The United States has been plagued with many troubling issues, and this year, 2016, has only seemed to extrapolate these issues. From the exponential growth of economic inequality, to the structural avenues of privilege and hindrance imbedded in our country, these issues are only seeming to grow, not just in numbers, but also in severity. Unfortunately, 2017’s future does not look much better. With Donald Trump becoming our president elect, who knows what could happen when he steps into office. With his racist and bigot background, I can only imagine the injustices he will most likely commit and perpetuate. With so many pressing issues plaguing society, one’s individual troubles are often overlooked. In this paper, I intend to bring some of these issues to light, and to present some of my own individual troubles regarding my identity and how they are intertwined within these societal issues in our country. There are many issues revolving around gender in this country. Despite many efforts for gender equality, such as the proposed Equal Rights Amendment which fell three states short during ratification, gender inequality is still rampant. In a perfect world, everyone should be treated equally throughout society, not just at work, or any other policy-designated sphere, and should not be discriminated against because of their gender. Unfortunately, we are living in a far from perfect world were these idealistic views fall short. From the economic sphere, to basic
Gender equality is something that has been a problem through the ages. Susan B. Anthony and many others fought for the right to vote which was granted in 1920. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law stating that no employer can discriminate based on gender. The American Association of University Women published a graph on Women’s Median Annual Earnings as a Percentage of Men’s Median Annual Earnings for Full-time, Year-round Workers, 1974-2014 and it shows that in 1974, women were paid 59% of what men were paid. The graph shows the improvements over the years and that in 2014, women were paid 79% of what men were paid. The gap has not budged since 2014. The gender pay gap has improved over the years, but it will not close until new legislation passes.
Women have virtually the same rights as men. However, the fault needing to be recognized in today’s society is the way that women are treated. Even in simple areas, such as jobs, women are put on the back burner. A woman is able to become a CEO of a company, nonetheless, she will struggle twice as hard as a man would. Even as an employee, women are statistically paid less than men are.
If I had a choice to add a 28th amendment to the constitution, I would purpose equal income rights to both female and male employees. Fortunately, living in a country that strives for equal rights and equal opportunities for all citizens, I believe that if a female can perform equivalent work, in the same industry as a male or vis versa, she should be able to be entitled with same earnings as a male performing the exact duties.
Women have been discriminated against throughout the history of the United States. Women were typically associated with being “mothers” and having to take care of the children along with other so called home “duties.” They were not allowed to vote until fairly recently. Astonishingly, women in the United States were not allowed to have their own bank account before 1974. There is no reasonable excuse for such restrictions, except to keep women under the control of men. Altogether, the United States’ has a history of discriminating against women. Women have historically been treated as second class citizens, especially in the workplace, which kept them from doing certain jobs that were meant for men. The reality is that women have proven more than capable of doing labor intensive work. World War II proved that women were more than capable of replacing men. Women’s rights in the United States have definitely been improved, but they continue to be discriminated against in the workplace.
Throughout the history of the United States, equality for all has been a highly sought-after, yet controversial aspect of American life. Whether it was the period of Native American reorganization or the destructive era of Southern slavery, it has been equality that continues to be denied to a certain group of citizens. In order to combat this, many efforts have been made to influence equality in all elements of citizen’s lives. However, in today’s society, many of these attempts have failed to be noticed, for true equality has yet to be entirely achieved. Notably, working women all over the country have been denied equal wages to that of men. Thus, condoning the use of wage discrimination against women in the workplace is unjust and inequitable because women perform many of the same jobs as men do, they are entitled to the same basic rights as the rest of society, and because laws have already been passed to illegalize wage discrimination based on gender. Both men and women in the labor force are expected of comparable tasks and performances, yet the payment that women receive as compensation remains noticeably less than that of men.
