Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Gender pay gap research essay
Role of working women in society
Gender pay gap research essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Gender pay gap research essay
Functionalism suggests the gender wage gap difference is linked to how the importance of work is connected to the men and women identities rather than gender. As providers men get more benefits from work. The theory suggests that employers are not responsible to change the gender wage gap. It also suggests that fast change may have a negative effect on the economy.
The conflict theory suggests that gender wage gap difference exists primarily because men excise their power to keep it that way. That notion is based on the culture view of masculinity and femininity and the roles these attributes play in the workplace.
It appears that the conflict theory offers better explanation suggesting that the difference in pay is directly relate the gender
Both the functionalist theory and the conflict theory could shed light on the problem by looking at it with a macro view rather than a micro view. A functionalist would look at gender inequalities as a helpful way to divide labor that in turn maximizes resources and efficiency. The conflict theory is structural and can help us to better understand the power struggle between men and women which advocates for the situation. When there is conflict between a subordinate group and a dominant one things happen that create social change.
In discussing gender-based wages, there are five approaches to explaining the inequalities that have plagued female U.S. laborers since their collective advent into the workforce in the 1940s. The five explanations typically cited by economists are segregation, human capital, employer preference, statistical discrimination, and institutional discrimination.
The article The Complex Causes of the Gender Pay Gap written by Barbara Wagner, she shows “Economic research on the gender pay gap has found many reasons for the differences in pay between men and women, including different career and education choices, differences in work experience, and, yes, discrimination. Both male and female managers are equally likely to demonstrate gender bias in hiring and pay” (Wagner, 2015).
This social justice issue is important in the community because it impacts women by disrespecting them, it makes women feel like they are not valued. Our central question is does pay equal respect? If pay equals respect then women are definitely not being respected. Society believes that men have that higher power so they should get paid more, this is a . It impairs the ability of women and families to buy homes and pay for college education, it limits their total lifetime earnings, savings, and benefits, which makes women much more vulnerable to poverty in retirement.This issue expands even into nonprofits as of nonprofits with budgets
The fight between men and women and equal rights and pay has been going on for many years. The wage gap is contributed by many factors like sex, race discrimination, education, but manly overall how men and women have been viewed as. Men are paid more because they work “harder and are stronger” where’s woman’s jobs are “less work and not as strong” therefore, that’s why the pay and the job occupations is different. Over the past century, American women have made tremendous strides in increasing their labor market experience and their skills (The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations). The pay gap goes beyond wages and is even greater when we look at workers’ full compensation packages. Compensation includes not just wages, but also
Nevertheless, historical records help explain pay inequality and they consider this theory. Economists and sociologists have explained that the features of the workers only slightly explain the difference. The education and previous experience have a small impact on the wage gap (Gibelman 23). However, there are examples of jobs that do discriminate against women’s wage. Examples of unequal pay include jobs with the government. These jobs pay more than many others, but there is still discrimination. Even with lawyers, there is a discrimination towards women (Gibelman 23). These jobs include higher paying jobs. It is not the minimum wage jobs that discriminate against women, it is some of the top paying jobs. This ties up with how women are seen in the top positions or leadership
30). The wage gap is relevant to this theory seeing as it is the competition between men and women over limited resources, in this case, money and holds the social order maintained by male domination, rather than a consensual agreement between the two parties involved. Conflict theory sees the gender pay gap in a negative light. They perceive this as a financial benefit that men have due to living in a male-dominated society. Through time, men have always been in power. Men of higher-power (e.g. CEOs, bosses) were the ones to establish annual income of their employees. Obviously, men would not give themselves a lesser salary than women, as that would be undermining themselves and women have always been subordinate to men in different parts of society (e.g. the household and the workplace). This is due to the belief that women are to be dependent on men for wages. This belief comes from the fact that women, a few centuries ago, used to be housewives and did not earn a salary and were financially dependent on men to survive.
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
Gender discrimination is not a new topic, but it is oftentimes a controversial one. The differing political groups in the United States is a good example of how certain groups of people do not think the issue of a gender pay gap needs to be addressed. People on both sides of the political divide have dodged questions on whether or not the gender pay gap is a real issue and if it should be addressed. While some politicians may be divided, most scholars believe that having a gender gap does hamper the countries economy. For example, closing the gender pay gap in the United States should boost the economy by three to four percentage points (Bassett 2014), as this would introduce a group of people who will have more earning and spending potential
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). The gender wage gap not only harms a woman’s ability to provide for herself, it also harms many children and families. Women are now the primary caregivers
Further data shows that in Woman’s lifetime, she will earn 77% of what a man will earn. However, there are controllable factors, such as job position, race, job industry and other factors, which affect the Gender Pay Gap. For instance, the US Department of Labor found that when such factors were considered, the gap ...
A number of factors have contributed to the gap between men’s and women’s wages. These include: occupational segregation of women into low paying jobs; lower levels of unionization for women and attitudinal barriers that have kept women from achieving equality in the workplace and undervaluation for women’s work.
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 widened 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. Reasons as to why gender wage gap exist so heavily, slightly differs from country to country, but the overall effect from the wage disparity is wholly evident.
Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddess, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken Books. 1975.
The sexism and inequality intertwined with the work force is still a big problem today. Unlike in the early 1900’s, there is closer to an equal ratio of men to women in the work force. But women are still more present in typical jobs such as secretaries, nurses, and waitresses, whereas men are more present in jobs such as construction, CEO’s, and politicians. I experienced something similar at my place of work. I’m a barista at my local coffee shop, and all of my coworkers are female. Any time my boss is hiring, there are very few male resumes that come in. But if there are any mechanical problems, the first person she calls is her husband or father to come and fix it. This clear division between men and women is one of the causes of the gender gap. The gender gap is the difference in pay between men and women who work the same job. Unless something changes soon, the chances that I will be paid less than a male doing the same job in my future