Jeannette Rankin, first woman elected to Congress; Muriel Siebert, first female member of the New York Stock Exchange; Sally Ride, first American woman in space ― these women each made their mark in the expansion of women’s rights and women’s roles in society. Yet, they also each came years after their male counterparts had achieved the same feat. Today in the twenty-first century, one would think that women and men would be on equal footing; after all, women have outnumbered men in American colleges since 1979 (Anderson). However, the reality is that gender equality still fails to exist. In his 2014 State of the Union Address, President Obama noted that a woman still earns only 77 cents to every dollar earned by a man. Furthermore, Barnard College president Debora Spar stated that “Women remain hugely underrepresented at positions of power in every single sector across this country” (qtd. in Bennetts). In order to create a more equitable society, gender equality in employment must be achieved by closing the wage gap along with encouraging women into fields with higher paying jobs such as public office, management, or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Currently, a large wage gap exists in the majority of jobs, and across all races and states, despite the Equal Pay Act of 1963 that banned employers from lowering wages based on gender. (Amer. Assoc. of Univ. 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...
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...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.
Today, women are not longer solely subject to household work and serving her husband and children, nor are they limited in a choice between raising a family and having a career. As the presence of women in the workforce evolves, it becomes necessary to ensure equality in the wages of women compared to their male counterparts and in the careers women are encouraged to pursue. In doing so, America can truly embody its founding ideals that “All men are created equal”. All men and women.
In 2008 the first woman was awarded the position of Speaker of the House, and Hillary Clinton ran for president. While Hillary had widespread support leading people to believe that the two different genders had reached equality, there were several that doubted whether or not a woman has what it takes to be a president. The women that came into power that was generally held by men, needed to perform a balancing act. This balancing act was between the characteristics of women and projecting the masculine strength and leadership needed to hold their position (Jenen 14). This problem in society has been continuing on for a long time. In the 1970’s women had no standing in academia. That women were no use to the department they were studying and
The reality of wage differences between men and women is that above all changes women continue to earn less than men. Countless arguments have promoted that wage inequality has changed and that everyone finally receives an equal amount of pay. “For women of color, the gap is largest of all: In 2006, black and Hispanic women earned 86 and 87 cents on the white man’s dollar, respectively,” (Mcswane 2). If a woman is lucky enough she will get an equal pay compared to a man doing the same job. But it is challenging for a woman of a minority background to achieve this. Not only are women paid less because of their sex, but also because of their race. There seems to be a mentality that because someone is a woman and a minority that they cannot do the same job as men or that women do not have the same education as the men, so employers do not have to pay them the same. “When the numbers are broken down by district, they 're pretty hard to ignore. Women in Texas are being utterly screwed financially, according to the data compiled by AAWU, with women earning anywhere from 66 percent of what men do in some districts, to the top end of things, which is about 89 percent,” (Leicht 4). The proof cannot be ignored. It i...
Let’s travel back in time to about the 1700s and the 1800s, back when women had absolutely no rights as an individual and men were considered superior to women. A time where women couldn’t be anything but a housewife and do anything beside house chores, reproduce, and take care of the kids. Meanwhile, men would go out to the world and work. However, throughout the centuries, women fought for their equal rights until they finally succeeded. Back to the present day, women today outnumber men in graduating college, and in professional programs. Gender roles today took a complete twist compared to how it was back then.
When President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963 into law, he hoped that it would allow working women to finally earn the same amount of money as men; however, more than half a century later, men continue to out earn women in almost every field of work (Lipman para. 4). Male dominated fields tend to pay more than female dominated fields at similar skill levels. In 2012, women earned an average of $691 per week while men earned an average of $854 per week. Furthermore, the majority of women remain unaware that they are earning less than their male colleagues (Hegewisch para. 1).
There has been a tremendous change in gender equality over the past few decades. More specifically, women have proven to attain higher education and labor force participation than men. The gender gap is closing in a more and more and females are grabbing hold of positions once held by only men. The conservative mindset has been altered and we are experiencing great change in the job force...
Women are more than half the work force and are graduating at higher rates then men and continue to earn considerably less then men. There are several contributing factors to the gender wage gap. Women experience gender discrimination in the work force even though it’s been illegal since the Equal Pay Act in 1963. One of the challenges for women is uncovering discrimination. There is a lack of transparency in earnings because employees are either contractually prohibited or it’s strongly discouraged from being discussed. Discrimination also occurs in the restricting of women’s access to jobs with the highest commission payments, or access to lucrative clients.
