Hakim argues that child care responsibilities lead to the extension of part time work; therefore, it is not the main reason affecting the work for women.
Women in the labour market usually do jobs which similar to domestic tasks like teaching and child caring. Crompton and Sanderson argue that in the labour market, there are structural features interact with the individuals making individual decisions about their lives. The choices for peoples are being shaped but not to determine by the structure of the labour market.
To sum up, gender inequalities still exist in workplaces. Although
The article The Gender Gap in Wages insights the issue about the wage gap in the early 21st century, observing that is not actual discrimination in the workplace, but rather the type of work and time put into it that changes the wages between male and female workers. June O’Neill gives sufficient statistical data that is focused on work experience and how productivity in the home is a result of the wage gap. Her claim introduces a great amount of statistical data that shows the reader the reasons for a wage gap to exist. She is knowledgeable about the subject and is straight-forward about her point. O’ Neill’s argument is justifiable meanwhile, it can be argued that her neutrality on the wage gap does not give a specific reason as to how this
Women throughout history have been considered to have an active role in the family life as the caretakers, while the men are considered the “breadwinners” of the family. However, a few women still have had to provide for their families throughout the years and as a result have sought employment in industries that “were highly segregated by sex” (Goldin 87). Women employm...
Women have always been stereotyped as being the mother who stays home and has the responsibility of the household and maintaining the children. Presently mothers work outside the home, but they still have the responsibility of taking care of the household. “One study of 20 industrialized countries ...
Throughout the history of the world, discrimination in all forms has been a constant struggle, whether it is race, gender, religion, appearance or anything else that makes one person different from another, it is happening every day. One significant discrimination problem that is affecting many women takes place in the work place. As of recently the gender wage gap has become a major topic for discussion. The gender wage gap is the average difference between men and women aggregated hourly earnings. Women who are equally trained and educated, and with the same experience are getting paid way less than men. In 2015, female full time workers earned eighty cents for every dollar earned by men.
Employers believe that any women applying for a job is bound to go the family route. This is generally called, “mommy stamp.” It is the idea that women will plateau in their careers because they can only go so far when they have a child. After they begin to start a family, employers feel like being a mother will be the new full-time job. In the article, The All-or-Nothing Workplace: Flexibility Stigma and “Opting Out” Among Professional-Managerial Women, it states, “Women, by virtue of their caregiving responsibilities in the home, are less able than men to meet the time demands of professional jobs” (Hernandez 2). This statement is an example of how employers believe that women are less competent of doing the job because they wouldn’t be as committed compared to the male. It comes to show that although females are applying for high paying occupations, they cannot leave behind the tradition of being responsible for raising the children. The result of this stamp causes women to be hired in less engaging positions and are often treated with less
Paula England, the author of “The Gender Revolution: Uneven and Stalled,” sheds light on how the gender system has progressively become unbalanced. England 's main focus for this article is to provide the reader with an understanding of how women 's drive to change hasn 't just affected their labor, but men 's labor as well. She states “Since 1970, women increasingly majored in previously male-dominated, business-related fields, such as business, marketing, and accounting; while fewer chose traditionally female majors like English, education, and sociology; and there was little increase of men’s choice of these latter majors” (England and Li, 2006, 667-69). This quote supports the fact that women have been branching out in the workplace, however
Furthermore, women are still expected to give up their job pursuits for children. Men, when they get married tent to earn more power. However, women lose their power or even have to give up everything that they had been working toward their whole life to bear the child who will keep the lineage for her husband’s family. “It is not false that today, almost half of infants’ mothers are employed” and the percentage of working moms has risen much over recent years. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that it is unfair for women to have to be pressured by both work and children.
population in the country and because of no fixed salary, some women who can actually obtain a job are only paid a third of what male employees are paid monthly. Much of the gender discr...
