Gender Inequality Within The Workplace

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.

The gender wage gap has been a nationwide problem since women were able to enter the workforce. Women have begun to speak out more about the issue and evaluate what they can do to change the industries and how they personally present themselves to help this change. Currently there is a wide range of opinions on this issue, with some saying it does not exist while others think it will ruin the economy if not fixed immediately. This makes it more difficult to address the problem and predict how it will be in the future; however, all sides of the spectrum are becoming more aware of what the gender wage gap means and what they can do to change it. This paper will analyze the different stances on the extent of this social issue as well as the current practices being used to increase knowledge and equalize pay for all.

Since the beginning of time, women have rarely been seen as equal alongside men. They were always expected to focus on housework and were never given the opportunity to own property, touch money, or vote. It wasn’t until the late 1800s when women decided to make a drastic change. Women’s rights activists, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, organized the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls. At this convention,

The roles and characteristics related to males and females vary according to time and culture (Keating 2003). A concept of male breadwinner model gave important impacts on the Australian economic, politics, culture and social field in early twentieth century (Broomhill and Sharp 2005). However, in the past few decades, there has been gradual changes occurred in the Australian gender order (ibid.). Even though men are the dominant gender in the workforce, due to globalization, women gained more opportunity to have jobs in the workforce (Jones 1983). In addition, there are increasing number of women in Australian workforce after World War 2 (Broomhill and Sharp 2005). But still gender inequality has been ongoing debate in the workforce for

The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was a catalyst that allowed millions of women all over the world to fight for empowerment. The traditional mindset of the society was that women were not entitled to the same rights as men. This issue was not acknowledged in a major way until the 1800s. Women’s rights activists such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Alice Paul made it their life goal to make sure that women were granted the same rights and liberties as the men around them. These women had to fight because they were not granted the rights due to a traditional mentality that viewed women as property and as people who should not have opinions. In 1920, the 19th amendment was passed and gave women the right to vote. Although

On July 19th, 1848 a convention took place in Seneca Falls, New York at Wesleyan Chapel to discuss the rights of women. Never in the history of the western civilization had a gathering like this ever taken place. Women had to fight for their right to vote, right to work, and their right to freedom. Women as a whole play a huge role in our society. Women are no less than men, so we figure they should be treated equally as men. That is exactly what Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Stanton, and many other women’s rights supporters set out to do, creating the Women’s Rights Movement. (1848-1998) Women in the 1800s through the late 1900s had to fight for their rights.

Women earn less than men. In fact, in America, a woman earns an average of 79 cents to her male coworker’s dollar. Many people see this statistic and think that 21 cents is nothing to fuss over, but the truth is that “the cumulative impact of lower wages throughout women’s careers is devastating, costing a woman working full time, year-round close to half a million dollars over the course of her career” (“New Report”). Although the inferior treatment of women in the workplace is an unfortunate reality, there are many groups and organizations working to empower women and do something about the gender pay gap.

Gender inequalities are evident in today’s society. In recent years there has been an increase in identifying the existing disparities among genders, especially in institutions. The workplace is a common institution in which gender roles are highly distinctive. Whether it be an office environment or elsewhere, women have higher social expectations than men. This regards the way in which women physically present themselves through professional dress and behavioural expectations. Women work in a male-dominant industry, which has created gender inequalities. Through the use of Erving Goffman and Dorothy Smith’s theories, one can attempt to understand the true impact of gender inequalities in the workplace.

First, sexism can be seen today in America’s work forces through discrimination in salaries. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that when men worked full time, 35 hours or more per week, they earned average of 871 dollars per week in 2014, and full time working women earned average of 719 dollars per week. Women’s weekly earnings were 83 percent of men’s. The biggest factors about a wage gap between female and male is that they work in different types of jobs. The different types of jobs lead up to 49.3 percentage in the wage gap. In the top 20 well paid jobs, such as medical field, software developers, and mechanical engineers, women’s population is only one-third of men’s population in those jobs. Furthermore, in the top 10 highest

There are many origins to the issue of workplace inequality. Across the world, women are getting paid less and less. The gender wage gap now stands at an average of 22 cents between genders. It is common knowledge that women were often not allowed to work in the past, and if they did they didn’t have the best jobs. With women increasing their education and work experience, it shouldn’t still be an issue. On average, a woman who goes to the same college, gets the same job, and has the same amount of know-how a man does, will get paid 78 cents for every dollar made by the male counterparts.

The attached report, requested by the Human Resources Department on September 30, discusses the issue of gender gaps in the workplace in the context of the Canadian workforce. I believe you will find this report useful when determining salaries, hiring practices, and promotion of employees.

As the years have progressed, the differences between men and women have been subdued to a more reasonable degree. Gender inequality is the difference in rights and treatment between men and women in today’s workplace or society. The origins of this problem can be traced back to centuries ago, where women never had the same amount of respect and rights as men. “…most women had very little to do with Athenian life outside of the boundaries of family and home” (Beck, et.al, 129). Women did not attend school and were mostly taught skills to manage and care for the home as wives and mothers, very few learned to read and write. In Athens and most other city-states, women were not permitted citizenship and had few rights. Citizenship was given exclusively to adult male land owners born in Athens. As women began to enter the work force, because of their history of being in the home, they were given service positions such as secretaries and food servers which rarely offered chances for advancement. This affected nearly everybody in families and the workforce. “Though discrimination according to gender is not permitted legally, in reality it is much harder to avoid” (Kay, n.pag). Meaning the legislation is in place give genders equal rights, but it cannot truly be adequately monitored because of the ambiguity of employment records.

Gender inequality in the workplace has existed in the United States as well as other countries for decades. Gender inequality in the workplace involves micro and macro sociology. Microsociology is involved within small groups or an individual while macro sociology is involved within large groups like the society as a whole or larger. Men have been typically paid more than women in the same position. Many people still believe men should be paid more than women; however, it is unethical to determine someone's wage depending on their gender. The ratio of women to men in the workforce increased from 1 to 5 in 1890 to nearly 1 to 2 in 2017. However, for each dollar, a man makes a woman makes only about 80 cents. Even though gender inequality in the workplace is a widespread issue, it is not treated like a real problem. The reason behind why the social phenomenon of gender inequality in the workplace has yet to become a real problem is due to the role of women as the main caregiver, dominant men, and female jobs, as well as discrimination.

“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 the history of the world, there has been a constant battle over discrimination, whether it is gender, race, religion, beliefs, sexual orientation, appearance, or any other characteristic that may differentiate any one person from another. One particularly prominent discrimination problem that continues to persist into modern day, rears its head in the work place. Despite multiple incentives aimed at achieving equality for women in the work place, women continue to fall behind men in regards to pay and leadership positions. This is despite the fact that women have equal or better educational credentials and offer comparable skill sets to employers. A multitude of factors have led to the deficiency in pay, including women having a tendency to choose to enter fields with lower salaries at higher rates than men, and their more prominent concern for work-life balance in order to prioritize childcare obligations. However, another suspect exists that garners far less attention: often, women are not as effective at self-advocacy in the workforce as men are. Women may be fearful of the potential negative social consequences of ardent self-promotion, and this may lead to an inhibition to negotiate which may result in women receiving significantly less pay for the same work as men. This instance of inequality dates back hundreds of years. In more recent years, the realization that women and men can generate the same results, obtain the same education, and have the same