Participation of Women in the Workforce

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Since the late 1970s, the participation of women in the workforce has dramatically changed from women traditionally following their mother’s footsteps to obtaining an independent career of their own. According to Resident Scholar, Christina Hoff Sommers of the Huffington Post, "there are far more women than men in college, and they earn more than fifty-eight percent of [the] college degrees [in the year of 2013]." However, some women in the workforce do not receive the full compensation as men do, even though both genders have the same level of education. The book Lean In-Women, Work, and The Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg, suggests that there are several reasons why women are behind in the wage gap such as challenges, progressiveness, and character. On the contrary, I will also be researching women's work in my own field of study as a College Professor.
Sheryl Sandberg suggests that life is nothing but a challenge and that one must face obstacles before they taste the sweet fruit of success. Some individuals may consider the words challenge and obstacle as having similar concepts; however, when an individual looks in between the lines of women's work they can clearly see two

different categories, the physical and the psychological. For example, an undergraduate degree holder has to face physical challenges in order to complete their field of study such as attending class sessions and producing academic work; the psychological obstacle of the undergrad would be the unawareness of their own capabilities as they tends to discourage themselves to the point where they do not sit at the table nor take leadership actions in any work situation. According to Sheryl Sandberg, "women have to prove themselves to a far greater extent than...

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...oman among the 'Fortune'
500?"USATODAY.com - 2003: Year of the Woman among the 'Fortune' 500? N.p., 30
Dec. 2003. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

Linkins, Jason. "Barack Obama's Columbia GPA Ferreted Out By The Daily Caller Via Random
Guy From The Interwebs." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 02 Nov. 2012.
Web. 14 Mar. 2014.

Pease, John. "Professor Mom: Woman's Work In A Man's World." Shatford Library.
Worldcat, (1993): 133. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.

Sandberg, Sheryl. Lean in: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. New York: Alfred A.Knopf,
2013. Print.

Sommers, Christina Hoff. "Wage Gap Myth Exposed By Feminists." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 04 Nov. 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.

Sommers, Christina Hoff. "Close the Wage Gap by Changing Your Major." The Huffington
Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 05 June 2013. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.

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