The American Workplace Exemplifies Sexism

Simultaneously, the gender pay gap has financial effects not just on the women, yet their families too. Studies have shown that American families with children count on a women’s earnings as a massive part of their family’s income, and many are the head of the household. Data demonstrates that “seventy percent of mothers with children under 18 participate in the labor force, with over 75 percent employed full-time. Mothers are the primary or sole earners for 40 percent of households with children under 18 today, compared with 11 percent in 1960. Women’s participation in the U.S. labor force has climbed since WWII: from 32.7 percent in 1948 to 56.8 percent in 2016” (Dewolf). Now women make up more than half of the U.S. workforce, the gap in earning deciphers to $7968 per year in median earnings for a high school graduate, $11,616 for a college graduate, and $19,360 for a professional school graduate. By and large, this gap effects hundreds of millions of women and their families, and lag them back hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout their life.

In American society today there is an imbalance in the gender income gap between men and women in the work force. Many factors such as discrimination, productivity, educational background and disproportional hours worked contribute to this ongoing challenge. While many are skeptical, others remain to have strong beliefs that women and men are treated equally. In most professions according to Glynn “women only earn seventy seven cents for every dollar earned by men” (2014). Although, the seventy seven cents figure does not accurately reflect gender discrimination, it does capture some discrimination,

When you think about women in the work field today, what do you see? A successful lawyer, a doctor, perhaps. That’s true. In fact, there have been more females holding high employment positions in the late 20th and 21st century than ever before. According to Donald M. Fisk in “Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2003”, 60% of working-age women worked in the labor force in 1999. That’s 41% more than that of 1900, where only 19% of women worked in the labor force. Among these women, a vast majority have seen their salaries sky-rocket in the past two decades, almost surpassing those of male workers. However, it is not always this way.

To this day, women get paid less due to the motherhood penalty, educational opportunities, women’s roles in the society historically, choice of job, and more. All of these components affect women’s wages and the superiority of men in the labor force. One side of the argument states that women rightfully deserve the downside of this wage gap, and others posses the opinion that all workers should be treated equally. Historically, gender roles have gotten in the way of equality in pay. However, people also believe that women choose jobs that do not offer an abundance of pay. Factors such as the motherhood penalty have skewed the pay gap as well. While some people believe that women should be treated equally regarding pay, since they are doing

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 discrepancy of the wage gap grows substantially for more elite jobs. Males and females who have the same education and experience who go into higher paying jobs, such as doctors and lawyers, the female counterpart earns significantly less than males. This quote shows just how unjust the wage gap is that for the same amount of work, and the same education and education, males are still on average paid more. The higher paying jobs that require much higher education are not as forgiving to allow females to take a lot of time off work to have children. The females are making the wage gap by taking fewer hours to be a mother (Perry, Mark J., and Andrew G. Biggs). However, statistics say otherwise. Other statistics show to prove that women are not being paid significantly less in more elite jobs because a lot take time off to start a family, women are in general paid less per hour than men.This wage discrepancy is just dramaticized in elite jobs. Females are not paid less for the hours they take off, since comparing the hours between males and females, women are paid less on average per hour than

The gender wage gap is a prominent issue which is fought for in feminism today. In the past, this standard has been justified due to the fact that women were more likely to be stay-at-home moms, and were less likely to have jobs or college degrees. Today, women are getting comparable education to men, and working comparable jobs, yet the issue remains. The gender wage gap is a women’s rights issue based on the old-fashioned role of women in society which needs to be fought against and decreased in the United States during this current political and social climate.

The pay gap between genders exhibits sexism in America yet some researchers are in denial. Warren Farrell, expert on gender issues within legislation and former board member of National Organization for Women, claims otherwise. In his book Why Men Earn More, he attributes difference in wages to females choosing human resources jobs, which pay less, and not choosing harsher jobs that pay more (Farrell). His overall point is that men sacrifice more thus companies pay more for those sacrifices. His argument only compares the genders when different job requirements alter wages, but does not mention wages of identical jobs.

Now a day we hear a lot about the wage gap between men and women. President of The United States, in the state of the Union, stated that “Women earn much less than men for doing the same amount of the work”. Based on some statistic survey women makes seventy-seven cents on the dollar. The pay gap means women loses about $10,000 in median earning a year [4], if you consider career long-view the gap obstructs wealth building. This is one major concern in today's competitive world, in 2014 Republican National Committee argued that “The difference isn’t because of their genders; it’s because of their jobs.” Where research shows that gender wage gap is real and still exist The question that arises is why there is a wage gap between men and women? The answer to that question is women are more likely to take a break from their careers to take care of their family. This kind of disruption can have an impact on long-term earning.

“When women succeed, America succeeds”. “President Obama asked Democratic women to “choose hope” at a speech Friday before the Democratic National Committee’s Women’s Leadership Forum” (Seitz-Wald, Alex). The existence of the gender wage gap in the American workplace is highly debated in today’s society. One side views the gender wage gap as a fallacy that has not existed in the economy for generations, these people tend to lean towards the conservative side and believe there are a variety of factors that can explain the evidence many have used to argue the existence of such a gap. The other acknowledging the irrefutable evidence showing the gap in the economy to this day, they believe it is a serious problem that continues to negatively impact

Half of the whole workforce in the United States is made up of women, yet their average pay is more than twenty percent less than a male counterpart (“Pay”)(Claire). If they do ask for a raise, many employers deem them as untrustworthy though many men are more respected. (Claire). Women in the United States make only seventy-eight cents to every man’s dollar (“Pay”). Yet, 49,000,000 children in the U.S. today rely on a female to provide them with food, clothing, and other necessities (“Did”). Women being paid less is caused because of sexism, the history of our nation, and small details that employers find relevant enough to lower a woman’s pay.

Income inequality is still a problem as of 2015 especially for women and racial minorities. Studies show there is a wage gap among different genders, race, and ethnicity. In the United States around the 1960’s, the median full-time working woman only earned 60% of what the median full-time working man earned, and in 2009, 77% of what was earned (Hegewisch, Williams, and Henderson 2011). Women and mothers suffer a great deal in the work force. Three factors that contribute to the wage gap is the motherhood penalty, discrimination in the workplace, and sexual orientation.

Researchers have proposed a variety of explanations for systematic gender inequality in the workplace. Cultural benefits, the actions of male employees, the actions of the female employees, and the actions of the employer can contribute to intentional or unintentional gender discrimination (Ngo, Foley, Wong, & Loi, 2003). It has also been mentioned that women make less money because their work environment is generally safer than the stereotypical male work environment; childcare, cashiers, and secretary positions as opposed to firefighters, truck drivers and construction workers (Parcheta, Kaifi, & Khanfar, 2013). Perhaps the most dominant reasoning for women receiving less pay is the carrying over of biological roles into the workplace. Female employees often take time off to have a family, take care of a family, and are the primary caregiver of said family.

When debating about gender equality in the US, there is one statistical data always pop-up “women earn 77 cents for every dollar men make.” To emphasize the point of the argument, women do not make less than men do, they earn less than men do. The diction in this argument stresses the important of what to look for statistically. Although the article, “The Gender Wage Gap: Debunking the Rationalizations”, by Hilary Lips successfully emphasizes the adversities, difficulties, and controversies in assessing the gender wage gap, Lips could further emphasize where gender pay gap originate.

“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.