With the majority of law based rights already having been granted to women, more focus will be put on equalizing the individual perception of gender. Although it isn’t legal to discriminate against women for the amount of work they do, or to give better jobs to men, more women are currently and will continue to push for these thoughts to cease to exist at all. As of 1963, the Equal Pay Act requires that men and women doing equal work must receive equal pay (Cunnea 9). With men and women receiving equal pay for the same work, the only things that should end up mattering for employment other than the usual experience, qualifications, and reviews of past management are an individual person’s work ethic and
Women have made extraordinary strides toward workplace equality in the last century. The labor-market participation rate for women 25 to 44 years of age - the average child bearing years - rose from less than 20% to more than 75% between 1900 and 1999 (Velasquez, 1.) Author Andrea Lunsford writes about the simple concept of “comparable worth” saying that concept of workers with “comparable skills, education and experience be paid equal amounts” should be a fairly simple policy to institute. (Lunsford, 617) But as many women know first hand, this practice can be fairly difficult to enforce. Many companies can even seem downright opposed to it. Women in the workplace have it hard enough; they are under more
In modern america sexism is slowly diteriating, but it has not complitly disappeared. Women have worked hard to become astronaut, Ceos, presidentsdoctors and more, but even with these accomplishments women are still discriminated against. Women face a variety of stereotypes in the work place that prevent them from progress, some company's really think that women don't need equal pay because they are not the head of the house hold and their husbands paycheck should do the job. Other business corporations believe that women can not committed to a job because they are the primary caregiver of their children which causes companies to lose money every time there is an emergency. "The paradox is that the world of rigid and hierarchical sex roles
The fact of the matter is that gender roles, although not as prominent as they once were, still have a heavy impact on how society’s functions are dispersed and divided up. There is no denying that a double standard and gender roles were once how everything was decided, but what some deny is that there is not a way to overcome them. For instance, the argument of women getting paid less than men for the same occupation is totally illogical because if women get paid less than men for the same job, wouldn’t large companies just hire women if they could pay them less and still get equal work? But that’s not the case according to Kevin Miller and his article “The Big Number: 80 Percent” in the magazine Economic Justice:
Throughout history females have often times not been treated fairly compared to their male counterparts. The gender wage gap has been a real and prevalent thing in our society. Even in the present, women are inclined to get lower salaries than men throughout the world, and most importantly the United States where the constitution says “all men are created equal.” All salaries are on a weekly basis and percentages are cents a woman earns per dollar a man earns. Although, there is much we can do as individuals to stop discrimination in the work force. The United States’ wage gap is caused by discrimination against women, who have less opportunities for higher paying jobs, and in order to eradicate this issue in our country and worldwide, women need to be treated impartially in the workforce.
Women in general have been discriminated by men that don’t believe in the power of women. Over the course of time, some men discriminate women by particular things that make them men are superior then women. Women are strong not only physically but emotionally and mentally, but some men don’t seem to notice yet. There are people that think men and women aren’t in the same level, and they don’t give women the opportunity to show it. Throughout years in America people have found evidences that there is a wage gap between two genders. Women deserve to be equally paid just as men are being paid. Both genders work the same amount of hours, but have different pay checks; this is unfair because women shouldn’t be paid less just for being a woman. This is an act of discrimination for both genders from society.
Women have been victim of gender discrimination for centuries, and this fact remains increasingly pertinent still today. In U.S. history we have seen that much of the heavy lifting or more important jobs have always been taken by men, and front desk jobs like receptionists and secretaries have been considered primarily jobs fit for a female. This has stemmed from a long history of being in a culture where the men are the bread winners. The man of the house has always been considered the one who has the responsibility of bringing home the money and supporting the family and the woman raises the kids and does household duties. Although, this was less true for women who were widowed or separated or whose husbands had a job that brought in inadequate
Women have faced gender wage discrimination for decades. The gender pay gap is the difference between what a male and a female earns. It happens when a man and a woman standing next to each other doing the same job for the same number of hours get paid different salaries. On average, full-time working- women earn just “77 cents for every dollar a man earn.” When you compare a woman and a man doing the same job, “the pay gap narrows to 81 percent (81%)” (Rosin). Fifty-one years ago, in order to stop the gender gap discrimination, Congress enacted the Equal Pay Act of 1963. The act states that all women should receive “equal pay for equal work”. Unfortunately, even in 2014 the gender pay gap persists and even
The generation now has made it easier to equalize men and women but there is still a substantial amount of places where gender inequality is still happening in the workplace and where females still face discrimination. Women are often discriminated in the workplace and are usually not promoted as quickly as men are and they also receive less pay. History shows that women have not always been defined as property and thought of as second class citizens. But in the 21st century many have seen a drastic change in the so called “traditional” family ways where women are suppose to stay home and take care of the household chores, food, and children and men are suppose to work to support their family and provide financial stability. Many assume that in the workplace women are more vulnerable and less competent than men because women 's instincts are to put their family before work or anything else. Whereas men are the ones who will usually stay the late hours to work. People on both sides of the political spectrum and everywhere in between seem to be fearful of what is to come and more fearful of others than they are often willing to admit.
Throughout the years women have made great effort to become equal to men. This effort has led to great advances in the movement, but not all of the problems are solved yet. One of the main problems as of right now is the unequal treatment of men and women in the work place. Women are not equal to men in the workplace because of unequal pay, a lack of women in managerial positions, and sexual harassment in the work place.