Summary: Analyzing The Wage Gap

On August 18, 1920, women gained the right that approximately half the population already possessed, the right to vote. In 1948, congress passed the Women 's Armed Services Integration Act, allowing women to serve in the military, a right that men already were given. In the 1960’s, banks could refuse to authorize a credit card for woman. It wasn 't until 1974 that it became illegal to refuse this service based on sex (Katie McLaughlin, 2014). “All men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights” (Declaration of Independence) is the principle concept that the United States of America is recognized for, in spite of that, minorities in America are still suffering from social, political, and economic

Analyzing the wage gap, it is seen that the gap does not boil down to rampant sexism, however, it is because of a combination of economic, social, and educational factors. According to studies, the fields that attract women tend to pay less. Education and healthcare industries attract about a third of female employees; the median weekly income of those sectors is $841, roughly the same amount of men work in computer and engineering fields, that earn a median of $1,120. However, Even within female-dominated sectors, men still make more money, comparatively. In 1999 a woman working in a majority female workplace earned 25.9 percent less than a woman working in a male-driven sector; a man in the same employment scenario earned only 12.5 percent less (Boraas and Rodgers III,

When young women start jobs, they typically earn nearly as much as young men. In a 2013 sample, among workers who were ages 25 to 34, women on average made 93 percent as much as men, according to the Pew Research Center. The disparity grows, however, as women age, one popular explanation comes from this data: motherhood. Some economists argue that women’s outsized burden at home stalls their careers. Mothers in the United States who work full time, year round, meanwhile, make an average of $40,000, compared to $56,999 paid to fathers, according to the National Women’s Law Center. (Danielle Paquette, 2016). On average, Women typically devote two hours and 12 minutes daily to housework, while men spend one hour and 21 minutes. June O’Neill, former director of the Congressional Budget Office argues that women 's social choices should not require government intervention, “Any wage gap is rooted more in social trends and tendencies than malicious discrimination by employers,” (June O’Neill, 2015). In Blau and Kahn’s explanation of the wage gap, career decision combines two factors: industry choice (17.6 percent of the gap, they write), education (12 percent), and occupation choice (32.9 percent) (Danielle Paquette, 2016). After considering job, industry, education, and experience Blau and Kahn proposed that 38 percent of the wage gap comes from “unexplained”