Gender Pay Discrimination in Nursing

Gender Pay Discrimination in Nursing Name Institution Date Gender wage gap or discrimination is a phenomenon that has been in existence for long. The wage gap indicates that in general, for a dollar earned by a man, a woman only gets 77 cents CITATION Sar14 \l 1033 (Glynn, 2014). The nursing profession is not left out. Despite women taking up majority of the nursing roles, the hours worked for women against men do differ. Provision of child care and maternity account for the missed time in professional work which rarely affects men. However, wage pay difference has been affected by several factors such as culture, diversity, race among others influence the existence of this problem. Therefore, this paper highlights gender wage discrimination under the lens of culture, diversity, social practices and the effect it has on personal and nursing occupation. The gender wage gap in nursing Ironically, health care systems being the source of hope for the sick, it has become the pathway to poverty and misery among the female health care workers especially nursesCITATION Hen \l 1033 (Treadwell, 2019). According to Treadwell, women constitute over half of the health care workforce with almost a third of the women being single mothers. It is however evident that gender is not the only obstacle to better pay, race is another factor. For instance, women of color in the United States like Latin and Blacks earn less compared to White women in the same nursing category. Many women nurses are taking up jobs outside health facilities such as assisted living care, nursing home communities or home-based health care. Nonetheless, they are not protected against the low wages they receive with issues such as social stratification, sexual orientation, age, and race also playing a role in the kind of pay women get in a certain environmental setup. According to a survey report, regardless of the specialties, positions or settings, men out-earned women in nursing CITATION Car15 \l 1033 (Potera, 2015). Potera further indicates that even after 50 years past the enactment of the Equal Pat Act as law, the gender pay gap is still a nightmare. Culture, Diversity and Self and their influence on nursing Diversity is inevitable. Personality, culture coupled with identity creates the differential attributes that bring out diversity. As an individual grows, one is assimilated to the norms, dressing, language, and behaviors as passed down by the parents and community. Therefore, self and culture births diversity. The changing economics and demographics of the growing multicultural world yield widespread disparities in people’s health status CITATION Hen \l 1033 (Treadwell, 2019). In this case, people from culturally diverse backgrounds demand similarly cultural health services. Thus, diversity has challenged health care providers especially the nursing occupation that requires the nurses to go beyond their personal beliefs, customs, values, and practices to render quality service to the patients. Cultural diversity also includes the political orientation, religious affiliation, physical size, sexual orientation, gender, geographical location, occupational status and socio-economic status of a person. Cultural values and identity define an individual by giving one a sense of direction and meaning to life. Transcultural nursing is an aspect that makes nursing work challenging. In other cases, patients may demand to be served by a nurse identical to their culture which may imply discrimination based on racial or cultural identity CITATION Hen \l 1033 (Treadwell, 2019). Essentially, culture dictates the gender roles and our perception of them. For instance, other cultures stipulate that women’s place is home care g...