Mohamed Elashry

Professor Alexander Moser 

English 11000

October 28, 2019 

                                                                     Debunking the gender pay gap

  

                “Teach our boys the rules of equality and respect so that as they grow up, gender equality becomes a natural way of life”-Beyonce.  Inequality one of the most major problems in America and in the world. The problem of inequality comes for many reasons such as color, gender, income, religion, nationality, and more. People being treated unequally for any reason But the one that still really existed and everyone can see it is the inequality in gender pay. Why does the gender wage gap still exists although male and female have the same type of education?  I wonder why until now men get paid more than women in most of the countries of the world.

  Is “ gender pay gap is a myth,”(MayaSalam)? 

Why when you ask anyone about it they say it does not exist or they say there is a gap but it is small although all the studies show that until now there is a huge gap between the gender in the payment. Men or business owners have other excuses they say men and women can not work the same jobs that’s why they don’t get paid the same. “The ablest of men cannot do as good work in teaching a kindergarten as a competent woman; the ablest woman cannot do as good in superintending a school of boys from fourteen to eighteen as a competent man. The little children need a woman’s influence, which a man cannot exercise. The boys in their teens need a men’s influence which a woman cannot exercise”(489). They use this type of excuse to say that’s why men and women do not get paid the same because they can’t work in the same field.  

                    

 

       I searched Google scholar articles to demystify some commonly misunderstood aspects of the pay gap. Here’s what I found.

Are women paid less than men because they choose to be, by gravitating to lower-paying jobs like teaching and social work?

Well, this is wrong because all the studies show that women make less money although they work the same job. “  (Female surgeons earn 71 percent of what male surgeons earn in the same specialties)”-Professor Goldin. let’s look at this example both of them are surgeons and in the same specialties but still, men male 29 percent more than women. If you see the 29 percent is a small number let me give you the difference in a more detailed number. An orthopedic surgeons earn usually $314,000 according to Time Journalist. so if men are making  $314,000 year well women are making $222,940 well the difference between men and women as surgeons are $91,060 now the number is huge and hard to believe. Some Republicans believe “There’s a disparity not because female engineers are making less than male engineers at the same company with comparable experience. The disparity exists because a female social worker makes less than a male engineer” (Claire Cain Miller). This is fact yes women are making less money because of the society we live in. The society that believes women are still less than men and can not work the same job as the men. The society we live in looks at women as a weak person that can not ask for her right. Simply the society is doing this with the women because most of the ladies do not ask for their right to get paid equally for equal work with the men.

 

women take time off to have children.

One of the excuses also is that women take time off to have children and even when they come back they suffer to do the work that they use to do before having a baby. “Bennett: Women’s compensation does often suffer when they return to work after having children”(Maya Salam) will but studies also show that women without babies still get paid less. “But even in their first year out of college, childless women earn 93 percent of what their male peers do, even if they had a similar G.P.A. and were working in the same fields.”(Maya Salam). Which makes all of these excuses not acceptable because they are wrong. Women are facing real sexism in the payment for the work. Which should make them stand up and asks for their right “Equal pay for Equal work”.  

Women get paid less because they have less education.

Well, this is another excuse for the people that believe men and women should not get paid the same.  Because all the searches show that women are getting more education than men in many different majors. “ Overall, women earned 57.34% of all bachelor’s degrees in 2016, which means there were 134 women graduating from college that year for every 100 men. It also reflects a whopping 25.6% gender college degree gap for men, who earned only 816,912 bachelor’s degrees in 2016 compared to 1,098,173 degrees earned by women (816,912 / 1,098,173 = 0.744, or 74.4 degrees for men per every 100 for women = gender college degree gap of 25.6% for men).” (Blog Post) so with a little search, we can see that women who get a bachelor’s degree are more than men by 7.34%. So women are not less educated the society we live in is less educated.  Women should stand up altogether to get their rights.

 Are we on the way to close the gap?

We are so far from getting close to ending the pay gap. “If the trajectory doesn’t change, the gender pay gap won’t close for another 40 years, maybe 100 years.” (Siri Chilazi) . many writers and women believe that it will take us at least 50 years to get close in the gap which makes it one of the challenging problems in society today. “ If you consider the year 2059 soon, sure. That’s how long it will take in the United States” (Jessica Bennett). So as many people say and believe we are still far away from the solution. Which makes us think about how to solve this problem as fast as possible.

Let us talk By the numbers.

Let us divide the women into groups so we could know everything by numbers. (Black or African American women), (Hispanic Women), (White Women) and (Asian Women). Now, let us take a close look and see which type of women is unjust more. (black women earn 67% Asian women earn 97% White women earn 79%  while and Hispanic women earn 58% of what white men earn). Black and Hispanic women are most affected by the wage gap, especially when compared to white men, who make up the largest demographic segment of the workforce. When compared to black men, black women earn 89% of what black men do, and Hispanic women make 86% of what Hispanic men do. This makes the black women and the Hispanic women the biggest gap between the genders and they are the most affected people.

 

In conclusion, gender pay gape is one of the problems we were facing in the past and we still facing it today. Men and business owners are giving excuses to make you believe that women can not work the same job as men or they are less educated but all of these excuses are wrong. The gender pay gap exists because the society we live in is less educated they look at the women as they are less than men. Women need to stand up all together all around the world to get their rights because no one is going to give you your rights if you did not ask for it.they need to stand up know or at least wait 50 years that if they get paid the same after 50 years. 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                

 

• “Equal Pay for Equal Work.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, Journal of Education, 5 May 1910, https://www-jstor-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/stable/42814616?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=work&searchUri=/action/doBasicSearch?Query=equal+pay+for+equal+work&acc=on&wc=on&fc=off&group=none&ab_segments=0/basic_SYC-4341/test&refreqid=search:2ee8861d22c1bb1d143bc6e20aba945a&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents. 

 

• Salam, Maya. “Womansplaining the Pay Gap.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 Apr. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/business/equal-pay-day.html.

  

• “Table of the Day: Bachelor’s Degrees for the Class of 2016 by Field and Gender. Oh, and the Overall 25.6% Degree Gap for Men!: American Enterprise Institute – AEI %.” AEI, 29 Aug. 2019, https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/table-of-the-day-bachelors-degrees-for-the-class-of-2016-by-field-and-gender-oh-and-the-overall-25-6-college-degree-gap-for-men/.