Gender Inequality And The Civil Rights Act

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was influential in creating a progressive environment which would contribute to creating a fairer world for all. The Act was instrumental in changing the thought process of Americans at the time, and is responsible for supporting equal pay in the workplace. Gender equality pay is an issue people have been fighting over for years, but when the Equal Pay Act of 1963 passed, it certainly aided in the fight for equality for all. (Salem Press Encyclopedia)

Women’s Civil Rights has always been an issue around the world. During World War II, women began working while the men were away at war. Once the men came back, the pay wage began between men and women. According to researchers, Beth Rowen and Borgna Brunner, between 1950 and 1960, women who had worked full-time jobs only earned around 60 cents to every dollar that their male counterparts earned. It was not until June 10, 1963 that the Equal Pay Act was passed by President Kennedy making it illegal for employers to pay women less than men in the same job title. In order to further progress of pay equity, Rosa Cho from Re:Gender.org, also found that President Kennedy proposed a Civil Rights Act to prohibit

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.

America was founded in 1776, but it wasn’t until more than 150 years later when women were even allowed to vote. Although we have come a long way since then, women in this country are still not equal to men. The wage gap is a commonly cited example of this, but it’s not what it seems to be. On first glance it seems that women are paid only 79 cents to a man’s dollar, and

Wage discrimination is embedded in our legal system. The ongoing battle for equal pay for women dates back to the Civil War. Throughout history, men seemed as the ideal-type of employers. Men were primary the breadwinners, and women who worked at the time only pinch in money oppose to having a stable salary equivalent to their male counterparts. The job roles such as nurses, teacher, and retail sales clerk became a “traditional female” occupations. In “Here’s the History of the Battle for Equal Pay for American Women,” Charlotte Alter points out a letter sent to the editor of the New York Times on February 1869. In this letter, the writer questioned why female government officials did not have similar pay to their male colleagues: ‘Very few persons deny the justice of the principle that equal work should command equal pay without regard to the sex of the laborer.’ Even in the late 19th century in which men had far more opportunities than women, people question the inequality in regards of the workplace. The

The article “The Simple Truth About the Gender Wage Gap,” Kevin Miller describes this issue by providing evidence and statistics that men get paid more than women, despite similarities in education and ethnicity, emphasizing that the difference in gender causes the difference in pay. In fact, Miller declares, “The gap has narrowed since the 1970s, due largely to women’s progress in education and workforce participation and to men’s wages rising at a slower rate. Still, the pay gap does not appear likely to go away on its own.” Therefore, since the early 1900’s, women advanced, further closing the pay gap between men and women. Women now have careers and become educated rather than become bound to their roles as a possession of their husbands and mothers to their children. Although the gap does not seem to completely close soon, the clear improvement of women in society suggests that women’s oppression decreased over time. However, the wage gap is not the only issue regarding women’s

The gender wage gap in the U.S. has been a topic of debate in politics through most of the 21st century. In 2015, women were paid 80 percent of what men were paid (SIMPLE TRUTH). This number is considerably smaller than that of the 1960’s because of women’s progress in education and participation in the workforce (SIMPLE TRUTH). The wage gap can have adverse lifelong effects on a woman’s life. Because women are paid less than men, a woman will receive less social security, pensions, and other resources when they retire than a man would (Fischer & Hayes, 2013). There is a common stigma that women do not get paid as much as men because they do not ask for higher wages but not everything can be “explained

In this report, I will explore the rationale, significance, and potency of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 by carefully analyzing its role from creation to passage throughout history, its strengths towards the economy and weaknesses to the public, the effectiveness of its implementation process, and its impact on business and society in the perspective of material covered throughout the ethics and law course. The advancement of the Equal Pay Act is “critically important because employment is essential to the economic well-being and dignity of employees and their families” (Jones, 2014, 18).

