GENDER INEQUALITY
Gender inequality or also known as gender stratification, is the unequal distribution of a society’s wealth, power, and privilege between females and males. (Scott and Schwartz, 2000).
Even though gender equality in the workplace has improved substantially in the US since 1979 especially when women started representing an increasingly larger share of the total workforce and earning about 62 percent as much as men, the women's average pay continues to be lower than that of men. It is still an undeniable fact that equality in pay and promotions in the workplace exists and are important topics constantly discussed.
When we look at the history, we would see that the workplace was imagined mostly for men. In the 19thcentury women were portrayed as people who should not work. The evolution of American women in the workforce have had to fight and to prove that they can be an important part of the American labor force. Before the Civil War, the role of women in society was considered to be at home to take care of their children and household chores, while the men would go out and work to earn money. However, later this mentality began to change as women started to enter the workforce. It started a sense of freedom for women.
A great change in the workforce happened after the Civil War. Women became an important part of the labor force and they started performing a lot of service related jobs.
Later, labor unions started accepting women as members because more women entered the workforce. In fact, during the 1880s the labor union The Knights of Labor supported women to gain equal pay for equal work. These women had to work long hours with a poor pay. They also had a lower minimum wage rate than the men and had to balance their family life on in additional to all of that. Many prominent figures, such as Lucy Hale and Mother Jones made efforts to motivate working women to keep going and fight for work equality.
In 1939 during World War II when things started to change for working women. A lot of men left to fight the war, women took over the jobs of the them in the labor force. This was one of the first opportunities for women to get jobs that they had never had before and prove their skills. During this time women were not only working in service jobs, but also professional jobs that were once male dominated. The government used various propaganda and icons such as Rosie the Riveter to encourage more women to enter the workforce.
During the mid 20thcentury, women were not sure if it was a good idea to enter the labor force, or if they should be at home to take care of the children. Many non-profit organizations, unions, and activist spoke up for the rights of women but later women felt comfortable to enter the labor force once again. In addition, some women started to work in jobs that were once male dominated. Women started to take positions in the government sector, other professional jobs, and many other high skilled jobs. (Shah, 2015)
What is interesting about this discussion is that women have taken such significant steps in obtaining education and participating in industries and occupations over the last three decades that they can’t still earn as equal as men and can’t have the equal rights in the workplace. A strong verification of this fact is the latest data from the United States Census Bureau. It shows that women working full time in the United States typically got paid just 80 percent of what men were paid, a gap of 20 percent. While the number has increased one percentage point from 2014, there has not been a statistically significant change as it doesn’t amount to perceptible change. Per the U.S. Census Bureau, the earnings ratio hasn’t had significant annual change since 2007 either. (GAO, 2011)
These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,057 U.S. adults surveyed online from January 19-21, 2016.
Three-fourths of Americans (75%) believe the U.S. has come a long way toward reaching gender equality, but issues clearly persist. Strong majorities believe that:
- Female leaders must work harder than men to prove themselves (83%),
- Women’s contributions in leadership roles often go unrecognized (78%), and
- Being a parent has more negative implications on a woman’s career than on a man’s (75%).
Meanwhile, fewer than half believe that:
- Women are just as likely as men to be considered for top executive roles (43%), and
- Women typically receive the same pay as men for doing the same job (31%). (Missal, 2016)
Although there are strong laws against sex discrimination in employment in the US – allowing men and women to work the same hours, and establishing the same retirement age for men and women, many workplaces do not recognize gender equality through various means effectively. Many women have difficulty in getting paid at the same rate for the same occupations and positions as men and getting promoted which has a barrier for their career development. In other words, work environment still favors men over women unfortunately.
All these realities produce negative social, psychological and economical effects for women in the workplace. They are obliged to put more effort in their job duties to be recognized and appreciated so that they can expect to receive the same pay as their male colleagues and they can create a chance for their promotions for higher positions which affects their attitudes and behaviors for their career. They are forced to prove themselves as if they need to. They are forced to make choices when it comes to being a parent. In most cases, even at the first place of them getting hired is evaluated differently than men. They are considered not as qualified as men if they are parents already as they need to take care of their children so they might not be as available and productive as men in general social norms. Another barrier comes to women when they are considered for top executive roles as they are not perceived as the same with men naturally. They are believed to be not suited for managing roles since their nature is accepted not to be rigid to oversee. Woman are still seen as the weaker sex who can’t handle stress in a work environment as well as men. In the U.S., women hold 20.8% of board seats, but advancement towards equality is slower than in many European countries with an increase of just 3.3% since 2004. In 2010, American women held 14.4% of executive officer positions in Fortune 500 companies, and they held 15.7% of board seats at these companies, numbers that show an upward trend from past years. Despite advances women across the US continue to lack corporate management positions. (Statistics, 2015)
Gender equality in the workplace has come a long way and certainly gotten better because of women obtaining more education and participating in all types of occupations and sectors, laws put into place but there is yet so much to do to build balanced and fair circumstances for women. To continue to improve gender equality, women need to keep standing up for themselves. They are a huge part of the labor force and need to speak up for what they deserve. Women deserve to get paid as much as men when they do the same jobs.They are just as smart and educated as men and shouldn’t feel to prove themselves in any job situation and should be provided the same chances as men to move forward in their positions.Unites States of America have seen great successes in their society regarding women in the work place in position of power and it is very important to see more women taking control of their opportunities and be in the positions that they earn.