Ms Magazine Paper: The Changes Of Gender Gaps

Richard T. Schaefer. “Social Construction of Gender”. Sociology 11th Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1983-2008.

The gender wage gap in America is a social problem that has existed since women entered the workforce. According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, for every dollar earned by a man, a woman made 78.3 cents in 2013 (Leon-Guerrero, 2016). Data from 1983 to 1998 and concluded that women workers in their prime earning years make 38% of what men make. During the 15-year period, an average prime-age working woman earned only $273,592 compared with $722,693 earned by the average working man in 1999 (Leon-Guerrero, 2016). The wage gap affects women of color in a more profound way that it does non-hispanic white women. Hispanic women are making 53%, African American women are making 64%, and Asian American women are making 87% of white men’s earnings each year (AAUW, 2013).

The extent and degree of information and detail written in this article about each represented author and their contributing works can ultimately be seen as one of the articles main strengths. However, although this article gives a vast amount of information on the women’s opinions and beliefs the article at times seems disassembled and erratic. The flow of the article is somewhat hard to follow, and without an increased measure of concentration, the ability of the reader to comprehend and decipher whom the author is speaking of can be lost. Also, with the extensive amounts of information and detail that each female author contributes to the argument, readers are bombarded with data to interpret and distinguish upon. With the author of the article not decisively choosing the strongest points of argument from each author, the information becomes overwhelming and possibly confusing at times.

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.

Before 1880, women did not have as many rights as they do today in the United States of America. Women were not able to initiate divorce; they did not have custody over their children; they were not entitled to their own wages; they could not vote; etcetera. This movement was necessary to create a more just and fair society for Americans because women deserved to be treated as well as men were. These things were changed as a result of many suffragists who fought for women’s rights for years. Three women who devoted their lives to gaining equal rights for women were Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Without these women among others, women in America would not be treated as they are today.

This paper explores the sociological effects gender wage gap in all aspects of our society. Gender wage gap is when a Women is paid 79% of what men are paid, the gap is referencing the 21% gap in between what a man is paid and what a women is paid.This topic relates to Sociology because it pertains to social inequality, gender pay Discrimination, gender segregation, gender diversity, patriarchy, feminism, and gender inequality. African Americans and Hispanics have the biggest gap in pay and white and Asian women have the smallest gap. Inequality with Race and wage gap are one in the same when it comes to social inequality they are both a form of discrimination.

In the 21st Century the number of women enrolling in higher education institutions is surpassing the numbers of men enrolled. The graduation rates of women from high school and higher education are most often higher than for men. The number of women graduates from most professional occupations, including higher paying medicine, law and business, will exceed the number of men graduates in the near future. In numerous occupational areas with a majority of women graduates, salaries already surpass salaries in occupational areas with a majority of men graduates.

Statistics Canada shows that women make up of 50.4% (2010) of Canada’s collective population, however, only 25.3 % of those women are situated in the House of Commons (Women, 2015). Why would this be the case? Canadian women have suffered for a long time now regarding the concern that not only dictated history but has also harshly influenced today’s society, which is the social gap between men and women. It is arguable that this gap has prevented women from the ability to seek their highest potential due to the lack of recognition they would receive, mainly because of their gender. Women have been stigmatized in society as being inferior to men in many aspects of life, such as, “not being as intelligent or as strong as men” even if they are.

The article “Moving Beyond the Gender Gap” by Abby M. McCloskey discusses the gender gap when voting. In a national election, more women vote for the Democrat nominee rather than the Republican nominee. In the past, Mitt Romney lost the women’s vote by twelve points to President Barack Obama. In the most recent election, Hillary Clinton won the women’s vote by twelve points. When broken down by race and ethnicity, the gap grew to ninety points among black women and forty-two points among Latina women.

