Imagine your
mom, sister or daughter was working in a workplace with male coworkers and you
found out that she’s getting paid less even though she is doing the same amount
of work as her male coworkers. Wouldn’t that piss you off? Personally, I would
be pretty upset about it. Now imagine if your mom, sister or daughter had the
same pay for the same amount of work as her male coworkers. I don’t know about
you but I would definitely want that for her.
Social
Inequality has been a part of our world for far too long and I think that it's time for change
needs to be made to profit our future generations. One of the biggest issues in society that is continuously growing
is the gender pay gap. Many people are not aware of this issue because it’s not
something that seems like a big deal. Well, it is.
Over the
years, this issue has resulted in women making only 77% of what the average
male makes hourly. A common stereotype that is created by men is that women are less educated and are less qualified
than men, which is evidently not true. According to a 2006 Census, "women accounted for 60% of university graduates between the ages of 25 and 29"[1]. Throughout history, men were in positions of
power, which was the root cause of the social inequality that exists between
men and women. When it came to salary income, men were usually in a subject position and women were usually
in an object position, which
contributed immensely to the gender pay gap, until it was momentarily suppressed
by the Pay Equity Act was passed in 1987.
Patriarchy was very common and still exists to this day
because of social classes. This causes people of a lower status to not get the
attention they need when trying to fight the issue because why would the
government pay attention to those who they don’t consider equal to them? I
believe that the only way to make a change is for people of a higher social
class to reach out to those who are not as privileged as them. John Oliver talked about gender inequality and his vision for change. He enlightened people
with the truth about the inequalities that exist and proved to millions that
there is injustice to the people of lower classes.
There is also
a conspiracy that exists when it comes to gender pay gap; women wouldn’t get
paid less if they never had any children, but even females who don’t have any
children that pursue the same jobs as men are being paid less. Based on a
statistics report, “In 2012, female computer
programmers earned 84% of what male computer programmers earned. Female financial
managers earned an astounding 70% of what male financial managers earned.
Female lawyers earned only 80% of what male lawyers earned” [2]. President
Obama opened up his campaign by saying that he wants to acknowledge the issue of unequal
wages and how he wants there to be “equal pay for equal work”. Although it may
seem that he wants to make a change, he is not proving it through his actions.
Last year, there was a controversy because women in the Whitehouse receive lower salary than men. It’s one thing to give a speech to help stop the gender pay gap, but it’s
another thing to actually do something about it.
Eventually, the unfair
pay between men and women will cause discord between the proletariats and the bourgeoisies.
I believe that it is time to make a change by respecting women with equal pay
and give them the same opportunities as men. Treating women equally also
includes women with different ethnicities, religious beliefs etc. because a
society that cannot accept differences is not one that will last very long. It’s
time to start sharing the issue with others and teach them about the
consequences that gender inequality has on our society. It may take several
years for actual change to start, but it’s important to make a difference for
the benefit of future generations and so that our children, both men and women,
can be paid equally for equal work.
Works Cited
1. Why are the majority of university students women? (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-004-x/2008001/article/10561-eng.htm
2. The Gender Pay Gap – Myth vs. Fact. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from http://now.org/resource/the-gender-pay-gap-myth-vs-fact/
I agree with what you stated in your post. It is clear that inequality in wages is present throughout our society today and is not being looked at as a serious issue. I believe inequality in wages and pay in the same job should not exist in today’s society. We have come so far in the equality of men and women over the past 5 decades, yet the wages of women in our society today, do not represent this. I believe that it is because we still live in a patriarchal society. A society that believes that men are superior to women, and for that reason men deserve more than women. Until our society can understand that men and women are and should be equal, equal pay will not exist.
ReplyDeleteI read this article called Pay Equity and Discrimination (http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/pay-equity-and-discrimination) that helped me further understand why women should not get paid less than men. In the article the author stated “IWPR tracks the gender wage gap over time in a series of fact sheets updated twice per year. According to our research, if change continues at the same slow pace as it has done for the past fifty years, it will take 44 years—or until 2059—for women to finally reach pay parity.” 44 years to get gender pay equality?! That is absolutely absurd. What gives companies the right to deduct pay to someone based on nothing else but their gender? Why is it okay that women are looked at less than men? Like you stated in your blog, women accounted for 60% of the people that graduated in 2006 between the ages of 25 to 29. Therefore, that certainly means that women are just as qualified and educated as men to perform any job they are given yet still get paid only 77 cents to every dollar a man makes.
We should be teaching our children that it is far from okay that girls get paid less due to the fact that they are females. We should be encouraging the future generations to see men and women as equal. Therefore, I completely agree with you that it is crucial that we start taking inequality in pay more seriously, so women around the world can receive the same paycheck as men in the near future.
I agree with your opinion on the pay gap between men and women in the workplace. Prior to reading your blog I had thought that men and women are now being payed equally for the same work. Our society has come such a long way in improving this issue I had thought that it was fully resolved, but obviously that is not the case. Saying that, the pay gap has gotten better and better every year, and is going towards having equality. In 1987, when the pay equity act was passed, the gender wage gap was 36 percent. In 2012, the gender pay gap has decreased to 25 percent. So in reality, for every one dollar a male worker makes, the same female worker would earn 75 cents. I think that this is mostly because in certain areas, women are taken advantage of for cheap labour. In most big companies, men and women are payed the same, because the payroll in documented for the public to see. It is in the smaller companies, that the gap is very big. The pay gap will slowly decrease each year and eventually, men and women will be payed equally for the same job. It will take time, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.
ReplyDeleteLeonard, I agree with what you are saying about the gender pay gap in the workplace today. I honestly knew that men were still getting paid more, but not by this much. Society and the economy has come a long way with this issue. Liberal feminists have claimed that gender discrimination is irrational. Socialist feminists
ReplyDeleterespond that, like racial and ethnic discrimination, it’s entirely rational. It generates larger
profits by way of super-exploitation. It reinforces divisions among workers. And, the policies
and gender norms that contribute to the gender pay gap also privatize, on the backs primarily of
women, care of nonworkers.
Everyone has their own specialized job, which refers to Marxism's "specialization" but, given this day and age women and men should be equal and if you are working the same job man or woman, they should be paid the same amount.
The relevancy of women's labour force participation is becoming an evident driver for growth, development and competitiveness in the labour market. Equal pay for work for equal contributions should be respected and applied to women as this right is not exclusive for men. Read: how to close the gender pay gap
ReplyDelete