The Gender Wage Gap In The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

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The Gender Wage Gap The gender wage gap is a highly debated and controversial topic in the modern day United States society. Women have been treated very poorly in the past, and advancements in gender equality are still flourishing today. Although are making great strides as a society, there is still the popular belief in the wage gap. However, the wage gap that was once very prominent in our society is not nearly as much of a disparity as people have been lead to believe. Though any pay disparity between women and men is a pressing issue, the “wage gap” is much more complicated than people believe because of misleading statistics, unaccounted for variables, and the different social and economic choices of men and women. The common idea that women make 77 cents on every dollar men make in the workplace is very misleading. It is true, however, this statistic ignores any factors that justify different pay. The wage gap is just the difference …show more content…

The situation for women in the workplace is far from perfect; however, the US has made immense strides from what it was in the early to mid-20th Century. A prime example of this is the novel, The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair. This novel exposes the horrors of the workplace in Chicago in the 1920’s. For example, the main character's wife Ona is forced into unwanted sexual harassment and is even raped by her boss. Her boss threatens to fire her if she did not obey him and, without a job, Onas’ family would suffer horribly. However, in the modern day American society, women's treatment in the workplace is improving. Movements including the “Me Too” movement have inspired many women in the workplace to stand up for themselves and to not tolerate sexual harassment. However, if one wants to see progress in the workplace, a good place to start would be to stop promoting the misleading wage gap

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