March 8th of every year marks International Woman’s day. It is meant to display respect, appreciation and love towards women, and also tribute women all over for their economic, political, and social achievements. During World War I and II women proved they were a force to be reckoned with because they were able to keep the economy running while the men were away at war. At that time women took all sorts of jobs that were only offered to men; which was unheard of during that time. The consequence for the same work was very low pay.
It wasn’t until the passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 where workplace rights were recognized. The act states employers may not discriminate against people on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. The significance of this act made it illegal for employers to dismiss qualified women for any open position. A year earlier, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963. The act was designed for employers to pay women the same amount they would pay a man in the same position.
Present day however in the workplace women still have a gender inequality gap when it comes to their male counterparts. Women now have the power to sue their employers if they can prove that a male in the same position earns higher wages. Gender inequality is defined as the disparity in status of power and prestige between people who identify as women and men. According to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Census, women earn just 77 percent of what men earn for the same amount of work. In 2013 alone there are only 23 women CEO’s in Fortune 500 companies; accounting for only 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 companies. For decades women have fought to stand next to men in the workpla...
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...asing popular in last couple of years. Women are educated are now making their own rules by creating their own companies instead of working for one. According to in the past decade the number of privately owned companies started by women in America has increased twice as fast as the number owned by men. Women-owned companies employ more people than the largest 500 companies combined.
Right now women are still living in a Man’s world. Although women have made great strides in the workplace; the increases in pay are coming at a slow speed especially with the fact that more women are educated than ever before. In reference to The Gender Wage Gap: 2012 by Ariane Hegewisch, Claudia Williams; if the pace of change in the annual earnings ratio continues at the same level as it has since 1960, it will take another 45 years, until 2058, for men and women to be equal in pay.
Women are taught to only speak when spoken to, and to be housewives while their husbands take care of the family financially. These ideals trace back to the day of the caveman era. Over the years women have become more tired of not being treated equally compared to their male counterparts. So to combat this problem the women have fought to gain equal rights as men. One way they did this was to fight for equal rights and respect in the workforce because at one point women were completely absent in the workplace. This finally changed between the years of 1966 and 1982 when the amount of women in the workforce increased by 119.4% (Lips & Colwill,
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
History has changed over the course of time for women. For centuries women were perceived to be second class citizens and submissive. As time progressed women began to challenge the notion and slowly organized to achieve equality between men and women. The struggle for women’s equality during the 19th century started out terrible, but continues to improve over time. In order to understand the events that took place during the 20th century in the struggle for equality, we have to understand past events that shape the same dynamics. In the course of both centuries, includes changes in how women were represented economically, politically, and socially. Only after decades of intense political activity did women eventually win the right to vote
However, that does not mean that inequalities no longer exist between the two genders, the pay gap between men and women is one of the larger gender inequalities seen today. According to an article “ Explaining the Pay Disparity Between Women and Men in Similar Jobs” the authors state that, “ equal pay ranked higher than health care, family and medical leave, pensions and social security for most important legislative issues” (Hessaramiri,Kleiner 3). People want something done about this injustice and are looking towards the government to intervene. The Equal Pay Act is one of these interventions put in place to make employees under the same profession paychecks’ equal no matter the gender. After forty years though, the Equal Pay Act has done little to stop the pay gap from continuing. Hessaramiri and Kleiner inform us that, “ According to the Monthly Labor Review, the weekly earnings of women were lower than that of men for full time employees across all broad occupational categories” (4). Most of the time these employees suffering from the pay gap do not even realize that they are being
Throughout the history of the world, discrimination in all forms has been a constant struggle, whether it is race, gender, religion, appearance or anything else that makes one person different from another, it is happening every day. One significant discrimination problem that is affecting many women takes place in the work place. As of recently the gender wage gap has become a major topic for discussion. The gender wage gap is the average difference between men and women aggregated hourly earnings. Women who are equally trained and educated, and with the same experience are getting paid way less than men. In 2015, female full time workers earned eighty cents for every dollar earned by men.
There are nearly as many women as there are men working, yet, as it was discovered in 2011, on average, a woman will only earn seventy-seven cents for every dollar that a man earns. Women owned businesses make up for over a quarter of all national businesses and earn more than one point two trillion dollars (“Assessing the Past, Taking Stock of the Future” 6). Since many women are now becoming are the primary sources of income in the household, making less that a man does not only negatively affect families, but also the overall economy suffers as well. These women, among many others, are the ones who end up purchasing the supplies that go toward improving communities and stimulating the economy. There is no reason that the general public should stand for this. Women should be treated equally to men in today’s American society based on their biological compositions, psychological profiles and contributions to history.
Laura Bassett, a reporter from the Huffington Post, explains that in today’s society women are paid 77 cents for every dollar that a man earns, resulting in women being paid an average of $37,800 a year compared to men who are paid an average of $49,400 per year in 2012 (Women Still Earned 77 Cents On Men's Dollar In 2012: Report). Also, when a man and a woman apply for the same job, the man will almost always be chosen. This has resulted in the amount of full-time working males increasing by 1 million within a years time, and the number for full-time working women remained nearly the same. To this day, females are not treated equally to males even though almost a century has gone by from 1920 when women gained their deserved suffrage rights and other rights of equivalent importance. Both men and women are standing up to spread the awareness of the meager changes to women’s rights throughout the years. One way to raise awareness is to write a book, and many books have been made about the lack of equality rights for women. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the main character Lily witnesses several equality rights between men and woman in the way that females are treated by males, which has become a major social issue in today’s society.
