Why are men and women STILL being paid differently?
We are now at the beginning of the 21st Century, and women cannot claim equal treatment and equality to men. One of the discrepancies between men and women are that they are paid differently. Women make around .77 cents for every dollar that a man earns. Why?
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Legal Equal Pay for Women
1963
The Equal Pay Act is signed into law by JFK. The aim of this act was to abolish wage disparity based on sex. The bill states;
“No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section [section 206 of title 29 of the United States Code] shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs[,] the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions…”
This continues by saying the only thing that allows one person to be paid differently from another is when they would have more experience or qualifications. There are plenty of women who are extremely experienced, going to college for the same amount of time and putting in just as much work as men. Is there any justification to women getting paid less?
It has been 52 years since the passage of this act, how many more years will it take until people realize that inequality is still an issue that needs addressed?
TodayRecently, a study done by the American Association of University Women discovered that at the rate that the pay gap is closing today, it will take 136 years until women are paid equally to men. That’s right, one hundred and thirty six years. That is crazy.
Mila Kunis wrote an article this week on gender discrepancies. You see women are not just sidelined to men when it comes to pay, women are treated differently in other ways.
“Throughout my career, there have been moments when I have been insulted, sidelined, paid less, creatively ignored, and otherwise diminished based on my gender… I taught myself that to succeed as a woman in this industry I had to play by the rules of the boy’s club.”
She stands up for herself in the article, stating that she no longer was going to allow herself to compromise just because she was a woman, and she is working hard to be treated equally. Her goal is to try and remove as much gender bias from society as possible.
Confronting discrepancies between men and women
“Subtle gender bias is oftentimes nearly imperceptible, and wholly undetectable to those who share the bias” -Mila Kunis
We all need to recognize that bias inherently exists in everyone. Where you come from shapes you as a person. Imagine how different your life would be if you were born into a different situation than you are living now. The problem is understanding we have opinions, while getting around them and realizing that there are different perspectives that need to be addressed. When it comes to gender, bias is unacceptable. Men and women are both beautiful in different ways. We joke about who is smarter, more athletic, or who drives better, but in reality both sexes are human, and capable of wonderful things. If everyone could see past the roles we traditionally give gender, think of how far we could go and how much could be accomplished.
Sources
http://aplus.com/a/mila-kunis-sexism-gender-bias-w...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women%27s_legal_rights_(other_than_voting)
