The history of the Gender Wage Gap

Name:
Course:
Instructor:
Date:
History of The Gender Wage Gap
Introduction
Way before gender balance became an issue, men were given priorities in everything. They were the only ones elected to offices and put in high positions. The issue of gender imbalance is also seen in churches. For example, in the Catholic church, men are the only ones that qualify as priests. On the other hand, women in the Islam religion are not allowed into Mecca unless they are accompanied by a male. In addition to that, most companies have many male employees compared to females and the gender imbalance is visible. Usually, most men are in high positions in the companies globally. Lately, there has been a push on gender equality and women are raising to high positions. There are also women in high positions who earn more than men, but we need the number to increase. We should all work towards promoting gender balance. As always, there is always a history behind something. The essay discusses the history of the wage gap.
To understand the gender wage gap, we need to first define it. The gender wage gap is the average difference between the wage of both the men and women who are working. It is obvious that men are paid more than women in the working industry. The gender wage gap goes sometime back in history when it all started. During World War II, there was a lot of women who fought for jobs in the war industries. As a result, the National Labour War Board requested the employers to equalize the wage between male and female workers who performed similar tasks. The employers did not take the request lightly as the women were almost pushed out of their working places in an attempt to create more opportunities for the men. Till 1960, the newspapers used to publish different job listings for male and female (Chadis 1109). Back then, jobs were categorized in terms of gender and the higher jobs made the specification that they wanted male employees.
The newspapers made listings of a similar job in both the male and female categories but with different paychecks. Although separate, it meant that women were seen as inferior to men and they did not deserve to be paid as much as men were. This came to an end in 1960 when the Equal Pay Act was passed. It then became unlawful for women to be given lower paychecks on the same job simply because of their gender. The act also stated that there would be differences in wages if only there was a difference in the quality and quantity of work in addition to merit. It then became clear and a relief since gender could not be used as a downside when looking for a job.
In the wage gap, there is the unadjusted and the adjusted pay gap. The adjusted pay gap is about the differences in the job experiences, working hours and many more. For instance, an employee who has taken time off will earn less compared to the one who is still working. One reason that leads to women earning less money than men is that of maternity leave (Blau and Kahn 813). Generally, motherhood highly affects the job choices for women. Traditionally, women had to leave work to take care of their children. This is because men do not need to go for paternal leave since much is not needed from them as compared to mothers. Overall, factors like these narrow the wage gap over time which leads to the existence of the gender pay gap.
On the other hand, unadjusted pay gaps are much higher. Both external and internal factors like individual choices affect this type of wage gap. For example, a person may choose to work part-time when there is full-time employment. This is an example of a voluntary choice. In involuntary choice, for example, a person who is unable to access higher education has no choice but to work on low skill jobs. External factors like discrimination also contribute to the gender pay gap. There are certain workplaces which do not consider women as leaders. This leads to low self-esteem and lack of willpower when they get a job that does not match up to their skills. Discrimination reduces the work output especially in women leading to high dependency especially in old age.
Still, on discrimination, women are usually referred to as less capable of performing certain tasks. There is a common belief that men are superior to women and they have to follow their leads. In most cases, people consider women in the high position to have used sexual means to climb their way up the ladder (Blau and Kahn 827). This shows the primitive way of thinking of the current generation. When women are applying for certain positions, the managers think that they have something like sexual pleasures to bring to the table. There is also a direct form of discrimination when it comes to giving women’s work less valuable. An example is when both man and woman perform the same value of work, but the man gets more money. This happens especially in careers that are dominated by women because they are undervalued.
On social factors, gender roles also play a part in the gender pay gap. There are certain fields where gender is mostly a determining factor. In the nursing field, women are usually the most suited for the job, but we still fi...