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
Sexism is a major factor in the workforce.Today male and female have a hard time breaking into the opposite gender dominated fields. This has happened because of the media, it has showed us that male have certain “right” jobs, as well as female. Female still dominate traditional female professions like cosmetology jobs are 92.9 percent women working them(Wolfe). If a man were to get into cosmetology they would most likely be judged for having that job, because we stereotype that they can't have a feminine job. Women have a harder time getting into high level positions. “Women make up only 21 of the S&P’s 500 CEOs,” (Berman). This has happened because the media has set in place stereotypes that it is wrong for women to have high level positions. It is getting better, in 2013 women chief financial officers increased 35 percent at large U.S. companies from 2012 (Frier and Hymowitz). The job market for men and women is still unfair but it is starting to get equal.
Although these examples could prove a case in the corporate world some may take defense by balancing with further statistics. It is stated in Clayton Collin's article, "Why Girls May Still Need an Edge," that women in America may not be at the top of the corporate ladder, but they do hold around forty percent of all privately owned businesses in the United States. (11) So, even though women haven't quite proven themselves to the corporate world, they have most certainly conquered a portion in the entrepreneur world and in a big way. That is definitely a positive point for America's look on gender equality in the workplace.
Women are usually targeted because they are seen as the inferior gender in society. They are often displayed as sexual objects in the media, such as in porn and video games. Because of the way women are portrayed in society, they do not have the same opportunities as men. Many people may think that sexism is not an important issue anymore because women are making their way to the top. For instance, Mary Berara, the CEO of General Motors says “There are more women in more senior roles than in 1980 when I started. But from my career perspective, I don 't go into a room and take count. I want to be recognized for my contribution and for what I do” (nymag). Women are pushing themselves to work in higher positions, to prove that they have the same ability as men. Although women are becoming more and more powerful, sexism is still a huge issue today. Women may have higher positions, but they are paid less than men. According to a news article, “In 2012, the median earnings of American women working full time year-round were $37,791. American men earned a median income of $49,398. The gender wage gap has hovered at about 77 cents on the dollar since 2007” (huffington). This proves that sexism is present today since women working in the same jobs as men are paid a lower
For many decades, women have faced inequalities in the workforce. At one point, they were not allowed to work at all. Although women's rights have improved and are now able to work alongside men, they are still treated unfairly. According to the 2012 U.S. Census, women’s earnings were “76.5 percent of men’s” (1). In 2012, men, on average, earned $47,398 and women earned only $35,791. This is when comparing employees where both gender spend the same amount of time working. Not only do women encounter unfairness in work pay, they also face a “glass ceiling” on a promotional basis. This glass ceiling is a “promotion barrier that prevents woman’s upward ability” (2). For example, if a woman is able to enter a job traditionally for men, she will still not receive the same pay or experience the same increase in occupational ability. Gender typing plays a huge role in the workplace. It is the idea that women tend to hold jobs that are low paid with low status. Women are not highly considered in leadership positions because of social construction of gender. Society has given women the role of “caretakers” and sensitive individuals. Therefore, women are not depicted as authoritative figures, which is apparent with the absence of women in leadership roles in companies. Furthermore, sex segregation leads to occupations with either the emphasis of women in a certain job or men in a certain job. In 2009, occupations with the highest proportion of women included “secretary, child care worker, hair dresser, cashier, bookkeeper, etc.” (3). Male workers typically held job positions as construction workers, truck drivers, taxi drivers, etc. (3). Sex segregation represents inequality because the gender composition for these jobs depends on what ...
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
Gender inequality is present in all aspects of human society, from culture, politics, and economic stand point to personal relationships. Gender inequality can be viewed as a major problem especially within the business world (Corporation, 2016). In the past, men are seen as leaders in all aspects. For example, men could work without any criticisms, they could participate in political issues and were given higher education. Women on the other hand, were given no political participation, criticized for working outside the household as they were responsible for chores such as takes care of their children, cooking or cleaning and given limited education compared to men. Although there are claims rights equality of women in 21st century and much has been written about it in the field of business (Player, 2013), but there is still a gap between male and female. This essay aims to explore the impact of gender inequality in business and will analyze the details in terms of the men are given high pay and specific jobs over women.
One argument concludes that while there may be unequal pay in a said work place, the equal pay has nothing to do with gender. Kate O’Beirne, an author who addresses the feminist movement, says in her novel, “The claim that women face widespread wage discrimination is myth.” Instead, she argues that the idea is simply a tool used to boost the movement for feminists. She argues that since the Equal Pay Act of 1963, it is illegal for any businesses to not equally pay their women workers to their men workers if they are doing the same work. While this might be a valid point, it does not mean that businesses will not break the law to take the cheaper route. It was found in 2014 that women that were working full time were paid 79 percent of what men earned. The gender gap has progressed since the 1970s but has since slowed down. Progression does not mean resolution; the gap has not completely closed.