Before there was a women’s movement, every facet of society suppressed women to second-class status. Women were under the control of their husbands and needed their permission to get a job or even obtain a credit card. Poorly portrayed and stereotyped in stage and film roles, women were banned from obtaining an education and from many professional fields of work. But despite the success of the fight for women’s equality over the last 100 years, we need to acknowledge the fact that there is still much more work left to accomplish before women achieve full equity and justice. There remains significant barriers were women are marginalized in the economy, such as the wage discrimination.
The war in pay inequity in the United States has been raging since the 1940s. This paper is focused on the pay differences among men, women, and mothers and why it exists. The government has made strives to close the income wage gap between men and women, however it still exists and must be dealt with. Among women, deciding to bear children has greatly impacted earnings potential, retirement, and career choices. As more women decide to go to college and earn degrees, there is still a disparity in income in the labor market.
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).
However it is our society’s reality. Even if the statement above were to be applied to everyone, both male and female how about the world’s point of view on women? Clearly women have made tremendous differences regarding equality in recent decades however; we still live in a society in which the worth of women is solely based on physical appearance and not their own special skills that can be portrayed in the work force. But the fact that they are not even given a chance to do so is just unfair. Also because the women look a certain way, the employers of the big companies use that to calculate how much they get paid, whether they are a full-time worker, part-time worker, or temporary worker, no matter what they are still being paid less than the men.
Women excel in all fields and play a vital role in economic development of the country, and their contribution is nothing short of their male counterparts. However, there are still several issues and problems that women face today. Sometimes, they are not treated equally in their workplace and are considered as inferior to their male co-workers. Gender discrimination and inequality issues has been a reoccurring issue for years and because of this, it impedes single and/or married women from acquiring certain occupations or levels of occupations as males, receiving equal wages as males, and therefore affects women’s economic class placement in society. Gender inequality all began because of the patriarchal society back in past centuries.
Women 7, 10). Critics most often look at the wage gap as simply a reflection of women’s choices, arguing that “Women congregate in different professions than men do”, and it is those male-dominated fields that tend to pay well (Rosin). For instance, a woman may choose to become a nurse while a man may choose to become an engineer, a much higher paying job... ... middle of paper ... ...ath (Gross-Loh). For every new initiative to encourage women into these fields, there are detractors bound to follow, but they are still essential to bringing issues of inequality to the public’s attention. Though bringing in a new wave of women into leadership and management or STEM may be a lofty goal, public recognition of the status quo and its inequality plays a key role in change.
This is not a solution to confront the real problem. Johnson clearly explains this problem when she remarks “I think the solution is not just to say, “OK, all women should become engineers now. (…) So it’s not just saying women are wrong to go to this jobs. Neither is there evidence that as soon as men move in, the wages go up” (658). Feminism frustrates women when they tell them what they need to be equal to men because they do not need to be equal to be.
Nowadays, most women remain unaware that their employers underpay them. Women cannot argue for higher wages if they do not know they earn less than their male equivalents. Each employee sharing their salary will allow women to detect if they are earning less than their male colleagues with little difficulty. This will give women the tools needed to argue for a higher pay rate, and will help lower the wage gap. If a female worker goes to her boss with statistical evidence that she earns less than her male associates, the chances that her boss will award her a higher salary significantly increase.
For many parts of the world, women is still the inferior sex. For a long time, women is perceive to be the mother of the house and it is okay for women to be a stay-at-home mother while their husband is working. It is only in America and other western countries that women receives the benefit of the government passing the laws in order to protect them from discrimination. Sexism mainly occurs in the workplace, that’s where each person has to prove themselves in order to attain a high position or a higher salary and this is where the gender bias seems to be a problem. Because of gender bias, women have a difficulty in proving themselves worthy of a raise or a promotion, many have to resort to using their beauty or intelligence in order to get to where they want.
The gender wage gap is where men get paid more than women for doing the same job. The gender wage gap has been around since 1960, when women began working full time jobs outside the home. When the wage gap between women and men first became apparent, the issue primarily centered around discrimination against women as the “weaker sex”, a social stereotype. Today the issue has become more complex, involving American cultural norms and politics, and concerns that there are glass ceilings within businesses for women. As a result, many people are indecisive when it comes to taking a position on the matter while others are adamantly entrenched in their mind set.