Thesis Statement On Gender Wage Gap

Different reasons are given in order to explain the gender wage gap. Some of reasons include: Women work for a shorter collective time in order to give birth and raise their families. Women’s work has less value than that of their male counterparts. The sexual division of labor, which assigns tasks to individuals on the basis of gender, creates blue and pink collar work and, thus, the devaluing of women’s labor. Aside from these valid points, the pay gap cannot be explained away. Women’s professions continue to be associated with smaller wages than men’s professions. Teaching, for example, is a female-dominated

The gender pay gap is the difference in pay earned by men and the pay earned by women.( Pay Equity Commission, 2012). There are various ways in measuring the pay gap between genders, such as full- time or full- year wage. Statistics Canada data ( 2012) displayed that the gender pay gap in Ontario was 26% for full- time and full- year employments, which means for every C$1 earned by a man, a woman earned 74 cents( Pay Equity Commission,2012).The pay gap has been narrowing slowly over time compared to the how it was in 1987, which was 36%. However the gender wage gap is still a problem that exists in the society. I will discuss about the feminist theory and how it can be interpreted in the gender pay gap of our society, especially in regards to celebrities.

The gender wage gap has been around since women began having jobs and careers. Though in the beginning the gender wage gap was purely do to discrimination by social stereotypes, now it has become more complicated than that. The issue today has evolved into a complex issue which combines our American culture with business economics. As a result, some are skeptical of the issue and some are very adamant in their beliefs. The issue encompasses not only gender stereo types but also educational, government policies and business’s best practices.

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.

April 8 is “Equal Pay Day,” which is an event where the main purpose is to raise awareness in regards to the social problem of the gender wage gap. The president makes his announcement that women still earn only about 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. There are people advocating left and right for women to take a stand and sue their employers for wage discrimination or make demands they want the government to fulfill. The question becomes whether or not what everyone is fighting for is actually true and worth fighting for. Authors Sarah Glynn, Kay Hymowitz, Mark Perry, and Andrew Biggs present a different idea. They all showcase in their articles the underlying factors in the gender wage gap such as college major, career choice, hours worked, job experience, and family circumstances. Discrimination cannot be ruled out completely, but the “77 cent” figure reflects gender differences based on the personal choices that people make about their careers, which results in the gender wage gap we have today. Society has been pointing the finger at discrimination for so long, but today we need to take a second look and come to the conclusion that there could be multiple reasons for the pay gap. This social problem is too complex to focus on only one particular reason.

A majority of women across the world are highly accountable for home duties, and child rearing, while men on the other hand are bound for working in higher paid salary jobs. As of a result of this, inequality amongst genders has turned into a controversy in the workplace. And due to this gender inequality, women have been led to poorly paid gender typed positions. The gender pay gap negatively impacts individuals and some elements that play a major role in this issue are: work experience, independent skills, specific length of time at a company, and the level of education the person has obtained. However, the

But since 2000, progress has all but flatlined. A big underlying factor is the slowdown in women’s wage growth. That’s what helped propel the closure of the gap in earlier decades, but women have seen a standstill in wage growth since about 2001, as has most of the country.Women make less than men, on average, for a number of reasons. About 10 percent of it is thanks to different work experience, often because women are much more likely to take breaks from work to care for family members. The drop of women in the labor force over the last decade can be tied to the country’s lack of paid family leave, child care assistance, and support for flexible schedules.Some of it is also due to the fact that women end up working in areas that tend to pay less. But that doesn’t mean they can escape the gap by choosing different paths. They make less in virtually every industry and every job. And while getting more education boosts earnings, women make less than men with the same educational credentials at every level and even make less than their former male classmates when they graduate from top-tier universities. Some of that difference may be due to different majors or grades, but when salaries in the first year after graduation are compared while taking the college, major, grades, and other factors into account, women still experience a significant wage gap.Discrimination therefore plays a role. Economists consistently find a portion of the gap that can’t be explained by a variety of other factors. Studies have found that people of both genders are inclined to give men more money, especially if the woman is a mother. Meanwhile, women’s job performance is continuously underrated compared to men’s. Therefore in the workforce are discriminated

Though the number of working women rose considerably in the last couple of years, but women are still much underpaid then their male counterparts. The United Nations recently published that for every dollar earned by men, women earned 70-90 cents globally. Statistics Canada also found that women workers in Canada earn an average of 66.7 cents for every dollar a man earns (Amber). Over the past couple of years, the gap has been documented to be increasing. In 2009, women use to earn 74.4 cents for every dollar a man earned, which reduced to 72-73.6 cents in 2011 (Evans). The American Association of University Women released a study that showed even when men and women attend the same kind of college, pick the same major and accept the same kind of job, on average, the woman earns 82 cents to every dollar that a man earns (Coleman). There is not even a single country where the average wages of women are more than men. This was proven by a study on the ratio of female to male earnings in European and non-European countries, conducted by the United Nation Statistics Division. It was found that the reason for these gender inequalities were associated with traditions and stereotypes which influence the education, professions and career paths women and men choose, and “often lead to part-time work and career breaks, mainly for women” (“The World’s”).

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.

The gender pay gap has an affect on the lives of women of all ages. In 2014, for full-time working women ages 20-24, there was an eight percent pay gap between men and women’s weekly incomes. Until age 35, the pay gap remains at about ten percent. After this age, women’s salaries grow much less than men’s. From the age 35 to retirement, women are earn between seventy-six and eighty-one percent of what

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.

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.

They try to argue that disparity in earnings between the sexes is because of the choices women make such as going into lower paid jobs, taking time off after having kids, and not having the capability to negotiate for a raise hard enough. (Dusenbery 2015, 1) Yet a study conducted by the American Association of University Women in April 2007 showed that men and women’s different choices only explain part of the wage gap. After considering factors like experience, educational attainment, enrollment status, grade point average, institution selectivity, age, race, ethnicity, religion, marital status, and children, there continues to be a five percent difference in the earnings of male and female colleagues that is unexplained. They believe that is reasonable to assume that this differences is due to sexual discrimination. In addition their analysis also showed that in almost all the fields women work in ,the women who work full time still earn less than men. (Miller 2008) A different, more recent study that was conducted by the General Accounting Office in 2010 further supported the claim made by the American Association of University Women. It showed that on average women only earn eighty percent of what men do, even after the considered factors that could possibly affect these earnings such as couples marital status, people's race, their children, work patterns like the years of experience and the

Considerable changes have taken place over the past two decades (WGEA, 2017c). Women have become more prominent within the workforce (WGEA, 2017c). Participation of women in the workplace has risen from 45% to 60% over the last 40 years (WGEA, 2017c, ABS, 2017a). Women’s education attainment has risen, showing a 28% increase since 1996 (ABS, 2017b; WGEA, 2017c). Despite this, earnings are not equal between male and female undergraduates (WGEA, 2017b). One suggestion is that women are choosing lower paid professions, contributing to an unequal distribution among part-time and full-time work (WGEA, 2017b).

The American Association University of Women reports that the average full time workingwoman receives just 80% the salary of a man. In 1960, women made just 60% of what men made, an upward trend that can be explained “largely by women’s progress in education and workforce participation and to men’s wages rising at a slower rate”, but a trend that is not yet equal (p. 4). Hill recognizes that the choices of men and women are not always the same, whether it be in college major, or job choice, however she concludes that women experience pay gaps in virtually all levels of education and lines of work. She suggests that continuing to increase the integration of women in predominately male dominated work will help the pay gap, however, she believes that alone won’t be enough to ensure equal pay for women.