Equality for Women Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” set a strong foundation that began the movement towards equality for women. Since her declaration was first presented at the Seneca Falls Convention, there has been considerable improvement in women’s rights. Although most issues she originally brought up have been resolved, there are a few that still need improvement, including the wage gap between men and women, representation in the workforce, and self-image of women. One big issue that remains prominent today in the United States is the gender wage gap, where men are making quite a bit more money that women.
Women working for the Texas state government suffer wage inequality because all women are held to the expectation that they will leave work to have a baby. Women can make the decision on whether they will or will not have kids, but because their colleagues do plan on having kids or are pregnant they all are held at a certain pay. When hiring women there is this doubt that they will stay the entire time and that it will be a permanent job so the employer does not feel a need to give them an equal pay compared to a man doing the same job. The reality of wage differences between men and women is that above all changes women still get paid less than men. There have been countless arguments that wage inequality has been fixed and that everyone
Pay equality has been a topic of discussion since women became a larger part of the workforce back in the 1940s. Politicians made efforts to help close that gap, with legislation being passed in 1963. Still, the gap remind wide. In 2007, Lilly Ledbetter sued Goodyear Tire & Rubber on the grounds that she had been discriminated against, leading to her being paid less because she was a women. This paper will discuss the issues that Ledbetter brought all the way to the US Supreme Court.
Despite the historic expansion of women choosing to enter the workforce and go beyond the role of homemaker, they soon discovered that significant differences remained between the genders regarding important job and occupational issues. These differences often persisted despite the enactment of state and federal laws designed to close the gender gap and promote equal treatment in education and the workplace. Creation of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, passage by Congress of Title IX legislation mandating equal treatment of genders in education, as well as many other efforts, helped lessen but did not eliminate discrimination. For example, women found that the long-standing
Gender equality: the pinnacle concept that American society is not-so desperately trying to achieve. Many Americans have convinced themselves that gender equality was remedied by the Nineteenth Amendment and the Second Feminist Movement, and have not considered the thousands of steps that are left on the journey. In recent years, a matter of public interest has been the gender wage gap, stating that women are earning significantly less money than men for doing an equivalent amount of work. Critics of the effort to “break the glass ceiling” claim that a pay gap does not exist, and that if it does, it is because women either do not work as hard, have to tend to their families, or hold lower paying jobs. However, the gender pay gap has been proven to exist in a variety of different forms,
“From 1979 to 1998, Lilly Ledbetter worked as a supervisor at Goodyear’s plant in Gadsden, Alabama. Over the course of her career, her pay slipped when compared to the pay of men of equal experience and seniority. She sued the company, alleging pay discrimination on the basis of her gender under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Goodyear argued that the discriminatory act was the decision to pay her less, which took place many years ago and that therefore her lawsuit is too late. In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in Goodyear’s favor”, (Lilly M. Ledbetter, Petitioner V.
Other areas of interests to eliminate gender differences took place in the arts, media, and education. The women’s liberation act greatly changed the view of women as well as their rights in regards of legal issues in the 1960s. One of the primary concerns of the women 's movement has been the securing of appropriate rewards for work performed by women. In 1963 the Equal Pay Act was passed, this act was enforced to “prohibit discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce. ”1 Women began working however they did not get the same pay as the male workers and this demonstrated inequality of genders.
More importantly, employers depriving women of the right for equal pay, solely, because the employee is a woman is discriminatory based on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A twenty percent difference adds up quickly, for example, according to Kathryn Vasel, “Woman working
Not only was voting rights an issue, but issues such and equal pay, employment, and general gender bias were still amidst in this century. Although these gender transgressions were brought to attention, not all judges/justice’s would agree with the opinion of the court. For example, in the case of Corning Glass Works v. Brennan, the ultimate decision was that no violations to the Equal Pay Act were enacted, regardless of how unjust the female to male pay ratio was, in male
The passing of this law saw all employees get treated equally, and the biases that existed ended. Its legislation led to the reduction in the rate of unemployment in organizations. Discrimination based on sex preferences has been the major challenge and this drove the women rights movement to stress for the legislation of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Aiken, Salmon, & Hanges, 2013.) Despite Title VII of the Civil Rights Act helping to alleviate the issue of discrimination especially on women in employment sectors, it did not meet all the needs of women in the
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act 2009 is named after a woman who discovered that the men at her workplace received higher pay for doing the exactly same job she was doing. Lilly Ledbetter then took her pay discrimination complaint all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2007 that claims like hers had to be filed within 180 days of an employer’s decision to pay a worker less, even if the worker didn’t learn about the unfair pay until much later, as was the case for Mrs. Ledbetter. (Slack, 2012). When Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Act 2009 he not only overturned the 2007 decision of the Supreme Court but he also made it easier for workers to challenge unequal pay. “United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (n.d)” advises “the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 overturned the Supreme Court 's decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc., 550 U.S. 618 (2007), which severely restricted the time period for filing complaints of employment discrimination concerning compensation.”
According to the United States Department of Labor, 57% of women get up and go to work in the morning just like men; the difference is they don’t get paid the same. Women have fought for the right to get an equal education, equal rights such as voting, and now women need to fight to get equal pay. Although some choose to believe that gender is no longer a problem in the work place, it is seen as early as high school; on the contrary, this belief is entirely wrong. Women deserve to receive equal pay for equal works because it would financially advance our society, help with the productivity of families and generations to come, and take less of a burden off of men. There are many important people who contribute to passing laws that restrict women inequality; however, Lilly Ledbetter is probably the most important.
The only time that an employer is allowed to make an exception of this law is when one employer has a senior position, in order of merit (i.e. where an employee has been with the firm for a longer time than the other), where one employee’s job is of high quality or quantity, and any other factor apart from their gender. This Act was passed by the congress in June 10, 1963, citing the effects of gender discrimination. According to the congress, gender discrimination led to poor living standards of employees, which greatly affected their health conditions and work efficiency (McKay, 2008). Gender discrimination also led to improper utilization of labor resources, caused labor disputes, and negatively affected commerce.
The new ruling by President Obama that employers must disclose pay data also this law extends the period in which a pay discrimination suit can be filed. This law is believed to help the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Labor Department to better do their job and enforce the equal pay laws. Recently discussion of pay within the office is becoming more common and less taboo. Another way that this law is thought to work is also to help companies self-correct without the help of the government are by a lawsuit. The EEOC reports that women are only paid 79 cents on the dollars that the typical man does the gap is even wider for women of color.
Studying various literally work, one realizes that the greatest form of discrimination that led to the drafting of this act was chauvinism and racial discrimination. Before this law came into play, when a man and woman applied for a tasking job, the man had a greater opportunity of getting the job simply because of his gender (). Most employers give gender preference to actual qualification when hiring workers. Females were mostly considered for jobs such as house keeping, baby sitting, and career in the food industry. () claims that both men and women must be given equal opportunities when it comes to hiring since experience does not come with gender.