Gender Wage Gap Essay Example

The gender wage gap is outrageous. That gap is still significantly large in America, despite efforts that have been going on for decades to eliminate it. Women simply receive substantially less than men in this country. They are being discriminated against, and there is so much evidence to prove this. We cannot let them dismiss the evidence any longer. It is time to face the facts and find solutions for this epidemic.

To obtain a better grasp of the severity of the gender wage gap, it is important to understand the data. Per the textbook, out of full-time, year-round workers in 2010, the gender wage gap was 77 percent. This number is found by dividing women’s annual income by men’s. Various other ways of measuring the gap exist, but they are all within a narrow range. The point is that women make about a quarter less than men. Women are not inferior workers, so why are they being treated like them? A frighteningly large portion employers hold preexisting biases against women, simply because of the sexist culture in which they live. The media and entertainment industry often depict women as less competent, religion has conditioned millions to believe that women are subordinate, people frequently joke about women not being as intelligent as men. Sexism is culturally constructed, and it has instilled far too many people to subconsciously or consciously think that women are inferior. Although some of these cases intend no harm, they all have contributed to the discriminatory workplace that women must face today. Even if they have the education, or the work ethic, or the qualifications, the wage gap will still be present. Women are being discriminated against, and there is seemingly nothing they can do about it.

Moreover, the problem is even worse among certain groups of women. When analyzing the intersections, it is clear the women of color face even more intense discrimination. Per the textbook, the wage gap for African-American women is 67.5 percent, Latinas: 58 percent, Asian-American: 90 percent. These figures are startling. As this is often the case, sadly, minority women are being taken advantage of the most. They face this further devastation for similar reasons, just on a new level. Racism is still prevalent in the country, and many people are being filled with racist biases without even knowing it. The media, religion, society, and other culprits have constructed a racist environment where people of color are victims of prejudice. When this intersects with sexism, women of color tend to face a multitude problems that the rest of the country does not, and it is not their fault at all.

The gender wage gap is clearly a pressing issue. One concept that can potentially solve this problem is comparable worth, or pay equity. This is a simple, bias-free tool used to determine how much a worker should make, based off experience, qualifications, skills, etc. If this concept were legally mandated, businesses would be forced to pay women what they deserve. This intuitive program could help to finally close the gender wage gap. Women do not need to be victims of oppression in the workplace any longer; it is time to embrace solutions like this and fight for equality.

Gender Pay Gap Research Paper: Women in STEM

What is STEM? STEM is an abbreviation for: Science, Technology. Engineering and Mathematics. Stem Careers are jobs in this field. Astronomers and physicists, medical scientists and biochemists and scientists and engineers of all different fields, all of which are careers in STEM. These Careers make room for medical, technological and scientific innovation in our society, but like any other field of work opportunities for males and females are quite different. What is the relationship between male and female stem workers?

Children, from a young age in school, are introduced to STEM subjects, especially more in recent times there was a longitudinal study conducted over a three-year span of middle school students from different schools (grades seven to nine), to examine the difference in science and engineering career preferences between boys and girls. It was found that girls showed a lot more interest in science careers than engineering, whereas for boy’s interest in engineering was greater and more consistent.

Even though, at a young age females showed more interest in sciences, there is still a gender gap in the stem workforce. According to Wikipedia “In 2013, women accounted for 53% of the world’s graduates at the bachelor's and master's level and 43% of successful PhD candidates but just 28% of researchers. Women graduates are consistently highly represented in the life sciences, often at over 50%. “According to the United States Bureau of labor statistics, women make up forty-seven percent of the total workforce. But not as much are in STEM fields. About thirty-nine percent of chemists and material scientists are female along with 28 percent of environmental scientists and geoscientists.

Like any other work field women do not earn as much as men in stem careers. in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration there was a “14% gender wage gap: For every dollar earned by a man, women in STEM earn $0.86”. this is not only relevant to woman in STEM recent News Discussion talk about the wage gap between men and women. In 2009 women in non-stem jobs earned twenty-one percent less than their male counterparts, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration.

The amount of women in stem might be due to the gender stereotypes of women. An article on the online Huffington post website, written by Dr. Imogen Coe Dean, Faculty of Science at Ryerson University states that from a young age the toys catered to stereotypical gender interests in children. She discusses how computers became part of “techie culture” and the “only boys use computers “narrative society has established. She also mentions ‘casual’ sexism in stem fields. She writes “Casual sexism, which comes in many forms — commercials, toys, phrases, jokes, apparel or posters, among others, helps build and sustain a hostile environment towards women.”

As research shows the ratio to men and women in the STEM workforce, is not consistent. Though in areas such as life sciences women seem to dominate in other areas such as engineering there are just not enough women. Women, in this field as any other field face similar challenges, whether it be a gender gap of wage gap or “ casual sexism”.

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