On April 8, 2014 Barack Obama issued two Executive Orders into legislation that were designed to help eliminate the wage differences between men and women. Although this is a good first step there is still a lot that must be accomplished in order for their to be equality on wages between males and females. Michael Kimmel’s book The Gendered Society discusses this issue within Chapter 9: Separate and Unequal. Coming at the issue from a very sociological perspective Kimmel argues that the wage gap is a “[…] major consequence of the combination of sex segregation and the persistence of archaic gender ideologies” (Kimmel 261). From my perspective, I agree with all of the points Kimmel is making and believe that this chapter provides an educational background on the inequality between men and women in the workplace. However, my qualm with Kimmel’s chapter is that he does not really discuss the patriarchal structure of capitalism as a whole. In this paper I will discuss the solid arguments The Gendered Society makes in Chapter 9 while also trying to relate them to my position that capitalism is sexist by nature. To begin with three should be an examination of how “the persistence of gender ideologies” has affected equality in the workplace. As Kimmel states, “Since the early nineteenth century, the workplace has been seen as a masculine arena, where men could test and prove their manhood against other men in the dog-eat-dog marketplace” (Kimmel 249). This is still occurring
In ‘Just One of the Guys”, author Kristen Schilt discusses the persistence of workplace inequalities. She looks at the concept of “doing gender by exploring how cultural schemas and natural difference schema show the differences between man and women that contribute to work place inequalities” (Schilt pg. 170). This theory of doing gender looks at how male and females are, programmed by society from birth to act in certain ways and in accordance to their sex. That through the reproduction of, and based on the gender binary of male /female, individuals are taught how to do gender. These prompts of how to dress, walk, and talk, this assignment of activities that are suitable to women and men to reproduce this binary structure of masculinity and
The main causes of the gender pay gap are due to direct discrimination, undervaluing of women’s work and the segregation of the labour market other causes are tradition and stereotypes as well as the expectations of women in their private life. Direct discrimination is where an industry pays a women less for doing the exact same job as a man with the same years’ experience and qualifications. Women’s work is undervalued, this is explained through the fact that female dominated jobs are paid less than their male dominated equivalent. The office lady collecting con notes gets paid less than the Forklift driver. The segregation of the workforce can be explained through the sectors at which women choose to take on. The sectors
Sexism was in the workplace in the 1980s and in today’s society in a couple of ways. In the academic journal, “Gender Equity” the author, Baker, points out that sexism was in all areas of the economy, and even though more and more women were learning ways to deal with it, they still faced it in their work. This was because there were still much fewer women in high-level positions (Baker). Sexism is still prominent in all workplaces, even though more women are finding ways to cope with it. However, there are still fewer women in higher positions.
The fact of the matter is that gender roles, although not as prominent as they once were, still have a heavy impact on how society’s functions are dispersed and divided up. There is no denying that a double standard and gender roles were once how everything was decided, but what some deny is that there is not a way to overcome them. For instance, the argument of women getting paid less than men for the same occupation is totally illogical because if women get paid less than men for the same job, wouldn’t large companies just hire women if they could pay them less and still get equal work? But that’s not the case according to Kevin Miller and his article “The Big Number: 80 Percent” in the magazine Economic Justice:
The ever unending topic of gender equality in the workplace and life in general is one that is uneasy to analyze. The essay “The men we carry in our minds” by Scott Russell Sanders not only hit on inequality, it also makes a major point of showing how the upbringing of an individual really impact their point of view. Depending on how we grew up or how we were raised, we all see to this matter differently.
This paper explores the sociological effects gender wage gap in all aspects of our society. Gender wage gap is when a Women is paid 79% of what men are paid, the gap is referencing the 21% gap in between what a man is paid and what a women is paid.This topic relates to Sociology because it pertains to social inequality, gender pay Discrimination, gender segregation, gender diversity, patriarchy, feminism, and gender inequality. African Americans and Hispanics have the biggest gap in pay and white and Asian women have the smallest gap. Inequality with Race and wage gap are one in the same when it comes to social inequality they are both a form of discrimination.
For the first time in history women had surpassed men in the paid labor force. Yet, instead of provoking an equality among the sexes, the figures play no statistical significance, as women still try to bridge the gap between their inequality among their male counterparts. One apparent setback for women in the workplace is their unequal payment, “Women workers are still paid less than men, currently about-three quarters of mens income if they work full time and year round”(Institute for Womens’s Policy Research, 2010). Although there women are beginning to integrate into vastly male populated jobs throughout the labor force “… women in America today earn 78 cents to a man’s dollar, according to the U.S Census Bureau, and have struggled for decades to achieve pay for equal work” (Riley 2). Not only has this pay gap significantly effected the nature of women throughout the county, it has also violated the bill that Congress passed called the Equal Pay Act of 1963. The Equal Pay Act was signed in order to establish a more sound and equal treatment among the sexes. It noted that an employer was unable to discriminate employees on grounds of gender, yet as figures denote today, this bill seems to not possess enough jurisdiction over the wage gap. The wage gap has contributed to various problems within the United States, especially among single mothers who do not have a supporting male figure within their household.