The Gender Wage Gap is defined as the different amounts of money that is paid to women and men, often for doing the same work. Women who work full time, year round earn 77 cents for every dollar that men earn. Over a year women make $11,500 less than men and throughout their life this wage gap can affect women by making them earn anywhere from $400,000-$2 million less than men do. (Miller 2008, 6) This causes women to have to unfairly face more challenges economically than men do and also makes them have to become more competitive in the workfield. The wage gap varies for women of different races. On average African-American women are paid 60 cents and Latinas are paid 55 cents for every dollar white men make. Over a year this amounts to a

The gender wage inequality topic is one that has quietly laid in Americas closet of problems for decades. A female worker in Louisiana makes on average an alarming sixty-six cents compared to the dollar a man makes in twenty sixteen. When a father comes home after a forty-hour long work week making fifteen dollars an hour, he will open up a paycheck to six hundred dollars. When a mother comes home after working the same hours as the father, she will prepare dinner, change your diaper, lay you down to sleep. The only difference is her paycheck reads three hundred ninety-six dollars. It is only getting more challenging for females in today’s society as well. A defining term in the last two decades pertaining to gender wage gap inequality is the glass elevator effect. More men are choosing female dominated jobs such as nursing, teaching etc. While females slowly try to advance by increasing their salaries and rise up to higher paying and important positions, men seem to effortless glide their way to the top by an invisible escalator. This is called the glass elevator effect (Forbes). In America, this problem may go unnoticed, it is an issue dealing with cultural sexism. The broader impact of this is generations of women doing their best to advance in society but somehow constantly being beat. The specific claim of this topic is to bring justice and equality to women across in

Although many people are now bringing up a pay gap between genders, there is something being over looked that proves there isn’t a pay gap, but something else. The Gender Income Gap is a supposed payment gap between men and women, stating that to every man’s dollar a woman only gets payed seventy cents. Statements like theses can grab people’s attention and get them to believe this without much proof of it actually existing. Most people get there information about the gap from surveys over all women and men average pay, this is not a good representation of the topic because it doesn’t go into any detail of actual jobs and difference of pay. There are many other factors that going into the pay gap that would make it into something else not necessarily a pay gap. There are several solutions for this problem most of them aren’t necessarily for equality but for the gain of one sex at the cost of the rights of another. The one I will be talking about later doesn’t need government intervention and doesn’t need for one sex to do more. This solution will come from “changes in the labor market, especially how jobs are structured and remunerated to enhance temporal flexibility.”1

This study examines the significance of education, gender, and age on the median income by state. Results from the study suggest that having a bachelor’s degree or higher positively impacts the state level median income. Evidence also supports the hypothesis that females impact the state level median income inversely. The effect of age is less than that of both females and bachelor’s degrees. But the value cannot be considered statistically significant. A study done by Donna Bobbitt – Zeher on The Gender Income Gap and the Role of Education sheds light on this study’s hypothesis as well. Zeher’s findings suggest that even with equal credentials by females in education, they, on average, earn $7000 less than men

There was a stalled revolution. The revolution being the “gender revolution”. The movement has begun again. In the 1920’s we stood idle after gaining rights for women, it took a couple generations to perspire a change. In today’s news mediums, we see that women are tackling obstacles that prevent equality in the especially in the workforce. Through this, women are reshaping the role of the modern woman. In The Richer Sex by Liza Mundy, the author takes us through a time machine to examine the evolving phenomenon called “woman, how she became, or is becoming, the “Alpha Female”. Although in her book she thoroughly analyzes the changes that have occurred because of the advances for the modern woman, her forecast of modern society, in America specifically, does not encompass all factors to produce an accurate prediction.

War is inevitable because of opposing views and conflicting opinions. During these hard times, women, although rarely recognized, played a big part in the success of our country. They made their mark during World War Two when they took over the jobs of men and proved they are just as efficient in the workplace. There has been a dramatic change since then. Women have found their identity through these hardships; which in return, has set the pace for the years to come and narrowed the gap of the social norm of women in the work place.