Gender And Gender Equality In The United States

What are future challenges, and how has the movement evolved to get to recent successes as equality in

After years of Civil Rights Movements and Pay Equity Acts, as of 2014, women still only make 79 cents to a man 's every dollar. Although the wage gap has shrunk since the 1970’s, progress has recently stalled and chances of it vanishing on its own is unlikely. The gains that American women have made towards labor market experience and skills is tremendous. In fact, women account for 47% of labor workforce and 49.3% of American jobs. But despite of women’s strides, a gender pay gap still exists. Experts suggest that it will take 100 years to close the gap at the rate employers and legislators are working to create solutions. But by allowing women to work in higher paying positions and by proposing and updating pay equity laws, the gender gap can finally be diminished.

Gender Equality is a big issue throughout the world, but what exactly is it? Well to answer that, it is the view that everyone should receive equal treatment and not be discriminated against based on gender. Today, most women are getting treated differently compared to men. Whether it is based on pay gap, power, or strength the problem comes up. Men think they are stronger and better than women and this upsets women because it makes them feel like they don’t have a place in this world. This is where feminism comes into place. I chose this topic because I can relate to it more than the racial option, although now it could be about the same.

For the first time in history women had surpassed men in the paid labor force. Yet, instead of provoking an equality among the sexes, the figures play no statistical significance, as women still try to bridge the gap between their inequality among their male counterparts. One apparent setback for women in the workplace is their unequal payment, “Women workers are still paid less than men, currently about-three quarters of mens income if they work full time and year round”(Institute for Womens’s Policy Research, 2010). Although there women are beginning to integrate into vastly male populated jobs throughout the labor force “… women in America today earn 78 cents to a man’s dollar, according to the U.S Census Bureau, and have struggled for decades to achieve pay for equal work” (Riley 2). Not only has this pay gap significantly effected the nature of women throughout the county, it has also violated the bill that Congress passed called the Equal Pay Act of 1963. The Equal Pay Act was signed in order to establish a more sound and equal treatment among the sexes. It noted that an employer was unable to discriminate employees on grounds of gender, yet as figures denote today, this bill seems to not possess enough jurisdiction over the wage gap. The wage gap has contributed to various problems within the United States, especially among single mothers who do not have a supporting male figure within their household.

Since the late 19th century, women have been struggling with the issue of not receiving the same amount of pay as men. The gender wage gap was not seen as a major issue until the 1960s, however, and unfortunately, it is still a major issue in our world today. (cite source). In the early 1900’s, World War I caused many men to leave their families behind to fight for their country. As a result of this, women had to take the responsibility of the male roles in the workforce. Women were expected to do the same jobs as men did before they were deployed, but were paid less to do so (cite source). This problem still exists in our world today. In 2011, it was proven that the weekly earnings for a female full-time worker is $684, compared

In 1963, the Equal Pay Act was passed that didn’t allow employers to pay women less money than men for the exact same job. Even after all of the victories for Women’s Rights, women still aren’t being treated equally. They suffer from sexual harassment, a wage gap, and not being able to advance in the workplace. These problems continue to effect the lives of women all around the United States. Organization try to spread the word about the unequal treatment of women to everyone. If more people took a stand against this issue we could make the pay of men and women exactly the same.

The topic that I have chosen to talk about is the Miss America Pageant Protest. This was a protest that occurred in 1969 in Atlantic City. This protest started off as a publicity stunt, so more individuals would tour the city. The pageant was divided into a couple of days of the week and each day their would be different events for women that were chosen to attend. This event was basically portraying that women had to be a certain way in order to compete or get the “Miss America” title. As time went on, feminist around the world gathered together to protest how unfair pageants were. They declared that pageants were only focused on physical characteristics of women, and if an individual didn’t meet the “requirements”, then they wouldn’t qualify

Once upon a time in a world dominated by men, women had been forced to comply with society 's blinding notion that they were pieces of property meant to play the domesticated role of a dutiful housewife. This was true up until the late 1840s when women began to realize their worth was so much more than a floor-moping, dinner-making, stain-bleaching slave to six children and an ungrateful husband. That may sound rash and some situations may have been different, but before the civil war these women did not have the opportunities to be properly educated like men. Courageously strong women, over time, from the early 1800s up until the 1920s and counting, such as Elizabeth Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem have all become recognized for their dedication and persistence in bringing about changes in defending the rights of women and suppressing the bias against gender equality thus paving the road of feminism. However, even in today’s world anti-feministic backlashes are still occurring in the sense of politics, workplace, and society.

