Gender Wage Pay Gap

509 Words3 Pages

From birth, men and women were born equal to one another. Both genders have the ability to share the same opportunities, and achieve whatever desires they choose in life. In our current society as well as the past, this does not entirely follow through. “Gender is a social construct that specifies the socially and culturally appropriate roles that men and women are to play” (Kearl 2011). Going along that “it is one of the most universal measures upon which status is based (Kearl 2011). Looking back at the time during world war 2, men were perceived in society as the dominant family figures. They would go off to war to fight for their country, provide for their families, bring in all the income, etc. On the other hand, women were looked as the …show more content…

As time progressed, the population followed. Society has been facing a problem of inequality, specifically the difference of wage in the work force. Gender wage gap can be influenced by the educational status of one. In the readings written by (Langdon and Klomegah 2010), it was mentioned that “In 1963 women earned 59 cents for every dollar a man earned.” Fast forwarding a few generations later, “In 2009 they earned 80 cents for every dollar a man earned” (Hegewisch et al. 2010). “This is a 21 cent change in 46 years which equated to about one-half of a cent a year” (Langdon and Klomegah 2010). “For example, in the United States, the median full-time working woman earned 60% of what the median full-time working man earned in 1960 and 77% of what he earned in 2009” (Hegewisch, Williams, and Henderson 2011). From the past to now, we do see a significant …show more content…

Looking at educational status in particular, The White House Council on Women and Girls (2011) state that “women attain slightly more education than men and have higher graduation rates at all academic levels”. “Not only are women enrolling in college in greater numbers than men, they are outpacing men in graduating from high school, attending college, and attaining college degrees” (NCES 2004; Sum, Fogg, and Harrington