In the earlier years women’s main job was to take care of her children, husband, and home. With little independent freedom, women rarely received the choice to explore a career that would take them away from the household. Now we live in a society where women have the option to become almost anything they desire, and are not confined or limited to household and childcare duties. Still inequalities remain, some still relevant to Mary Wollstonecraft’s’ argument made in 1792. Although, the United States has come a long way since Wollstonecraft’s argument, equal pay between the genders does not truly exist due to unequal opportunities and lingering stereotypes.
The average woman gets paid 77 cents to every dollar that a man with the same job gets paid (Still A Man’s Labor Market). This can be attributed to the affects of discrimination since childhood, including discrimination by the enforcement of societal norms at home, discrimination in education, and finally discrimination in the labor market. All of this labor related discrimination affects women later in life as to whether they have as good of opportunities as others, experience poverty, obtain a secure retirement, and whether single mothers can provide well enough for their children.
Ever since the women’s suffrage movement of the 1920s, there has been a push for eliminating sexism and providing equality between men and women, especially in the workplace. The United States, along with most of the world, has made great strides in gender equality since then. Women can vote, and have careers, and men are able to stay home with the children if they choose to. But are the sexes really equal now? There are three common answers to this question. Some say yes, while the most common answer is no. The debate does not end there, however. It is typically assumed gender inequality is oppressing women and limiting their rights. Regardless, there are those who say the system is harming men instead. So, if gender inequality still exists,
For example, even though the number of women going into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematic (STEM) fields has increased, they still are underrepresented in the field with men making up 76% of the STEM field jobs and women comprise a mere 24% (Beede et al. 1). In regard to women’s pay, women are underpaid when compared men; in STEM field positions, men are paid approximately 14% more than women, and, in non-STEM field positions, men are paid 21% more than women (Beede et al. 4). Moreover, since the 1950s, the number of single mothers has increased by 36% (Badger). Therefore, women find it harder to support their children when they continually get misrepresented and underpaid when going into the labor
Are you aware that in 2015, women who were working full time in the United States were only paid 80 percent of what men were paid, at a 20 percent gap? This number is only up a measly one percentage from 2014, and the change isn’t of any major significance. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the earnings ratio hasn’t had significant annual change since 2007. This gender wage gap has only narrowed since the 1970s and due largely to women’s progress in education and workforce participation and to men’s wages rising at a slower rate. Still, the pay gap does not appear likely to go away on its own. At the rate of change between 1960 and 2015, women are expected to reach pay equity with men in 2059. But even that slow progress has stalled in recent years. These
When you think of a CEO of a company or of world political leaders, do you think of a man or of a woman? Many, if not most of us, see these positions as being held by men. In this essay, I will explain why women are still not equal to men. In the first paragraph I will discuss inequalities that happen in the workplace. The second section will show the differences that occur within the athletic world. Thirdly, I will explain the differences in education and home life. Even though we are approaching the twenty-first century, women in our society are still not equal to men.
Today in the United States, men make more than women in various sectors, including education and other trades favoring women workers. The gap gets bigger when comparing the wages earned by men to those of women in jobs favoring men workers such as construction or other physically demanding jobs. Women are less likely to work those jobs, therefor; men have the advantage of having more experience and get paid better. In addition, employers would rather hire a man instead of a woman because they believe that a man will be able to sustain the difficulty of the job and work longer hours which crate a disadvantage for women because they are unable to gain experience and become skilled in that certain field. Gender pay gap based on this information is explained as the result of the discrimination of employers toward the feminine sex in terms of pay, which discourage them to work certain jobs leading to create a bigger gap due to the lack of
According to journal of organization culture, communication and conflict “in 1967 women earned sixty cents for a full time work, while men earned one dollar” (Hill, 31). Even though this has improved over the years we still have not reached equality. Women have been behind for centuries. For example, women were given the right to vote after men. Ever since women were created we have been one step behind men and we have been fighting to be equal. Even though society does not think women are equal, we have proven
Despite government regulations to promote equality within the workplace, women’s salaries continue to lag behind males in similar career with similar experiences. According to research performed by Blau & Kahn (2007) “women salaries averaged about 60% of men’s until the 1970s and rose to nearly 80% by the 1990s” (as cited in Bendick, Jr. & Nunes, 2012, p.244). Today, women on average earn approximately $.81 for every dollar that men earn in the United States (Guy and Fenley P.41 2014).