“In 2014, female full-time workers made only 79 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 21 percent. Women, on average, earn less than men in virtually every single occupation for which there is sufficient earnings data for both men and women to calculate an earnings ratio” (IWPR). Since the beginning, women have experienced discrimination whether in the workplace of in general, and unfortunately, it continues on today. Women have always had to fight for equal rights, to vote, to work, to be accepted in the workplace, etc., simple rights that should have been given from the start. Being a woman in our society has definitely contributed to the already immense struggle and unfortunately it’s even worse if one is a woman of

Gender inequality is a prominent factor within society. Gender inequality consists of violence against women, as well as the inequality within health care, education, and the workplace (such as the pay gap, and positions women hold within the workplace). As society currently progresses towards equality with movements such as Feminism (the belief which women deserve equal opportunities and treatment as men receive), refutes only increase as positions of power are challenged. Achieving gender equality within the United States alone would be extremely beneficial for women. “In 2010, American women on average earned 81 percent of what their male counterparts earned” (Gender Inequality and Women in the US Labor Force). The pay gap is an increasingly

Women have worked vigorously over the last century to achieve equality in many different ways. From when it all began, during The Suffrage Movement, women have accomplished many of their goals and as a result have become closer to equality with their male equivalents. But, the gap that women have been working endlessly to close still exists today and although not as wide as before, the gap still exists. There are several ways women fall short of equality and one of the most profound issues is the affair of pay equity. Many women today still do not receive identical pay in the workplace, and as of 2014, “among all working men and women ages 16 and older, women’s hourly wages were 84% those of men” (Pew Research Center). To attain full

Even so, the percentage of women who decided to join the work force increased from 43-60%. “In fact because of the Great Recession in 2008-2009” impacted the male-dominated industries the most, but it helped the acceleration towards gender equality (Conley, Dalton, 2013). Now there are approximately the same amount of women and men working in the labor force. Actually for a brief time, women even exceeded men due to this economic crisis. Even though the US passed title VII of the 1964 civil rights act, “which declared it unlawful for employers to discriminate on the basis of a person's race, nationality, creed, or sex”, women faced harder predicaments that they had to push through. Women have to deal with hard situations like harassment, “a legal form of discrimination”, with things like dirty jokes, and sexual haggle, where they are threatened to provide sexual favors or in turn would receive punishment (Conley, Dalton, 2013). Even nearly 40 years after the Equal Pay Act (1963) was passed, discrepancy between women and men flourish in the working world. There was a study performed by the general accounting office in 2003 which found that women earned 79.7% of what men were earning. As such, if we were to compare this finding to the findings in 1983 when women earned 80.3% we can clearly see that this wage gap is in no way diminishing (Alkadry, M.G., & Tower, L.E., 1). There have been attempts to rectify and fight the unequal pay based on gender inequality through “legislation, regulation, and litigation” (Alkadry, M.G., & Tower, L.E., 1). The Equal Pay Act was based off of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the process of rectification depends greatly on trying to enforce these two lawsuits. Unfortunately despite many years of “equal

For centuries, human beings have constantly dealt with various forms of discrimination; whether it is religion, race, gender or other factors that make individuals different from one another, discrimination occurs every day. Inequality in the work force is a type of discrimination that is prevalent globally. Females, who are as equally educated, trained and experienced as their male colleagues, are not receiving equal pay — resulting in a gender wage gap. According to a study conducted by Christianne Corbett, M.A. and Catherine Hill, Ph.D. (2012), women, around the age of 23, who graduated from the same post-secondary school as men in 2008 and who were employed full-time in 2009 earned 82 cents for every dollar that men earned. Moreover, after many years of a consistent female to male earnings ratio of approximately 60%, the relative salary of females started to increase sharply in the late 1970s, with a continuous, yet slower and more fluctuated rise thereafter (Blau and Kahn, 2016). The Institute for Woman’s Policy Research (IWPR) has tracked this trend and predicted that it will likely take 45 more years for females to ultimately reach wage parity with males (Hegewisch and DuMonthier, 2010). With the increased opportunity for careers and contribution in the workplace by men and women, alike, the gender wage gap continues to be an important social issue in modern society.

“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.

Throughout history, discrimination has always been a constant battle; whether it’s race, gender, religion, or beliefs. One discrimination problem the world is facing, takes place in the workforce. Women, who are as equally trained and educated, and have the same experience as men, are not getting equal pay. The gender wage gap has always been an issue even after the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Although the wage gap did decrease from the past fifty years we still aren’t at the point we should be. The issue in society has become openly discussed by many feminists and even our former president in 2015 during one of his speeches. My goal is to inform people about the constant conflict women have to face.