Vinson Yau
POLS&C 101
Reading Response 1
02/14/2017
Feminism and The Gender Equality Myth
“Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change…Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect.” (Knowles) Just as Beyonce Knowles said, one of the major factors that separates men and women from truly being equal are the different types of opportunities and benefits they receive in today's society.
First, I will begin by discussing and stating facts about one of the major gender inequality issues pertaining to the gender pay gap. Next, I
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national women’s soccer team. An article from the New York Times, “Pay Disparity in U.S. Soccer? It’s Complicated,” presents statistics and reasons of why the wages of the U.S. soccer team is unfair. The argument stating that the men’s team has brought more revenue over the years may be true but, “...in 2015, the women’s team won the World Cup ...[which] brought in more than $23 million in game revenue, about $16 million more than the federation had projected.” Even with such an outstanding amount of revenue, the U.S. Women's soccer team earned "...about a quarter of what their counterparts on the men’s national team [received]." Not only that, but the women's team must perform at a high level to keep pace financially and play extra games to earn their victory tour money. This is a huge contrast to the men's team because they are paid "...just for showing up." When taken into account of the amount of work the men's and women's team put in, there is a discrete imbalance between the two. This is enough to warrant and question why women are placed at such a disadvantage compared to men. Rich Nichols, the general counsel for the U.S. women’s soccer team association, reasonably argues players should earn "..equal pay for equal work." Arguments on the opposing side that state “U.S. Soccer also counts the women’s biweekly salaries (compensation that the male players do not receive) as a mitigating …show more content…
Using Stanford's Encyclopedia of Philosophy, feminism is defined as "...both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms. " It is important to note that there are several definitions that feminism covers with arguments being made of what sexism consists of and the measures needed to be taken. However it can be generally agreed that it stands as a belief "...motivated by the quest for social justice, feminist inquiry [that] provides a wide range of perspectives on social, cultural, economic, and political phenomena." Now the feminism wave model consists of three waves. The first wave feminism began in the mid 19th century up until the 19th amendment where women were fighting for basic political rights. During the 1960's to 1970's, second wave feminism occurred as a fight for greater equality across areas such as education, work, and at home. And from the 2000s to today, the third wave of feminism is the fight for a greater importance in identity. This is largely a bigger focus on the interconnected features including race, religion, nationality, and gender. These views are what stands out the most as feminists continue to put more emphasis and recognition of intersectional feminism. With that, gender equality can further expand so that women can be given
speaks exclusively about the different “waves” of feminism. The first and second wave are often coupled with the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement respectively. This is so because many women were petitioning for these things and then realizing that they themselves do not have these simple freedoms. This thinking sparked the women’s movement. The first wave had one ultimate goal of attaining citizenship for women, most importantly the right to vote, which was achieved in August of 1920. The Second wave valued the equality of men and women. The Third wave was about bring feminism everywhere one went instead of mass movements. The fourth wave, which we are in right now, has become much more modernized with the creation of social media, which helps the word spread faster leading to change
The United States National Women’s soccer team is one of the utmost underappreciated teams in society; considering, they have won three World Cups; seven CONCACAF Gold Cup wins; four Olympic gold medals; along with ten Algarve Cups. On average, individuals on the women’s team make $37,800, while the men make $300,000. Some might deem this is ironic considering that the men’s team loses money each year, but are still paid considerably more than the women. This quote from former U.S. National Soccer Player, Abby Wambach, elucidates what her opinion is on this topic, she says, “The women’s national team made in the twenties of millions of dollars and we’re still paid less than the men’s team- and the men’s team lost $2 million. That’s kind of
Feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms. However, there are many different kinds of feminism. So some have found it useful to think of the women's movement in the US as occurring in "waves" . On the wave model, the struggle to achieve basic political rights during the period from the mid-19th century until the 1920's counts as "first wave" feminism waned between the two world wars, to be "revived" in the late 1960's and early 1970's as "second wave" feminism. The concept of 'waves' is not meant to imply that organised feminism disappeared in the
“Equal play. Equal pay.” –U.S. Women’s National Team (Reiher). The gender pay gap is surprisingly still a large problem today. Not only in soccer, but in every sport women exert the most effort, yet they do not receive the credit. The U.S. Woman’s National Team should receive an equal amount of pay as the men’s team because they have won more titles, they are better soccer players, and they bring in more income.
Feminism is the fight for equality between the sexes. It can be dated back to the mid-19th century with women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The first wave feminist procured the right to vote for American women. The following second and third waves built upon what the founding feminists created. The second wave of feminism was set off by the disenchantment women across America were experiencing. This disenchantment was caused by the nuclear family and the roles that the women in the 1950s were thrust into. The second wave is said to have lasted from the 1960s-1980s. Sometime after the 1980s, most likely the early to mid-1990s, third wave feminists began to rear their heads. The third wave built upon the advancements made
The Guardian article “The USA women's national team are demanding equal pay. Is it realistic?” written by Beau Dure discusses the interview held by CBS’s 60 Minutes about the USA women’s national soccer team’s drive for equal pay. There have been scarce meetings between US soccer and representatives for the women’s team, and even less knowledge of what is being discussed within these meetings. As of now all that anyone knows for sure is that the women’s team current deal is coming to an end. Dure points out that the debate at hand includes all forms of equality between the US men’s team and the US women’s team; such as equality in pay, travel amenities, and field location accessibility. However, while there are many parts to this debate Dure choses to focus on the difference in pay. Dure emphasizes the difference in the payment systems, bonuses for championships, and gap between two star players that play the same position. Dure makes sure to add that this debate has been going on for a long time and not only in the US. At this moment it is unknown if they are looking for exact pay as the men’s team.
