User:Yamara/Gender wage gap in the United States

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The gender wage gap is defined as the sociological discriminations and unexplained disparities in income experienced between men and women that occupy equal and comparable job titles with the same educational level in the labor market. Many other things such as biological and social discrimination against women and occupational segregation account for some income disparity, although much is left unexplained. Over the last 40 years the gender wage gap has closed significantly, but even now women still experience a huge income differential compared to men, earning $0.77 to every dollar earned by a man of equal job and comparable educational standing.

History behind the Gender Wage Gap
The gender wage gap is a very visible thing among today’s society of working women and has been plaguing women ever since they began entering the labor force. In the 1950’s until about 1970, women made approximately 60% of the median income of men. Since then, the income disparity gap has closed in to about 70% by the year 1990 and to 75% in 1997. In 1963 the Equal Pay Act of 1963, an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act, was introduced to prevent the continued discrimination of wages between the sexes. Even with this operating policy actively prohibiting gender wage differentials, equally qualified women still face an enormous unexplained gap of income in comparison to what their equal male counterparts earn. From 1997 to the present the overall gender wage gap has decreased to about 76.5%.

Causes of the gender wage gap
An April 15, 2005 article titled "Gender Wage Gap Is Feminist Fiction" from the Independent Women's Forum states, "A study of the gender wage gap conducted by economist June O' Neill, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, found that women earn 98 percent of what men do when controlled for experience, education, and number of years on the job."

In addition, many of the differences in income come as a result of the type of work done by men and women. For example, men are more likely to take jobs in which they are constantly exposed to the elements and jobs that are more labor intensive. This presumes that a portion of the gender wage gap is not due to any type of discrimination, but rather to natural circumstance. Also, this does not posit that women are unable to perform in these types of jobs, but that they are simply less likely to work in these fields.

Sociological Causes and Explanations for the Gender Wage Gap

 * Unexplained Gap in Association with Gender
 * Occupational Segregation and Sex Composition in Occupations
 * Glass Ceiling Effect
 * Reverse Glass Ceiling Effect
 * Biological Discrimination of Women

Occupational Segregation
Occupational segregation is the division of labor separating men and women or people of different races and directing them into jobs that society deems appropriate for their gender and race. In most cases, the occupations that men are steered into are jobs of higher prestige and ultimately allow men to earn more money and the opportunity for upward mobility in the labor force. For example, men studying medicine in school are more likely to become doctors while women studying medicine are more likely to become nurses. Other examples of sex composition in the labor force being dominated by a certain gender are truck drivers which are made up of a majority of males and elementary school teachers which are primarily female. On average, female dominated occupations earn less than male dominated occupations, even with more educational schooling. Occupational segregation is a result of stereotypes and differences socially and biologically made through gender. For example, there is a common stereotype that men are stronger than women; therefore, men work more traditional construction jobs while women tend to gravitate towards service sector jobs which require little body exertion. These stereotypes and differences among the sexes channel many people into occupations with dominant sex compositions. Through occupational segregation, women are discriminated against based on their gender, stereotypes of their gender, and sociological differences between males and females.

The Glass Ceiling
The glass ceiling effect is the inability of women and people of difference races to be able to make an upward climb in the labor force due to discrimination and stereotypes of their gender and race. The most common types of discrimination based on the glass ceiling effect are sexism and racism, although other people can be discriminated against too such as people with disabilities. “Last year, the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission released a report stating that only 7%-9% of senior managers at Fortune 1000 firms are women.” This is a very surprising statistic because women make up half of the labor force nowadays. Due to this restriction of top hierarchical jobs available to them, women will soon lose the ability to compete in the “increasingly diversified marketplace.” As a result of this discrimination, women are exiting the “corporate sector” to start their own businesses instead of waiting around for CEO and board of director’s positions to come available. Because of the influx of women owning their own businesses and leaving the “corporate sector”, top corporations are losing excellent employees and ultimately losing money. Like occupational segregation, the glass ceiling effect is caused by stereotypes of women. According to male employers, men are more agreeable and more trustworthy than women, so they are hired and promoted instead of women.

Reverse Glass Ceiling
The reverse glass ceiling effect is the opposite of the glass ceiling effect. Instead of affecting women in the labor force, it affects men. The reverse glass ceiling effect is the recent movement of men into female dominated professions. This has also been coined "Doing Gender." Just as women are in male dominated professions, these men are discriminated against and receive lower wages than the women who make up most of these professions. These men deal with masculinity identity problems and are commonly seen as anomolies(Williams). Such occupations include nurses, elementary school teachers, flight attendants, librarians, and secretaries. The amount of men in these fields has nearly tripled in terms of percentage levels over the past 25 years.

Biological Discrimination against Women
Because of their gender, women are discriminated against in the work force and make substantially lower wages and are denied top hierarchical positions in the corporate world. One reason for this discrimination is what a woman’s gender entails. Biologically women are able to bear children, unlike men and they are shown prejudice because of this fact of nature. When a woman becomes pregnant she has 9 months of work available to her before she gives birth to her baby. Then after the woman delivers the child she has a certain amount of time of maternity leave, also known as parental leave, to stay home and take care of the baby. The amount of time and the amount of money for maternity leave depends on the employer. After a woman’s maternity leave expires she must find other arrangements for childcare and return to work or stay at home and leave the labor force. Sometimes women will remain home a few years or even forever to care for their children; however, fathers very rarely ever stay at home and care for their children. Due to this trend in women, employers find it easier to hire men instead of women and promote them faster.