Gender Disparity Among The Employees In Universities

According to the US Census Bureau, in 2010 the median earnings for women were $36,931 compared to $47,715 for men. [3] The majority of college degrees earned in the US are by women, and yet a study according to the American Association of University Women found that these educated graduated women are starting out with earning 5 percent less than their male peers. This was after several factors were taken into account, such as experience, training, and what school women earned their degrees from. Their study summarizes that, “In this analysis the portion of the pay gap that remains unexplained after all other factors are taken into account is 5 percent one year after graduation and 12 percent ten years after graduation.” – Behind the Pay Gap, American Association of University Women, Dey, Judy Goldberg

In American society today there is an imbalance in the gender income gap between men and women in the work force. Many factors such as discrimination, productivity, educational background and disproportional hours worked contribute to this ongoing challenge. While many are skeptical, others remain to have strong beliefs that women and men are treated equally. In most professions according to Glynn “women only earn seventy seven cents for every dollar earned by men” (2014). Although, the seventy seven cents figure does not accurately reflect gender discrimination, it does capture some discrimination,

Thesis: The gender pay gap in the United States is an understated misconception to many men and women today. This paper will overview the reality, causes, statistics, and those being affected by gender pay gap, as well as what this issue means for the future of the United States of America.

The gender pay gap effects women in almost all fields of work and in all racial or ethnic

The gender wage gap has been around since women began having jobs and careers. Though in the beginning the gender wage gap was purely do to discrimination by social stereotypes, now it has become more complicated than that. The issue today has evolved into a complex issue which combines our American culture with business economics. As a result, some are skeptical of the issue and some are very adamant in their beliefs. The issue encompasses not only gender stereo types but also educational, government policies and business’s best practices.

Women nowadays have opportunities that were not obtainable in past decades but must overcome, or in most cases overlook, the barrier of being punished in the long run for simply being a woman; “gender differences in starting salaries are a significant contributor to long-term earning differentials between men and women” (Bowels and Babcock). It seems to me that in the workforce, a woman is a person just as a man is a person, if that person gets the job done right, he or she should be paid for doing so, if not, that person receives repercussions. The influence of gender on this issue is very curious as to why it is even a factor in the first place.According to “melanievarnell.wordpress.com” Doing research on the equal work equal pay topic has aroused many questions and proposed solutions, but the lingering query is why employers are still enabling this workplace behavior and discrimination in the 21st century. An article titled, “Equal Work for Equal Pay”: Not Even College Helps Women, was written by “Korva Coleman”; who claims that women are worth less than men when entering the workforce after completing a college degree. Throughout the article, Coleman supports her claim using different studies’ results that “show when men and women attend the same kind of college, pick the same major and accept the same kind of job, on average, the woman will still earn 82 cents to every dollar

But since 2000, progress has all but flatlined. A big underlying factor is the slowdown in women’s wage growth. That’s what helped propel the closure of the gap in earlier decades, but women have seen a standstill in wage growth since about 2001, as has most of the country.Women make less than men, on average, for a number of reasons. About 10 percent of it is thanks to different work experience, often because women are much more likely to take breaks from work to care for family members. The drop of women in the labor force over the last decade can be tied to the country’s lack of paid family leave, child care assistance, and support for flexible schedules.Some of it is also due to the fact that women end up working in areas that tend to pay less. But that doesn’t mean they can escape the gap by choosing different paths. They make less in virtually every industry and every job. And while getting more education boosts earnings, women make less than men with the same educational credentials at every level and even make less than their former male classmates when they graduate from top-tier universities. Some of that difference may be due to different majors or grades, but when salaries in the first year after graduation are compared while taking the college, major, grades, and other factors into account, women still experience a significant wage gap.Discrimination therefore plays a role. Economists consistently find a portion of the gap that can’t be explained by a variety of other factors. Studies have found that people of both genders are inclined to give men more money, especially if the woman is a mother. Meanwhile, women’s job performance is continuously underrated compared to men’s. Therefore in the workforce are discriminated

