Gender Politics in the US: Pay Difference

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Introduction

Peterkin (2012) explains that the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was enacted to facilitate equality between men and women in terms of their pay. However, to date, there are still certain obstacles that contribute to the huge pay gap between men and women.

Identification of the obstacles to women equality

One of the reasons contributing to a huge pay difference between men and women is the choice of what they study as their college major (Peterkin 2012). Irrespective of the choice of the major, the male graduates earn way more than the female graduates.

Sandberg (2010) gave a presentation at the TEDWomen talk in 2010 and pointed out that women prefer personal fulfillment to professional success. In this case, when we compare the career woman to her male counterpart, there is a difference in that the career women at the same level have children and a husband to take care of while men are not always directly involved in taking care of children. When women indulge in their careers, they forego their opportunity to raise a family, while the male managers have the capacity to excel in their careers and raise a family as well.

The employers and the society also need to make both men and women feel important. Men are pressurized to succeed but this is rarely the case with their female counterparts. The women’s tasks are heavier than those of men considering they have to take care of their families in addition to office responsibilities (Sandberg).

What causes the obstacles?

The women who are given top positions in companies do very little to change the current belief in the society about the best jobs being taken over by men. Bennett observes that the women do not take up their responsibilities in the top positions in fear of being called bossy and therefore they still contribute to the sexism.

Women tend to lean back at the workplace especially if they are considering starting a family. Women should not leave their employment or ignore promotions by making premature decisions which may act as their own limitations to success in future. Sandberg (2010) encourages women to keep working hard to ensure that even when they take a break, they have a job to look forward to when they resume.

Bennett (2010) acknowledges that women are exposed to discriminatory practices that are based on certain beliefs that categorize specific jobs for women, thereby limiting what they can do in an organization. Employers too contribute to the issue of inequality by reserving certain jobs for women and others for men.

Ways of overcoming the obstacles

Peterkin (2013) notes that women should be advised to choose the best majors that will increase their earnings. In addition, women should be willing to be more active in negotiating their salaries. Though this will not entirely create the desired equality effect, a better option would be for the employer to take decisive action. Employers ought to implement policies that facilitate equal pay between men and women.

Women empowerment strategies have contributed to increase in their employment. A good example is when the ‘girl power’ movement began in early 2000 and led to an increase in the rate of employment among women (Bennett 2010). According to Sandberg (2010), women ought to be advised to ‘sit at the table’ and negotiate for what they want even if it is their first salary. Women should learn to attribute their career success to themselves instead of saying that ‘they got lucky’. They should feel they deserve their success, believe in themselves and stop giving excuses of how they need to be supported to get the top job.

Affirmative action in the workplace helps to protect minorities like women against discrimination (Greenberg and Page 123). In the United States, affirmative action was implemented to remove barriers and increase the employment rate of those groups that had been previously discriminated against.

Why today’s young women have a harder time identifying and calling attention to the discrimination they are experiencing

When women succeed, some of the men question whether this is due to their abilities or sexuality (Bennett 2010). Men rarely appreciate that women have worked hard to earn their positions. This happens even as many organizations have implemented laws to eliminate sexual harassment at the workplace and introduced flexi hours to give convenience to the women (Crabtree 2011). Bennett (2010) further notes that women also rank masculine jobs as the highest obstacle to success yet they only choose the low paying jobs which were done by women in the 1960s. In addition, Sandberg (2010) says that managers sometimes do not notice how hard women fight for the same opportunities as men and as such, men need to be more sensitive and fair to them.

Conclusion

The campaign to bridge the pay gap between men and women cannot be done without the assistance of the employers. Employers have a responsibility to ensure that their pay favors both men and women equally and that the work done by women is not underrated. It is imperative that employers accept that women have the right to negotiate their salaries after they finish college and be perceived as aggressive and hardworking like their male colleagues.

Works Cited

Bennett, Jessica. 2010. Young Women, Newsweek, and Sexism. 2010. Web.

Crabtree, James. 2011. UN: barriers to gender equality remain. 2011. Web.

Greenberg, Edward and B. Page. Struggle for Democracy. New York: Pearson, 2010. Print.

Peterkin, Caitlin. Male-Female Pay Gap Persists and Starts Early, Study Finds. 2012. Web.

Sandberg, Sheryl. “Why we have too few women leaders.”Youtube. TEDTalks, 2010. Web.

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