The U.S Soccer Federation is being brought to attention and being investigated of the discrimination towards the women. For example, “The U.S Soccer Federation is a 501 nonprofit and the official governing body of the sport of soccer in the United States.”(Wikipedia1). This clearly demonstrates that the federation is in charge of the soccer, and it is understood that they are more than capable of changing the discrimination between the women and the men. The significance is that being the federation they have all of the power to determine how much pay each national team gets, and only they can do what’s right in this situation. In addition, “According to a budget report from the U.S Soccer Federation, the women’s team is projected to bring in more than $17 million in revenues, including a $5 million surplus for a fiscal year 2017, nearly doubling their male counterparts.”(Santhanam1). This quote can help the women out by fighting with the federation on these statistics, showing
Men get paid more than females do. Men get promotions more than females do. In the work place women get sexual harassed by their employee. Women who had less education also received less pay. Females have a harder time on trying a CEO position and are challenged when they do earn the position by the male workers. If a male who has graduated college work he will make over 91,000 dollars but if a women who has graduated college works in the same position she would make around 60,000 dollars. So, we don't get paid the same amount even if we do work just as hard as the men
In no way is it trying to be conveyed that men and women are exactly equal. They both hold equally valuable qualities and abilities, but nonetheless, are different. Some men work more hours and earn more pay than their female counterpart, and the flip side of that is also true. There is much to remember when learning and understanding the issue of pay gap and the discrimination it sends towards women. The idea that women are being discouraged and pushed out of high paying jobs possibly because they are women is the root of the issue. In a survey conducted by Pew Research, 42% of the women interviewed said that they felt discriminated at their workplace, and 25% of these women felt that they actually received less than their male counterpart for the same work. These percentages show that despite the fact that women in today’s society have earned the rights to have these jobs, they do not feel as though they are treated equally in these said jobs.
“ The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap” explains how the pay gap in the United States and how it affects women of all ages, race, and education levels, and what you can do to
There is no denying that the U.S. women’s soccer team was discriminated. From our secondary research, it was noted that the pay disparity between women players and men players is unjustified (Futterman, 2016). We observed that the U.S. Women’s National Team has achieved a lot in comparison to their male counterparts in international tournaments in the recent past (Das, 2016). In addition, the women’s soccer team draws in a greater following than the U.S. Men’s National Team. Subsequently, there is no justification for the inequality salary to the U.S. women soccer players. We found it intriguing that despite the fact that they bring a lot of revenue to the country, it still occurred. Cases like this have been common across the world, and the
People are starting to pay more attention to the women’s team so they did some research on how much each team makes. In an article titled “How does the U.S. women’s soccer team pay compare to the men?” the publisher learned that the men receive $76,000 to be on the World Cup roster, and the women get $15,000. That is a major difference in numbers! Also, to qualify for the World Cup team the men get $2.5M and the women only get $345,000 which again is a dramatic difference. Additionally, if the men’s team wins the World Cup the team receives $9.3M while the women’s team only receives $1.8M. In 2015, the United States Women’s National Team won the World Cup and still “earned four times less than the men while performing demonstrably better.”
The idea of women being equal to men has been debated for a very long time. Even when civilizations were just starting, most women were treated very differently from men. When women started fighting against this oppression they were called feminists. Feminism can be separated into three waves. The first wave of feminism was from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s. The second wave was from the 1960s to the 1980s. The third wave of feminism started in the 1990s, but its end is unclear. Some people believe it has ended and the fourth wave of feminism has started, but others believe it continues today. The different waves have been very different in some aspects, but very similar in others. The main differences between the first and third wave of feminism are what they fought for, how they protested, and society’s reaction to their cause.
The concept of the feminist movement was adapted close to the 1800’s, but there is not an official start or end to this movement. A wave model depicts the feminism movement and it is known that one phase does not end and another phase starts; it is a continuous process. This model illustrates that women are fighting against patriarchy throughout history by being involved in many political
The women liberation movement that arouses in the 1960s through the 1980s was a movement for equality and women empowerment. Throughout, activist focus on acquiring equality in politics, economics for women. The second wave of feminism was a time for where women fought for equality, were people from different gender and ideals came together to fight for what was right. Merriam-Webster defines feminism as the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes. It is the notion that women are human beings that deserve equal protection under the law and in social norms. The movement concentrated on giving women the control over their bodies, and politics, at a time when women body sexualized and objectified. The second wave became