The Issue Of The Gender Pay Gap: Women Discrimination

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Gender Pay Gap At a time when gender equality is considered resolved, gender pay gap sticks out like a sore thumb. There are remnants of gender discrimination that stems from decades ago, when women were considered house wives and as such were relegated to the house chores, taking care of the children and property owned by their husbands, while they did not own much because they were considered property as well. This is an issues that has not received much action despite the fact that, there have been significant campaigns pointing to how the issue should be resolved for the sake of equality between the two genders ("What Are the Roots of Gender Inequality? Women's Rights, Race and Reproduction"). The irony of the situation is that, there have been significant campaigns about gender equality and the fact that women are still considered inferior to men. The discrimination is now hidden through crafty means and forced ideologies. The issue of gender pay gap is the highlight of this paper and this relative to the fact that, it is one of the frontiers where women have been discriminated against the most. On average women earn 20% less than men (Miller). However, some of the forced ideologies such as, women will be make career choices that indicate they do not want high ranking jobs as men, are part of the problem. Subsequently, I believe this is a systemic problem and one that requires a sustainable solution. By definition, gender pay gap can be considered to be the difference between the average gross pay per hour for the females and that of the male employees in any given setup. This is to mean that on average men earn more than their female counterparts. This is a problem that is actually not limited to one country alone, it is a global problem. What is more astonishing is that, even the countries that consider themselves as the leaders in the fight for the gender equality rights, they are also affected by the problem and adversely. According to Claire Suddath writing to the Washington Post, in her article; What the Gender Pay Gap Figures Are Really Telling Us: QuickTake, more than 250 companies in Britain were required to reveal the gap between the male and the female employees in reference to the much that they paid them (Suddath). It was astonishing to find that, some of the companies showed some very significant disparities between the pays given to the females compared to what went to the males employees. In some of the renowned companies such as the Goldman Sachs Group inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc, the gap was as wide as 50%. This is to mean that in these companies, the females take home half what the men take home as their salaries and benefits. This is relative to the fact that, in these companies the females are underrepresented in the senior roles (Suddath). In Germany, the issue is also rampant, however in their case, there has been a law which was passed allowing the staff to compare their salaries with up to six other colleagues that are in the same job group from the opposite sex. In the United States, it is worse as the current administration changed a regulation that would have allowed for companies to report on their pay information. This has however not stopped activists from pushing for companies to reveal such information (Suddath). It is quite important to note that, this is an issue at has been around for the longest time. To this day and age, there are subtle aspects of civil liberties and gender equality, where women are still grappling with the fight for freedom. They are still struggling to be considered as equals to their male counterparts (Rowen). Women over the years have been considered less than their male counterparts. They have been considered fit for the nurturing chores at home taking care of the children and their husbands. As such, the fight for gender equality has been largely focused on helping women attain equal status as the men in the society ("What Are the Roots of Gender Inequality? Women's Rights, Race and Reproduction"). Women are encouraged to take courses at the university that are considered to be for men, such as engineering and information technology. According to Catalyst. Org, in Europe men still dominate the engineering field, as they account for less than 42.2% in fields such as mathematics, statistics, communication technology, information technology and natural sciences (Catalyst Inc.). In the United States, the figure is even lower coming in at 24% of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Catalyst Inc.). Even those that have made to the said professions are paid much less than their counterparts. Women in this fields are paid on average 79.2% of the men’s annual median salary and benefits (Catalyst Inc.). Women are considered inferior and as such, are not offered positions in the highest ranking offices as they are considered complex and highly technical, elements that women ironically cannot achieve. Consequently, this would explain, the low number of women in technical careers, government posts and high in the corporate ladder. During the slavery period, women of color did not only have to contend with the...