“The wage gap has narrowed by more than one-third since 1960”(Hegewisch, 2010) and “the share of companies with female CEOs increased more than six-fold” (Warner, 2014) since 1997. As well as the truth that men and women’s earnings differ for many other reasons besides the presence of sexism. “Discrimination in labor market, in education/retiring programs, unequal societal norms at home and the constrained decisions men and women make about work and home issues” (Hegewisch, 2010) are also factors that can contribute to the unequal treatment of man and women in the workplace. Yet even with most of these variables removed women are still being paid less than men, sexually harassed in the workplace and hold very little managerial positions.
Inequality has been a dilemma for several years in countless different ways. A persistent problem with disproportion of income between women and men has been lingering within many companies in the United States. It has been said that women earn less money than men in the workplace for many different reasons. Some of these reasons are that women have not spent enough time in the office to be rewarded with raises and bonuses because they are busy with their home lives and taking care of their children, they, unlike men, have been taught to be timid and unaggressive which ultimately steers them away from requesting higher pay, or they do not meet the qualifications to receive promotions (Hymowitz, 2008). This essay is in response to On
The gender wage gap is a prominent issue which is fought for in feminism today. In the past, this standard has been justified due to the fact that women were more likely to be stay-at-home moms, and were less likely to have jobs or college degrees. Today, women are getting comparable education to men, and working comparable jobs, yet the issue remains. The gender wage gap is a women’s rights issue based on the old-fashioned role of women in society which needs to be fought against and decreased in the United States during this current political and social climate.
From the beginning of time there has been a distinction between the accepted roles of males and females. For ages men have been viewed as the family provider and women as the family caretaker. Although new roles developed with different eras, the same ideals have held for centuries now. Since the late 1800’s, the idea of “feminism,” or the social, political, and economic equality for females, has begun to shake the foundations of gender roles. It is 2015, and women have made tremendous strides to establish equality for themselves in a world dominated by male leaders. However, women have not been able to conquer the wage gap. The gender wage gap refers to women being paid on average 78% of what men do. Although the gap is closing, it is still
The feminist paradime referred to as feministic economics focuses on the imbalances of social capitalism. This was quite an interesting discussion to follow due to Professor Chiara Piovani’s deep accent. As well as for the topic and her innate bias considering the fact that she was a female. All in all her basic argument is that our system is not fair in the delegation of equality of pay, equality of duties and other elements such as race make things even worse.
The gender wage gap has been a nationwide problem since women were able to enter the workforce. Women have begun to speak out more about the issue and evaluate what they can do to change the industries and how they personally present themselves to help this change. Currently there is a wide range of opinions on this issue, with some saying it does not exist while others think it will ruin the economy if not fixed immediately. This makes it more difficult to address the problem and predict how it will be in the future; however, all sides of the spectrum are becoming more aware of what the gender wage gap means and what they can do to change it. This paper will analyze the different stances on the extent of this social issue as well as the current practices being used to increase knowledge and equalize pay for all.
Acker (1998) posits, despite years of advancement and equity practices; a gendered substructure explains the persistence of male hegemony and the female disadvantage. There’s a conventional assumption of an ordinary worker to be a man without obligations outside of work that will be a means of distraction. According to a study, it was found there is significant proactivity in implementing equal opportunity strategies under the guise of ‘organisation of work and conditions of service’ (Strachan & French, 2007). Furthermore, segregation at the workplace has remained almost unchanged, despite two decades of equal employment opportunity legislation.
The economics of intimate partner relationships play a role in patriarchy and the reinforcement of women abuse. Martin (1981) states that meritocracy is a discourse that everyone has equal opportunity in the workforce. It fails to recognize the barriers that prevent people from having the same opportunities as others. For instance, women face many social pressures that prevent them from working in the public sphere such as discrimination, sexism, being pushed down to apply for certain jobs because it dominated by males and may not have the physical requirement like body mass. Martin (1981) argues that capitalism supports patriarchal families and the idea that a woman's place is considered to be in the private sphere, the home, while a man is to be in the public sphere. Martin (1981) states that capitalism is about competition and succeeds when barring disadvantage or vulnerable populations including women from advancing to the top of the hierarchy so that people, predominantly white males, would remain in power. One strategy to prevent women from advancing in their career is to receive minimum wage and less income than men which therefore makes them easily replaceable in the work force. This defines women as temporary workers (p. 41). This leaves women economically dependent on men and gives a reason