Women's The Gender Wage Gap

First of all, the gender pay is a real problem in the world, despite what many think. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the gender pay gap is “the difference between the amounts of money paid to women and men, often for doing the same work”. This is important because many people think that the gender wage gap does not exist, even though it clearly does. Another reason why this is important is because many people argue that the gender wage gap exists because women have lesser-paying jobs, when a lot of the time it happens between men and women working the same job. Many people do not realize what the gender pay gap actually is, and they form an opinion of it before they know what it really is.

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.

Today, the working industry has made substantial progress towards gender equality pay while adding numerous career opportunities for woman in the workforce. However, society still poses ethical concerns between women and men regarding gender pay gap and discrimination for the same job function that apparently still exist. To put it differently, women regrettably have struggled as they continue in trying to make headway in gaining the respect of the working-class industry since the mid-1900’s. In some cases, researchers state that women in the workforce will not get paid equally for the same job function because of discrimination of gender gap. According to one research study, “there is still a gender pay gap. Women continue to earn considerably less than men on average” (Blau & Kahn, 2007, p. 8). While men have the higher ground of work tenure there should be equal pay for women with the same qualifications; I will argue the concerns of gender gap pay while using the utilitarian theory, deontological theory and the objection of moral reasoning to prove the ethical theory.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Wouldn’t you agree that wages and opportunities should be based solely on the qualifications and achievements of the individual and not on gender? (Rhetorical Question)

The Huffington post (n.d) notes that in 2015, and on average, women still make 78 cents to a man's dollar. A new report goes beyond that oft-quoted statistic and examines this discrepancy along racial, geographical and educational lines. The American Association of University Women's (AAUW) "The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap" report breaks down the wage gap in every state, including Washington D.C., using data from 2013. The U.S. capital comes closest to pay equity, with women earning an average of 91 percent of the wages that men do. At the bottom of the list is Louisiana, where women earn just 66 percent of what men do. The report also found that women of color continue to be hit hardest by the gender wage gap. Asian-American women

The gender wage gap. This is an issue that has been kept largely quiet and does not get even half the attention it deserves. The wage gap is simply the deviation in salaries between men and women. This gap in pay is an issue that spans the globe, and effects many people, from struggling single mothers to hard working corporate women. In W.E. Jacob and Laura Finley’s article “Differences in Pay Rates Between Men and Women do not Prove the Existence of Gender Inequality” attempts to debunk the discriminatory factor of the gap and rather using factors like experience, dedication to employer, time employed, and education levels explain the gap in its entirety. On the flip side, Teresa Wiltz’s article “States attack the pay gap between men and women” focuses on the effort being made by different states to squander the gap in pay, and the story of a woman who found out she was making $10,000 less than a new hire at her company. Both articles try to achieve their purpose. Overall, the latter article is much more effective because it recalls actual experiences from a real person, and real world efforts. Meanwhile, the former article’s argument relies on beliefs and hypotheticals.

The gender wage gap is defined as the relative difference in earnings between men and women in the economy as a whole. For every dollar a man makes, his female counterpart makes roughly seventy-seven cents. Even if a men and women have the same educational background and work history the man will go home with a higher paycheck than the woman. This may actually lead to tension in the workplace and cause conflict in the office. This also includes female dominated industries- most notably, nursing. The number of men in the nursing industry has increased tremendously in the past decade. However, men are still in a clear minority. On average, “the average salary per year in 2011 was nearly $61,000 for a male nurse and just $51,100 for a female nurse” (Diamond, 2014). This leaves a difference of $9,900. While we can all agree that the gender wage gap does in fact exist, I want to discover what exactly causes the wage gap, how it affects those on the disadvantaged end, and what can be done to diminish it.

Imagine you are a women who works hard and does the same job as some of the men, now imagine you all are explaining your paycheck and you see you that your check is less than theirs. Although women work the same jobs as men they are not being treated like it. We live in an age where women are not financially equal to the men work the same jobs. Because of this there are struggling single mothers, and the mistreatment of hard working women. Over the years as the amount of women working in businesses rises so does the level of inequality. As women, they do not want to be counted shorter than a man who does the same work, to be sure they get the equal pay they deserve we need to pass laws that grant companies to pay genders equally, strengthen the protections guaranteed by the equal pay act of 1963, and pass paid sick days legislation.

The issue of the wage gap between men and women in the labor market is currently dealt with in the course of a number of scientific debates, is the subject of public discussion in the broad political and social bodies of the world and different countries have their proposed solutions. There are also historical conditions of social and emotional ground that appointment and further determine the role models for women and men - now called traditional. The difference in pay between men and women is a trend appearing in various sectors of the labor market, as well as in all countries of the European Union. Despite legal guarantees of equal pay for equal work and work of equal value (ie, jobs requiring comparable qualifications, skills, experience), both at the level of EU law and the laws and regulations of individual EU countries, women earn generally less than men, working in the same position, and / or performing work of equal value.

Now, Feminism is one of the most discussed and debated upon topics in the world today and before I begin we must first know what the meaning of Feminism is. Feminism is not the belief that one gender should be raised in power above another but is the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. Basically, Feminist activism is the struggle for that equality. With Feminism, there are some core beliefs and some of them are the existence of sexism and it being against women, Men and Women should have equal rights and opportunities, Women are intellectual equals and social equals to men, and finally Women should be recognized and treated as equal to men.

Radical Feminism finds that reforms of liberal feminists are inadequate, they also feel that a social revolution would not end patriarchy. Instead, they feel that gender