Closing the wage gap between men and women is a continuing struggle today in nations all over the world. In many occupations women are paid less overall than their male counterparts. One nation, however, is making strides to bring this disparity in wages into the light. British law will soon require large companies to publish information about the salaries paid to their male and female employees. While this is a great step forward in recognizing the gender pay gap, many women also face many other obstacles to getting equal pay such as the “Mommy Tax” that reporter Ann Crittenden talks about in her piece of the same name (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 337). Another obstacle for women in the work place that ties into the “Mommy Tax” is how women are generally
Historically, males and females normally assume different kinds of jobs with varying wages in the workplace. These apparent disparities are widely recognized and experienced across the globe, and the most general justification for these differences is that they are the direct outcomes of discrimination or traditional gender beliefs—that women are the caregivers and men are the earners. However, at the turn of the new century women have revolutionized their roles in the labor market. Specifically in industrialized societies, the social and economic position of women has shifted. Despite of the improving participation of women in the labor force and their ameliorating proficiency and qualifications, the labor force is still not so favorable to women. The opportunities available for women in the market are not as diverse as those presented to men. Still, the construct of gender ideology influences how employers undertake economic decisions, and that is why companies still have jobs labelled as “men’s work” and occupations categorized as “women’s work.” Indeed, the pervasiveness of gender differences in labor markets is undeniably true, specifically with respect to salary gap between men and women, occupational gender segregation of men and women, and the challenge that women face in terms of juggling their time and attention between their career and family life.
The wage gap between men and women is widely recognized, however there also exists a gap between mothers and women without children. While full-time working women without children earn 7 percent less than their male colleagues, mothers earn 23 percent less (Nelson 20). Even after controlling factors such as education, work commitment, and timing of return to the workforce after giving birth, working mothers earn 3% to 5% less than women without children (Miner et al. 60).
However, women have made optimistical progress towards equality and their role in the society has been changed dramatically since the last century. Many women stepped out of their home and start to work at factories and offices. The number of working women with children has more than doubled in the past 50 years. While working conditions for women may have improved, there is a lack of appreciation for the notion that work for most women doesn't end at the door of a factory or office. Despite an increase of women's participation in the labour force, women's share of housework has hardly changed in 50 years.
It can be concluded that women are treated in terms of stereotyped impressions of being the lowest class and greater evidence can be found that there are large disparities between the women and the men 's class. It can be seen that women are more likely to play casual roles as they are most likely to take seasonal and part time work so that they can work according to their needs. They are hampered from progressing upward into the organizations as they face problems like lack of health insurance, sexual harassments, lower wage rates, gender biases and attitudes of negative behavior. However, this wouldn’t have hampered the participation of the women in the work force and they continue to increase their efforts which is highly evident in the occupational and job ratios of females in the industry.
Women’s subordination within the labour market is seen by Marxist feminists as suiting the needs of capitalism as women are considered a ‘reserve army of labour’ as they are a more disposable part of the workforce. According to Beechey (1986) women are a cheap ‘reserve army of labour’ that are brought in during economic booms but then thrown out during slumps. Women are often not members of trade unions and are prepared to work for less money as their wage could be a second income. This benefits capitalism as a group of unemployed people looking for work creates competition and exploitation. Employers are given an advantage which allows them to reduce wages and increase the rate of exploitation. Benston (1972) supports this as women are used to benefitting the operation of the capitalist economy by carrying out unprepared work in the home. This proves that patriarchy dominates women which leads to women’s subordination. Hartmann (1981) believes that patriarchy and the economy both play a crucial role in explaining and understanding gender inequality. Historically, men have controlled women especially by control of labour power. This can come through legislation that operates economically to the benefit of men, for example Maternity and Paternity Rights. This proves that patriarchy and economics together explains gender inequality. However, Walby (1986) argues that women staying at home can actually harm capitalism because if women were to compete for jobs with men this would lower wages and increase profits. Women who earn also have superior spending power which would boost the economy and benefit
There is much myth about what an ideal worker should be. Current situations and trends in the labor community are different, family working arrangements have time to place and there is always a switching characteristic to families nowadays. Since 1950, and due to World War II there was an increase of participation among mothers of young children. In current days, a great percent of married couples are in dual-income households where both the man and the woman work, and there are more working mothers than there are working