Gender Wage Gap in America

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

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.

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.

The gender wage gap issue was brought to light during WWII when women began to work in the war industries and began taking jobs and unequal pay. During this time the National War Labor Board asked employers to voluntarily make adjustments which equalize wage or salary rates paid to females with the rates paid to males for comparable quality and quantity of work. This request wasn’t just ignored, but after the war women were pushed out of their employment to make room for returning veterans.

One cannot begin the discussion of gender pay gap without defining it. Simply put, gender pay gap is the inequality between men and women wages. Gender pay gap is a constant international problem, in which women are paid, on average, less than that of their male counterpart. As to if gender pay gap still exist, its exactness fluctuates depending on numerous factors such as professional status, country and regional location, gender, and age. In regards to gender, in some cases, both men and women have stated that the gap does not exist. Due to various countries initiatives to shrink the wage inequality between men and women wages in the work force, the gap has narrowed, respectively, which may have helped form such opinion. However, stating that the gender pay gap does not exist in today’s society, anywhere, is completely unlikely. Seeing that the gap has loosened its grasp in the working world, in other countries, the gap between pay has widen or remained stagnant. One cannot help but wonder why the gap remains consistent even with such substantial progress made in countries where the gap has decreased.

The gender pay gap is a problem nationwide in the United States. It is a phenomenon that affects women of all education levels, ages, and races. Although it varies in a state-by-state basis, the pay gap is prevalent in all states (Miller, 2017). The issue is also occupation-wide, meaning that nearly every occupation will have a gender gap (Miller, 2017). Statistics from The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap have shown that while an increase in education help women earn more, it does not eliminate the problem all together or close the gap (Miller, 2017). As of recent statistics, women are paid approximately 80 cents for every dollar a man makes, however, the gap is worse for women of color, especially, when compared to the salary of that of white men; African American women earn 63% of the salary that white men earn, Native American women earn 58%, and the largest gap is for Latina women, who earn only 54% (Miller, 2017).

The gender pay gap in the United States forms a slightly mixed feeling. On one hand, after years of opposition to the earnings of women compared to men. There has been a large increase in women's earnings since the 1970s. The gender pay gap in the United States is measured through the female to male average yearly earnings for a full-time, year-round worker. Previously, a woman earned 77 cents for every dollar that a male gets. Since 1980, the gap has narrowed by 16.8 cents, improving from 60.2 cents to 77 cents, as stated by the Institute for Women’s Policy. The current pay gap between female and male is 82 cent for every one dollar. This growth is significant because it opposes the relative stability of the earlier incomes of a woman in the

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 gender wage gap issue has been around since the old days. Now, it has been reported that the gender wage gap has been widening among the young, fresh and newly graduated educated students.

Women’s pay has long been a subject in the economic community and to a further extent society. With arguments being presented from both sides, but one thing cannot be disputed there is a gender based wage gap between women and men. Why is there a gap and how can society in the United States change that? First we must examine women in the workforce. Then ask why it happens then figure out how we can put an end to the pay gap.

The gender wage gap is not the only problem as also there is another right in which women are arguing for and that is to legally have an abortion. Feminists would argue that they should have the right to choose to whether they want to have an abortion. This reiterates that women still do not have the rights that they feel like they deserve to have and that they should continue to protest and fight until they do. Angela Breslin in her article “A Wall of Legislative Obstacles in the Path of A Woman Exercising Her Right To An Abortion: Planned Parenthood Arizona INC.V. Betlach” argues how Supreme Court Cases on abortion have gone against it therefore violating their rights. She talks about the court cases on how they took away the right to

Gender pay gaps are defined as the average difference between men’s and women’s aggregate hourly earnings. One of the largest driving factors of the gender wage gap is the fact that men and women, on average, work in different industries and occupations. Women in every state experience the pay gap, but in some states it is worse than others. The pay gap affects women from all backgrounds, at all ages, and of all levels of educational achievement. In 2014, women working full time in the United States typically were paid just 79 percent of what men were paid which is a gap of 21 percent. The gap has narrowed since the 1970s due to women 's progress in education and workforce participation and to men 's wages rising at a slower rate. The progress has stalled in recent years and the pay gap does not appear likely to go away on its own.

Across many American industries, the gender wage gap has been proven to be a major financial issue. There is no clear and concrete reason for its existence, but researchers have found that lowered perceived competence and commitment to the job, lack of negotiation, and general employer sexism all contribute to the prolongation of the

As stated by the World Economic Forum, women are being paid less for the same work in every country in the world. They also stated that it will take almost two centuries to close the gender pay gap in the world. So is this the result of personal choice? There is no denying that individual choice makes up some portion of the wage gap. These choices which are a part of social structure, like gender socialization, culture, and so on. But, there are other factor that makes up the gender wage gap also and the idea that the gender wage gap is a product of only personal choice is incorrect.

More than two million enterprises have women in management positions, but gender inequality in the workplace at small and medium-sized enterprises is still a big problem in our world today. According to a study done by Workingmums, more than two thousand women said they’ve had flexible working requests turn down. This can be really hard on these women because most of them need these flexible hours because they’re supporting a family. An enterprise called The Typeface Group is trying to help their workers and they offer flexibility to all their women. There’s no glass ceiling at this enterprise but this is usually not the case at other companies. A company with the name DAME made an effort to secure funding for women and this led to many problems such as sexism. Men started to go against this business because the co founder had children that men thought were getting in the way of her growing the business. “ Sarah Andersen, the head of people science at HR software company, Fairsail, believes that businesses have an unconscious gender bias that’s rooted in both men and women.” When this bias is