Sexism in Workplace

My fellow Americans, gender should not be a deciding factor in whether or not you are promoted to a higher position within your career. Men and women should be treated as equals within the workplace. We all know that working leads to money. The true things people should be worried about it the quality of the work, not by the gender of the artisan. It should not be a surprise that a woman got elected to office or that a woman is the CEO of a major Fortune 500 company. There are many stereotypes that are unfairly placed on the woman. Many of these stereotypes promote gender bias by creating normative standards for behavior. Tests have been done that consider specific career consequences are likely to result from stereotype-based bias and identify a condition that exaggerates or minimize the likelihood of their occurrence. Change is inevitable and is quickly impending.

People always hear people talk about how the father is the head of the family, but why is it always the male, not the women? Women are treated as the second in command but both parental figures should be considered the head of the family. Some woman tell their children that they will “tell their father,” but why can’t a woman be the disciplinarian of the family. Why are women always treated as second class citizens within our society? Women are also treated this way within their workplace. The workplace is where people go to make money to help provide for their families, both men and women work together in various jobs to help keep the economy going. But think about this, 80 cents compared to a dollar. Why is there unequal pay among men and women who have the same qualifications?  Why is it that people who do the same job, have to be paid at a different rate all because of their gender?

Before the United States passed the Equal Pay Act, women were paid significantly less than men under the leadership of the United States government. The Equal Pay Act requires that men and women will be given equal pay for equal work in the same establishment. This is protecting women from not being adequately paid for the service that they have provided to an establishment. The act also states that employers may not pay unequal wages to men and women who perform jobs and require substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility, and that are performed under similar working conditions within the same establishment. As mentioned, the act is still protecting women from being adequately paid the services that they are performing. It seems that paying everyone the same shares the same hardship as curing cancer. In February of 1969, the New York Times wrote an article that questioned why female government employees were not paid the same as male ones.

The article noted that 500 women in the treasury department but, the women were only paid half of what their male colleagues made. In 1911, New York teachers were finally paid equally to their male counterparts after fighting their Board of Education. During World War I most women began to work outside of the home and took over the jobs that men would typically do. During this time women were paid the same that a man would have been paid performing the same job. The National War Labor Board said, “If it shall become necessary to employ women on work ordinarily performed by men, they would be allowed equal pay for equal work.” During World War II, women were also then expected to work outside of the household again but they were still paid the same.

After World War II many women returned to being housewives but the some continued their jobs. These women thought that they would have the same wages that they were paid during the war but they were paid about less than half of what their male counterparts were making. Secretary of Labor Lewis Schwellenbach tried to get an annual amendment passed that would be applied to the private sector so women would get paid the same as men. Schwellenbach said, “There is no sex difference in the food she buys or the rent she pays, there should be none in her pay envelope” (qtd. in Alter.) Data from the US Census Bureau shows that the average gender pay gap is around 19.5% which means that on average women earn 80.5% less than her male counterpart.

The largest gender pay gap in the country is in the state of Louisiana and it is 30%. Salaries in 25 of major US cities have shown a greater pay gap for women of color with the biggest difference between Hispanic women and white men. In Tampa, Florida a Hispanic woman makes 61% of what a white male makes while a black woman makes 65% of what a white male makes. A white woman in Tampa makes about 83% of a white man’s salary which shows the racial divide within the pay gap of men and women. Women of a minority’s lack of earning can be attributed to the color of their skin but also their gender (Jones). Why should the color of their skin and their gender be a determining factor for the worth of the service that they are providing? Without thinking about the lack of pay for a woman we also have to think about the work environment that they experience on a daily basis.

48% of women say they work in places where there are more women than men. After looking at these statistics it would make sense to have mostly women in the common workplace but they are still not paid the same amount of money that the men they outnumber make. A survey conducted in 2017 found that women employed in majority-male workplaces are more likely to say their gender has made it harder for them to get ahead at work. Women have to work so much hard than a man but they still are not getting paid for the amount of work that they are putting in to advance in a male-dominated workplace or work field. Working in a male-dominated workplace have also made women feel they are being discriminated against based on their gender which could be the cause of them having to work harder to advance in their careers.

Some people believe that women should not be paid the same as a man. Women make up a large part of the workforce which would cause the business to invest more in paying their workers. Around seventy one million women are employed which make up about 47% of the labor force. Most women also don’t take time off to have children and starting families. Many women who have children under the age of one, almost 58% of those mothers work a full or part-time job. Various sources have said that women make up lower level positions but women make up a large percentage are in managerial, professional, technical and related occupations and 55% of working women are employed in professional and technical jobs.

For most people working outside the home is no longer an option for most women, regardless of race, age, and marital status. In most households, both parents were employed in 61% of married-couple families with children under the age of 18 and since 1960 there has been a substantial increase in the number of families maintained solely by women. College enrollment of women has increased by 120% between 1976 and 2014 that now exceeds men by nearly 3 million. With women going into College to get the degree to do the same job as a man, such as being chefs, actresses, and lawyers. Women fighting for the same pay is like winning a race and getting a second-place medal. Why must we allow such a thing to happen? Why must we let the pay gap stay the same? We should be working to close that gap so everyone works for the full pay, not a certain percent of his or her dollar. Woman, should not allow their paycheck to be lower than any man’s paycheck.

In all honesty, list three good reasons why there is a pay gap and not equal pay? Imagine working a hard-tedious job, just to pay bills and keep food on the table for their family. At this job, they spend hours of their life, sorting papers in some building. Smelling the same smell and drinking the same coffee over and over. But when that paycheck comes, they have lost money, all because of their gender. Think of how enraging that would feel, but cannot complain and risk being fired. Some women have to stay home and take care of their children, such as on maternity leave, then maybe they should not make their full paycheck. But once they get back to work they return to the full dollar rather than 80 percent of it.

Overall, it comes down to people’s opinion about equal pay.It is easier for corporate America to pay their workers less, including women and letting the money go to the employers rather than the workers. Men and Women should be treated equally in the workplace. Due to the fact that they are doing the same exact job, their gender should not determine the pay. In a study done in 2010, only one job was found where women’s pay was more than their male counterparts. Only 1, out of the infinite, paid women more than men. That is just hard to believe, but over the years the number has increased. But the pay gap still remains, women make 80 cents to a man’s dollar. Why must we pay men the whole amount, and give women the lesser whole? Going back to Schwellenbach’s quote, “There is no sex difference in the food she buys or the rent she pays, there should be none in her pay envelope,” (qtd. in Alter) perfectly lays out the shell-shocking information that this paper is based on. It shouldn’t matter what their gender is, it should matter the quality of the work and the overall outcome.

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