If it is a result of implicit discrimination due to lifestyle choices, then women's lower earnings result from the fact that women typically take more time off when having children or choose to work fewer hours. If it is explicit discrimination, then the pay gap is a result of stereotypical beliefs, conscious or unconscious, from those who hire and set salaries.This graph depicts the female to male earnings ratio, median yearly earnings among full time. Some other examples of the gender gap are: Women who work part time actually earn more than men who work part
Males bring in higher incomes than females do. Not only will gender affect your income, but also ethnicity, or the ethnic group that you belong to, may affect your household income. A social science research done by Fernandez and Mors, was a research where they wanted to show and let their readers know that there is a huge sex segregation in employment which affects the types of jobs, income, and hours one sex gets. “ 7.5 percent of the pool of candidates for salaried jobs are female; the corresponding percentage for males is almost double that rate at 14.3 percent.” This statement clearly shows that there are a lot more men in the salary jobs than women, which affects the income. Because there are a lot more men in the more “stable” salary jobs, women do not nearly make as much money as men do.
Overall it could therefore be argued that rather than partners becoming more equal, women now have to carry a ‘dual burden’, whereby she is responsible for two jobs of unpaid or paid labour. Factors such as patriarchy and conforming to a gender script will lead to these divisions. Secondly, it could be argued that the money management within a family has an effect on the power relations between couples. Edgell argues that the reason why men are likely to take the decisions is because they earn more; women usually earn less than their husbands, and as a result of being dependant on them, have less say in the decision making. Similarly, Michelle Barrett and Mary McIntosh additionally argue that men usually make the decisions about spending on important items.
(5)Earning power has been and is much more a cultural goal for men than for women (though this workplace gender preference does seem to be changing). (6)Entrepreneurial women in fields such as private-practice psychotherapist will, on the average, choose to charge less and thus make less than their male counterparts. African-Americans have often chosen workplace occupations with dreadful unemployment rates such as musicians, artists, actors, basketball players (there are thousands attempting to fit in a few hundred slots), etc. This is rapidly changing now, for many new black lawyers, engineers and business majors are emerging from schools. Great!
This results in the man having more power over the woman as he is the individual working and bringing an income, enabling him to make the decisions whereas the woman would have no power for this to happen. In relation to having an income, feminists see the workplace as another place in which inequalities occur. ‘The Glass Ceiling’ is a phrase commonly used by feminists. It is related to women and their careers and how they are able to see promotion but are not going to be considered as they are women. This is highlighted in the report ‘Sex and authority in the workplace: the causes of sexual inequality’, Wendy C. Wolf
A study done in 2010 showed that a woman who worked forty to forty-four hours a week got paid eighty-five percent of a man’s pay who worked the same amount of hours. But a woman who worked sixty hours a week was only paid seventy-eight percent of her male counterpart’s pay (Grohol). The “Glass Ceiling” does not only pertain to women’s pay; it also involves job opportunity and advancements. In June 2005, forty-five percent of women and sixty-one percent of men believed that they had the same opportunities for promotions and advancements in their job. That seems to be a low percentage of females in the job force
Unions have had to change and evolve to combat the decline in membership and the effectiveness of the union itself. Although the membership of women has increased, their activity within the union has been low. Perhaps this is because women are defined by their sex and how they are socialized as they grow from child to adult; women are seen as passive lacking leadership qualities and confidence. This may be especially true in male dominated trade unions. Although change has come about for women in their struggles in the union movement, it is clear that there is still much to be done.
Is gender discrimination the main reason women are paid less than men, is indeed a serious question to ponder. I am convinced that the gender division of the labor is self reinforcing and is the choice made by the gender owing to multiple reasons like physical, psychological, physiological, emotional and intelligential quotients and family societal balance and not that it is a men world paradigm. Following are my arguments and the data which support the argument from the case study and external research. • Career choices and the fitment seemed to be the major reason for the wage gap, from the fact that in 80 occupations fields, women earn more and in 39 fields they have 5% pay advantage over the men
From the early beginnings in the founding of America, it can be said that women have been held inferior to men. Along the course of history the basis of this argument has steadily been changing in a positive direction in the favorable light of women. Times have changed in our country and women have been able to attain greater roles in everyday life. It is sad to note that women in some countries around the world have been suppressed from being able to advance to the same level as men. Traditionally, and still today, work is what creates such gender bias.
A major problem women encountered when entering the workplace was harsh sexism. Many men felt that there were certain jobs for women and that they couldn’t do things as well as the men. While women entered the working class, they encountered long hours and lower wages than their male counterparts. Many people believed the men deserved more money because they were the head of the household and it would be terrible if the women earned more than her spouse. Today this view has changed slightly.