There are currently a number of various social inequalities that face our society today. Most of today 's issues have to deal with racial inequality. One issue we have faced in our nation for several decades is gender inequality, more specifically the gender pay gap. In an article released by American Enterprise Institute (AEI), There really is no “gender wage gap.’ There’s a ‘gender earnings gap’ but ‘paying women well’ won’t close that gap, by Mark Perry argues why the gender pay gap doesn’t matter. In another article by CQ Researcher, Women and Work, written by Michelle Johnson disagrees with Perry and that women need to be paid the same as men.
Therefore, people should not only be made aware of the importance of gender impartiality but should also be made fully-acknowledged of it. Women, as well as men, should be treated equally at the workplace. The first problem is the discrepancy between the wage paid to female and male employees for doing the same job. The fact that workers should be paid equally for producing comparable products does not apply in the case of men and women. According to a survey carried out by the United States Census Bureau in 2015 on gender pay gap, for every dollar a man earns, woman only earns 79 cents for finishing the same task.
The problem with all of this is that most people believe that women are only good for domestic work. As i mentioned earlier, the fact them seen as domestic workers causes that they are not to be seen for their work potential or their university studies. As well as many of them are seen as sexual objects. In general women do not get paid less because they want to, the reality is that gender equality in the workplace still does not benefit women and probably never will, this cause women to accept a job knowing that it is more likely that they will not have the same salary as men. Women are more qualified, and their workday is up to ten hours more per week than that of a man.
Being that men and women are in different subcultures and both men and women work together, it is crucial that they are able to communicate without confrontation or the possibility of offending and discriminating against the other gender. Females do comprise a large portion of organizations, but workplace equality is a large problem, according to research done by the U.S. Department of Labor "females hold only two to three percent of top management and their median weekly earnings are 25 percent less than similarly employed males" (Amason & Allen, 1997, p. 956). Employees in the workplace regardless of their gender learn to value different communication styles or "cultures" to better understand their job and what is expected of them. Gender differences within the organizations have the ability to hurt the organization but can also help the organization, because there are differences in how the genders communicate, organizations are able to gain different perspectives and input as males and females think and communicate differently. Males in the workplace are more likely to be more assertive, competitive, goal oriented, and tend to be problem solvers when giving their opinion or exchanging important information.
“Overall, women are paid 80 cents for every man’s dollar” (Ness n.pg.) One of the most prevalent topics in the last decade men and women alike have been actively working for equality in this pay disparity, and fighting to eliminate this discrimination against women. It is true a gap exists in the earnings between men and women; however, there are too many factors left out of the statistic to be as simple as discrimination. Employment statistics have shown that throughout history humans of different gender and race have different tendencies in the workplace, and jobs they choose. That is why the Gender Wage Gap does not have to do with gender discrimination because of such factors as specific occupation choices, average hours worked, and average maternity leave.
Research says that women’s representation as permanent employees is less compared to ones obtaining Ph.Ds. in educational institutions. A major reason for this is that women get married by their 30s. Thus decisions regarding family are far obligatory for women than men (patriarchal culture). This affects women’s careers since long/short breaks leads to poor professionalism since there is no gender-based discrimination for competition of jobs.
In 2010, President Obama addressed the issue of the gender wage gap in a written statement that stated “even in 2010, women make only 77 cents for every dollar that men earn”. The president also put pressure on the committee to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act that gives women the right to sue their employees if they’re not being paid the same as men, provided they have the same skills, experience and education. The act takes immediate steps to narrow down the wage gap, if it actually existed. Nevertheless, despite that bill being passed, many argue that the wage gap is a result of “sex discrimination”. They believe in this part of the world, women are drawing even with men in terms of education and experience, yet men are paid more and do better
Therefore, individuals are more likely to blame other causes to a problem such as women only work part-time, that admitting the actual problem of the gender pay gap disparity is due to discrimination against women. This could be a reason why some people believe the wage gap is a myth and if it does exist they are more likely to blame the wage disparity on women and not discrimination. However, according to Barbara Wagner, on her paper “The Complex Causes of the Gender Pay Gap” points out that there is a certain percentage in the wage gap that can be explain to other factors; although, there is a percentage left that it cannot be explain and is more likely to be the cause of discrimination. Another study that focus on male and female new graduated physicians, that indicates that right out of graduation school male physicians earn more than female physicians; even after all other factors have been taken into account, such as small physician practices and work load hour, and the scary part is the pay gap is “16,819 dollars difference” (Sasso, Richards, Chiu-Fang, and Gerber). Bringing to conclusion that discrimination is an issue
Scientists are less likely to agree with this concept and their opinion is more upheld by the variety of social and economic factors as well as personal life choices and each of them has a notable effect on different earnings among men and women. Both sides have reasonably important arguments, so it is relevant to reconsider them separately. As mentioned before, gender pay gap is still a valid issue in contemporary world and it ranges from 5,62% to 36,6% among countries (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2014). There has been a lot of economic and social researches concerning this problem. The results did not differ noticeably and most of them discovered
India’s national employment policy is an example of the progress it is trying to make to ensure occupational presence of women. The policy ensures measures are in place to provide opportunities for men in the workforce in order to ensure an impact on the economy. The segregation of jobs in India plays an important role in holding women back. The main problem is that they have not seen employment growth recently so this stalled female employment. Between 1994 and 2010, Female employment in India grew by 9 million but it could’ve been doubled if women had equal access to employment in the same types of business and occupations as men.