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Gender inequality in the workforce
Literature review equality and diversity in the workplace
Gender inequality in the workforce
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Segregation includes men and women being separately employed in different jobs or occupations from each other while concentration involves the representation of one sex in an occupation. In earlier times, women were expected to be in the labour force till they were married to the partner that they should depend on; “In 1994, Canadian women 's average earnings for full-time work were 70% of men 's2, a figure that has not changed significantly for decades.3 In New Brunswick, women working full time earn 64% of what men earn, only two percentage points more than in 1971. If "progress" continues at this pace, it will take approximately 400 years for women 's full-time remuneration to reach parity with men 's” (Sansom 1996, 4). Men were seen as …show more content…
Richard (1997) tries to get reasons on why there is gender inequality in the labour force. He gets an overview of the theories of occupational segregation by sex. These theories include neo-classical and human capital theories; institutional and labour market segmentation theories; and non-economic and feminist or gender theories. With this theory and researchers, I tend to find out why there is pay inequality between male and female. Not only are men and women 's experiences different, but also within them, they are different, like the latino/as and white 's experiences are different. For example, the white families are more likely to be seen in a better high-paying jobs while the latina 's in low-paying jobs, if possible, working for the white families by doing their house chores and taking care of their children. “Race and ethnicity, as well as nationality and citizenship, also shape the experience of domestics and their employers. Employers may justify exploitatively low wages arguing that immigrants are better off in the United States earning low pay than in their home countries. Many employers develop hierarchies of racial and ethnic preference, for example, preferring to employ Latina immigrants because they are outside White middle-class English-speaking circles” (Brown and Joya 2003, …show more content…
Parents teach their female children right from birth. The inequality between men and women in the labour market seem to be an ongoing battle. We create inequality without thinking about it. Discrimination leads to unequal pay for women. There are invisible barriers that prevent women from achieving advanced positions – these barriers are called the glass ceiling and it is created by organizational barriers and discrimination. There are so may men in the labour force who are still narrow-minded and causes the women to not succeed in the workforce because they want to be in charge and seen as the head. A division of labour in society by categorizing which work is for who (men 's work and women 's work) does not mean one is more important than the other but we have internalized the notion that one is and that is why inequality happens. We recreate and perform these gender norms that lead to inequality. In the workplaces, women feel they still need to prove their self-worth in society in order to be taken seriously. What we fail to see is that each different kinds of inequality create new experiences, for example, the white women or men and racialized women or men experience the world differently in a distinct way – the whites tend to have more privileges than the racialized people. Some unpaid work is done in the
The author explores some stereotypes based on what types of jobs are more women’s type of jobs or more manly jobs. Careers such as carpenters and truck drivers are all almost exclusively male jobs, whereas careers in nursing or secretary work are all almost exclusively a woman’s type of work. Since the 1970’s, women have made head way into male dominated jobs. However, the author states that even though women have made it into male dominated jobs, this is not true for the reverse situation. The woman type jobs are still almost exclusively women’s jobs with men making little entry into them.
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...
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
Traditional gender roles in the United States and other societies have always been dictated as where the man goes and works for a salary as women stay at home to take of house related work. However, many changes in the traditional family has made gender roles go through significant changes. Many women have gone through college and have obtained college education degrees, which has allowed women to advance their careers. The break down of rigid gender roles and the increase in participation of women in the workplace have granted women more choices in life. The choices many women now have in there career fields has made some controversial views on the intelligence of women achieving the status of their male counterparts The first view obtained in the workplace is the ability to make a even paying field for both men and women. Many constituents have pledge to achieve equality for women through laws forbidding the use of any sexist policies that may constitute discrimination against sex. The second is weather working women have been allowed to working women have the same opportunities rewarded to them as men do. Many political action committees have help perpetuate feminist movements which intended to build equal opportunity workplaces for both men and women however, many questionable issues still arise at weather working conditions have become better for women.
Lips, Hillary M. "The Gender Pay Gap: Challenging the Rationalizations. Perceived Equity, Discrimination, and the Limits of Human Capital Models." (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
Gender inequality in the workforce is not only a current civil rights issue but one that spans back through our history as a nation. Rooted as far back as the 1800s when the Cult of Domesticity
Firstly, according to Reskin (1993), the notion of occupational segregation is the understanding that men and women are guided into different professional jobs and responsibilities. This notion is based on society’s stereotypical viewpoints of what a man’s jobs are and what a female’s job is. In the occupational field, men are often holding superior roles than woman (Reskin, 1993). It is evident that occupational segregation is still existent in contemporary society; females are still tolerating occupational segregation in the workplace environment. This notion can be supported by Gazso (2004) according to his literature about workplace inequality, it is distinct that Canadian men still inhabit superior employment statuses and greater waged positions than women, men are
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. The law will make it almost impossible for companies to pay their male workers more than their female workers (Glynn para. 7). Furthermore, a law requiring employees to share their salaries will bring to light other forms of wage discrimination. The wage gap not only represents gender discrimination in the workplace, it also reflects the ongoing issue of racial discrimination. While white women do typically earn less than white men, they out earn the majority of female colored workers in America. The average African American female makes only 64 cents for the white man’s dollar. Additionally, Hispanic women receive only 54 cents to their white male coworker’s dollar (Hegewisch para. 9). If women of color become aware of how little they earn compared to
Many laws and regulations are implemented everyday into our society, involving equal rights for all. But, even with being in the year 2015; there is still much discrimination and inequality seen throughout many different institutions. Gender inequality is defined as unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on gender. This has been seen for many decades now, revolving mainly against women. Throughout history to even today, men have always been seen as the stronger, faster, and harder working gender as opposed to women. Today, with more women being seen working at larger firms and corporations, we still see many obstacles and challenges that they must face. While many women have fought for equality in the workplace, it is still a
These traditional roles and consequently women’s identities have been formed and maintained by the workplace, therefore understanding any gender differences in labor requires an examination in this light. Grant and Porter remind the researcher that the concepts of male and female are not independent relationships of the workplace, but have been strongly influenced and determined by the relationships of male and female in society at large.
Some women would prefer to be barefoot and pregnant housewives that spend their days cooking and cleaning while their husband goes to work. However, other women embrace their right to pursue educational and occupational dreams. Unfortunately, because it has not been all that long ago that women were not considered to be qualified for a spot in most work places, they experience a lot of discrimination in the workplace. Because gender roles are almost deeply embedded in our society, women often do not get put up for the same job opportunities and promotions that their male equal might be subject
Women are more educated now than they have ever been, but even women who are university graduates are earning less than men. Frenette and Coulombe reached the conclusion that this was often due to their degrees being in gendered fields of study, such as the arts and humanities (as cited in Gaszo, 2010, p. 224) Women also tend to work in fields associated with lower pay, which includes service and sales work (Gaszo, 2010). In the garment industry, women, especially immigrants and women who work at home, are routinely taken advantage of by companies such as Wal-Mart and paid far too little (Ng, 2006).
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
Specifically, females’ tendency to embark upon part-time instead of full-time occupations and their ability to discontinue work have provided them with lesser privileges—decreased pension rights, lower individual assets, and reduced long-term incomes.... ... middle of paper ... ... Typifying the roles of men and women in the labor force due to family concerns and women’s biological purpose has provided men with a source of comparative advantage in work.
One major reason why women are not being paid equally to men, is the way our society views working women. For example, women traditionally are not seen as the main “bread winner” of a household. In fact, in our society, men are traditionally seen as the main source of income. In our society one of the main arguments commonly used by those in favor of the wage gap, is that women take significant time off of work to have children. As a result, the time women take off work is deducted from their pay.