In the past half century, America has seen a historic decline in gender inequality across many realms of society. Women have reached levels of success that they never have before, finding equality in education, employment and political representation. Yet despite these gains, inequality remains a persistent issue. It is particularly prominent in the workplace, where women face the glass ceiling effect and a significant gender wage gap across all professions. A closer look at the competing explanations – broadly defined as meritocratic versus structural – shows that although the first may play a role in unequal pay, the second, which encompasses systemic problems of discrimination and gender “pay penalties,” contribute quite significantly …show more content…
So why does a country that values economic growth and gender equality have such a persistent wage gap?
Two basic concepts exist for explaining this inequality. The primary one is the “widely shared and deeply institutionalized belief in meritocracy” (Cech, 2010, p. 371). This belief infers that individuals will gain advantages in a society through their work and their will power, and that those who don’t manage to get ahead are responsible for their own shortcomings and losses. The second explanation uses systemic or structural factors in society that work against individuals to explain inequality. Examples of this include a person’s race, their pre-existing economic status, or disabilities they suffer, all of which could subject the individuals possessing them to social discrimination and thus provide a barrier to advancement or economic gain. Cech (2010) argues that these perceptions are significant in that they inform the specific decisions that people make in movements toward equality.
While most Americans believe in the meritocratic explanation for inequality, Cech (2010) argues that different work and social situations will influence what people believe about gender inequality, whether it be meritocratic or structural. For example, lower-class workers tend to hold more structural beliefs, as do primary breadwinners/single mothers. Married women and those with higher-level jobs in their field have a greater tendency
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,
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.
Women have made significant strides in society, proving themselves to be as capable as men in the workforce. However, while women are making equal contributions, men and women are not earning equal wages. Even though the Equal Pay Act was established in 1963, women continue to earn lower wages than men over half a century later. This inequality not only affects women as individuals but has a detrimental effect on the national economy. The gender wage gap in the United States should end because it is unjust; correcting it would have social and economic benefits for the U.S.
Meanwhile, the segregation of jobs by gender and other factors affect pay equity. A term used back in the 1980’s as a metaphor for the invisible and artificial barriers that blocked women and minorities from advancing up the corporate ladder to management and executive positions is called the glass ceiling (Hill, 2013). Louisville Women’s Careers Examiner argues “ Glass ceilings are still found in the workplaces, not only in the discrimination of pay scales, but also marked by sexual harassment, exploitation at work and as a feeling of insecurity in women due to conduct of the opposite sex” (Hill, 2013, p.33). Societal barriers that women tend to face are prejudice and bias, cultural, opportunity and attainment, gender, and color-based differences. Moreover, several other barriers women run into are governmental, business structural and internal businesses all of which have ramifications on their chances of success.
It has been more than fifty years since the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was enacted, yet gender pay gap still exists today. According to National Women’s Law Center, women are paid only 80 cent for every dollar their male counterpart are paid. According to American Association of University Women, the total estimated loss of earnings for women compared to men over the course of 45 years are $700,000 for a high school graduate, $1.2 million for a college graduate, and $2 million for a professional school graduate. Although there are many factors that are responsible for gender pay gap, 40% of the pay gap is due to discrimination according to a report by the Joint Economic Committee Democratic Staff. By discriminating women, we, as a society, are telling
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
The gender pay gap is the biggest unspoken problem in America. This issue has been in the world since the dawn of time, but people only started paying attention to it in the last 80 years. In order to close this gap for good, we have to look at where it began. Stereotypes and traditions of stereotypes are the main roots of this problem; before we look at that, we must make sure we stay balanced in our fight against injustice. If we push too far, we will fall into a gender pay gap in favor of women, and I don’t want that I want fair only.
The gender wage gap is where men get paid more than women for doing the same job. The gender wage gap has been around since 1960, when women began working full time jobs outside the home. When the wage gap between women and men first became apparent, the issue primarily centered around discrimination against women as the “weaker sex”, a social stereotype. Today the issue has become more complex, involving American cultural norms and politics, and concerns that there are glass ceilings within businesses for women. As a result, many people are indecisive when it comes to taking a position on the matter while others are adamantly entrenched in their mind set. The fact of the matter is that women’s wages should match men’s wages whenever performance of duty is equal. The issue is that there should be equal pay for equal work. Wages should be based on education, experience, exposure, and location in that career field.
The pay gap between genders exhibits sexism in America yet some researchers are in denial. Warren Farrell, expert on gender issues within legislation and former board member of National Organization for Women, claims otherwise. In his book Why Men Earn More, he attributes difference in wages to females choosing human resources jobs, which pay less, and not choosing harsher jobs that pay more (Farrell). His overall point is that men sacrifice more thus companies pay more for those sacrifices. His argument only compares the genders when different job requirements alter wages, but does not mention wages of identical jobs.
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
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
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.
In briefly evaluating the classical and modern explanations of social inequality, it is essential that we step outside the realm of our own lives, class position, and discard any assumptions we might have about the nature of inequality. This process of critical pedagogy allows us to view our world, not from our perspective, but from a wider, more critical analysis of inequality's nature. Also, it should be considered within this wider perspective that all theories of inequality have a class perspective, where the theorist, based on the position their theory takes, is making claims from (or for) a particular class (whether they want to or not). With this in mind, it seems that most of these theories come
“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.