A woman working in the same job as a man will usually earn less, despite the fact that she may have the same or better training, education, and skills required for the job ("Study Shows Female Managers in Britain Earn Less than Men, and Equality Could Be 57 Years Away." 2010). Women are consistently discriminated against in the workplace. Women only make 60 percent or less than their male counterparts in the same job position (Louis, 2010). Throughout history men are seen as the “strong/tough ones”; the belief is that they should be paid more than women in order to support their families (Loney, 2005).
Sondra Douglas English Honors Gifted- 4th Mrs. Hotlets March 4, 2014 Gender Inequality in the Workplace Gender inequality is the unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on gender. Over the last 50 years, the involvement of women and fairness has been a problem. Economically, women, particularly poor women and African American women did not fare well during this time period. Inequality grew as wages remained depressed and tax cuts to the wealthy failed to “trickle down” to the bottom of the economic ladder where nearly half of the female labor force was concentrated (Justin Karr pg. 41).
Vulnerable mothers that do not finish getting their education become discouraged and loose the motivation and drive to tackle the oncoming challenges that life brings, creating for them another barrier on the micro level; it being a financial barrier. “Poverty and economic loss diminish the capacity for supportive, consistent, and involved parenting and render parents more vulnerable to the debilitating effects of negative life events” (Vonnie C. McLoyd, 1990 p.311). Not being financially stable brings on a lot of stress that impacts the relationship between the mother and child. Education has a large impact on a person’s life and it can change it for the better.
If people are separated from the society they will feel isolated and could lead to depression, anxiety, eating disorders, financial problems and/or health problems. For example of a social class marginalisation is when the high class get the majority of the medication than people who really need it, especially from the low class society. They would feel that it is normal just because they don’t have the money to pay the medication, that’s why most of them just die from untreated sickness. Disempowerment is when an individual or group of people feel less powerful or less confident from others. It might because of their age or gender, age because if you are working in a hospital and you are the youngest among the group the elderly will dominate which make you feel disempowerment.
Also called “Feminization of poverty” (Mojisola and Mitchell 48) frequently used in the current literature. It is used to describe “the increasing tendency for poor populations in the United States to be composed of women” (Sapiro, 481). Historically, the United States “has always had people living at or below poverty levels” (Mojisola and Mitchell 49). However, in recent history “women are appearing in excessively large numbers among the poor” (Mojisola and Mitchell 49). Several factors have contributed to this increase.
.The first problem with welfare reform is the vast socioeconomic disparity between the Congressional policy makers and those within the welfare program. By not being able to fully understand the plight of these single mother’s living in poverty, those making the welfare policies are not as efficient as they could be. Another problem which stems from this disparity is mental damage that welfare’s strict rules and regulations cause to its recipients. The eventual goal of government welfare is to assist economically challenged families in the hopes that they will one day become self-sufficient. Ironically, the rules involved in receiving government welfare seem
“Racism in U.S. Welfare Policy: A Human Rights Issue” (75)  “poverty is regarded as a result of individual choices, behaviors, and failing- “personal responsibility”- not as a structural social dynamic.” (76) “Criminalizing Trends in the Welfare System” (85)  “At the same time that a rising number of women of color were being convicted on drug-related felony charges, the welfare rules in many states changed to exclude individuals with felony convictions from receiving various government benefits.” (86)  “These stereotypes hold not only that black women are to blame for failing to socialize their children and run their communities properly, but also that they are to blame for giving birth to the young men, and increasingly the young women, who often wind up in the criminal justice system. According to these views low income women of color embody and breed criminality.” (86)  “Finally, recent developments in welfare administration conflate poverty and crime, and manifest a widespread assumption that welfare recipients are latent criminals.”
The problem for the population of women is the lack of intervention and treatment in the urban and rural community. There are multiple reasons for post-partum depression in women in rural and urban communities that vary from socioeconomics, anxiety, and lack of social support. Post-partum depression can also have effects on the children such as malnutrition, illness, developmental delay, poor growth, and poor mother-infant attachment. There have been many post-partum depression screenings and surveys done worldwide and most of the population is Caucasian, married women of high socioeconomic status, however, there is evidence to suggest that in urban and rural communities worldwide there is not enough intervention and treatment. “In a Chinese study, rural women had more depressive disorders as well as a group of women in a rural part in Mexico experienced higher rates of depressive disorders in women.” (Villegas, 2011) Many times rural residents are associated with low-income, low levels of education, lack of insurance, and poor quality of life which can contribute to the onset of psychiatric illness.
It is harder for homosexuals to find and keep positions, and employers often treat them differently. In regards to income, a startling gender disparity exists between homosexual males and females. Males are found to be more likely than females to experience a negative discrimination in which they receive smaller wages than heterosexual males and make overall less income. Females on the other hand, actually have a positive discrimination in which they receive higher incomes than heterosexual females, although this may be explained in part by the fact that they are less likely to have labor force participation interrupted by bearing children. The results, however, are largely inconclusive as many other causes that are not easily isolated, such as ethnicity and health, are involved when comparing homosexuals with heterosexuals and determining economic discrimination.
It was this growing awareness that women soon realised that their position within society was disproportionate to that of men as illustrated by Freeman (1971, p39), who states that “women are 51 percent of the population. That is the only category in which they constitute 51 percent. In virtually every other, their share is grossly disproportionate”. In addition, she articulates that during the 50’s and 60’s it became apparent that women were lower earners by almost double than men, they were not entitled to the same benefits of sick pay than men, and were subjected to gender discrimination within the working environment (Freeman, 1971). Through the women’s movement, women began to inspire protests and minorities such as civil rights, students, and blacks in an attempt to redefine public perception (McLaughlin, 2003).