By the time the Equal Pay Act became a federal law in 1963, women throughout America were only making an average of 59 cents to every dollar that men earned (The Pay Gap, the Glass Ceiling). When the Equal Pay Act was enforced, Congress was focusing on the wages gap that was present for men and women who were working the same job. Therefore, women were supposed to receive “equal pay for equal work” (California Closes the Gap, par. 3) relative to the men they worked alongside with. Many companies within the private sector took advantage of the wording of this Act, citing that women were not doing “equal work” to the men, so they did not justifiably deserve “equal pay”. This is how even now, 50 years later, “persistence of a twenty percent gender pay gap” (ABA Journal, par. 1) makes it so that on a national average women are still making less than men. However, while cultural bias is one of the contributing factors, it is only

economy has changed enormously. They are increasingly holding positions in management, and we are lead to believe the pay gap between men and women are now balanced. In 1963, President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act creating it a law that makes different pay wages illegal due to gender based work quality. In the 1960’s women in the United States earned an average of 59 cents for the dollar men made in equal positions. (Gender, Web). Today almost half of the workforce consist of women and are the main source of income in four out of ten households. A review of the year 2013 shows that female full-time workers only received 78 cents to the dollar earned by men (Pay,

Gender roles are sets of societal norms dictating what types of behaviors are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable based on their sex. The concept of gender roles are quite simple, yet can be very biased towards both genders. Men and Women are equal enough to where a woman and a man can do whatever their mind wants to accomplish. Believing that you can do anything you want will always help you to succeed in life. I do not believe in there being such things as "male jobs" or even "female jobs." Having gender roles is very comical. At the end of the day, as long as the job is completed, who cares what gender it took to get it done. How effectively do you feel, that the US could be ran, if gender roles were never an aspect

One specific reform and agenda that is still highly contentious in a society that dehumanizes women is the feminist reform and agenda. A simple, tedious inquiry may inquire: how can one say that women are not regarded as humans? A simple contrast to men will reveal whether or not they have been dehumanized. For instance, what women can wear, what rights women have in referral to their reproductive organs, where women should breastfeed, how “women” should be “filled” in specific places, and when women can go out because a young woman should not be wandering the streets alone. Gloria Steinem stated: “Source D) While men fight for war and then protest war, women fight for the rights that have already been granted for men, that have been stripped by

The American Association University of Women reports that the average full time workingwoman receives just 80% the salary of a man. In 1960, women made just 60% of what men made, an upward trend that can be explained “largely by women’s progress in education and workforce participation and to men’s wages rising at a slower rate”, but a trend that is not yet equal (p. 4). Hill recognizes that the choices of men and women are not always the same, whether it be in college major, or job choice, however she concludes that women experience pay gaps in virtually all levels of education and lines of work. She suggests that continuing to increase the integration of women in predominately male dominated work will help the pay gap, however, she believes that alone won’t be enough to ensure equal pay for women.

Inequality has been a dilemma for several years in countless different ways. A persistent problem with disproportion of income between women and men has been lingering within many companies in the United States. It has been said that women earn less money than men in the workplace for many different reasons. Some of these reasons are that women have not spent enough time in the office to be rewarded with raises and bonuses because they are busy with their home lives and taking care of their children, they, unlike men, have been taught to be timid and unaggressive which ultimately steers them away from requesting higher pay, or they do not meet the qualifications to receive promotions (Hymowitz, 2008). This essay is in response to On

“The wage gap has narrowed by more than one-third since 1960”(Hegewisch, 2010) and “the share of companies with female CEOs increased more than six-fold” (Warner, 2014) since 1997. As well as the truth that men and women’s earnings differ for many other reasons besides the presence of sexism. “Discrimination in labor market, in education/retiring programs, unequal societal norms at home and the constrained decisions men and women make about work and home issues” (Hegewisch, 2010) are also factors that can contribute to the unequal treatment of man and women in the workplace. Yet even with most of these variables removed women are still being paid less than men, sexually harassed in the workplace and hold very little managerial positions.