Specifically, a 2008 study that combines human capital theory with structural theory to study the gender wage gap confirms that male faculty members earn 14% more than women faculty members (Umbach, 2008). This number when controlled for institutional and disciplinary attributes, accumulated human capital, and individual demographic attributes, shows that women faculty members still earn about 4.2% less wages than male faculty members resulting in an annual gap of $3100 (Umbach,

While many Americans and Farrell overlook sexism in careers, it is extremely evident in academia. The ratio of female to male positions and the salaries of those positions are blatant examples of unfairness. Linda Krefting, human resources professor at Texas Tech University and co-editor of Human Resource Reality, depicts the depressing reality for women in her article concerning the academic field. Though women earn 44 percent of doctorate degrees, only 33 percent of them have faculty positions. One would not expect a perfect 50:50 ratio, but this deficit is unacceptable. Additionally, on average women receive salaries 33 percent lower than what a male in

According to Steve Tobak, a former executive and consultant for Fox Business, the gender pay gap is a myth. Tobak claims that once you look past the headlines, politicians, and feminists it will be clear that the wage gap is not the result of coercion, dislike, or discrimination but simply a matter of women’s choices. Instead, he attributes the astounding difference in pay to personal choices such as college careers, high paying jobs, and having children. He also argues that in higher-paid occupations, women tend to make the same if not more than their male counterparts. Tobak would like to make it known that women tend to choose occupations that are not dangerous, uncomfortable, or involve physical labor, and that those factors are enough to justify that personal choices are the only factor that cause the “pay gap”. However, Tobak does not have an explanation for occupations that are dangerous and require the same amount of specialization, training, and education. His only answer to this is that more women in law and medicine tend to choose careers that are less challenging and time consuming. Yet, Mr. Tobak claims that it is not the institutions that create this pay gap, but that women themselves are to blame for their salaries.

The consequences of this type of discrimination lead to unequal pay for the same kind of work. “The American Association of University Women is releasing a new study that shows when men and women attend the same kind of college, pick the same major and accept the same kind of job, on average, the woman will still earn 82 cents to every dollar that a man earns” (Coleman) . This embodiment originates from the very popular credence that men provide for women in a family environment and that the wives’ are the parent who care for the children at home, therefore making them more unfocused in their workplace, hence the belief

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.

Based on a 2010 article titled, “Gender Compensation Discrimination: An Exploration of Gender Compensation Gap and the Higher Education Connection,” it states, “In 2009 women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median weekly earnings of $657, or about 80 percent of the $819 median for their male counterparts,” (Grey-Bowen, 2010). Although this looks like a much better gain for women, it still suggests that there is still a gender bias when coming to wages. More and more women are taking leadership roles and even heads of their businesses with an ever-changing fast paced society, so society as a whole must help bring change to the minds of others to stop the discrimination

John Robst, Jennnifer Van Gilder and Solomon Polacheck(2003) examined perception of women faculty in higher education sector and found that men getting higher wages are treating better than low wages women faculty. There is a need to hire women faculty and treat them equally to their male counterparts.

I examined different professional industries in The United States to get a familiar understanding of gender inequality around me. Gender inequality does not particularly favor one sex in every professional industry. Joanne Lipman’s article, "Let’s Expose the Gender Pay Gap," dealt with professional women in the work force and the gender pay gap that exists between professional men. There is also a distinct gender gap between a woman and a man asking for a raise or promotion within a company. “Female doctors and surgeons, for example, earn 71 percent of what their male colleagues make, while female financial specialists are paid just 66 percent as much as comparable men. Other researchers have calculated that women one year out of college earn 6.6 percent less than men after controlling for occupation and hours, and that female M.B.A. graduates earn on average $4,600 less than their male classmates for their first jobs.” (Lipman). There is a statistical gender pay gap in The United States that is undeniable.