Premium Essay

Gender Wage Gap Essay

Submitted By
Words 758
Pages 4
The gender wage gap is a very important topic and has been a concern worldwide for decades. Women have been making less money than men for years, regardless of their educational attainment or experience. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the gender wage gap is “the difference between median earnings of men and women relative to median earnings of men” (OECD, 2015). According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report of 2014, the gender wage gap has barely diminished over the past nine years. The global gender wage gap has decreased by 4% since 2006, with 60% of the gender wage gap closed in 2014. Iceland currently has the most narrow gender wage gap with Finland and Norway in second and third …show more content…
The four categories analyzed were Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. In regards to Economic Participation and Opportunity, 60% of this gap closed by 2014. Fourteen countries, including the U.S. and five European countries, have closed 80% of this gap. Seventeen countries, including 11 Middle East and North African countries, have closed less than 50% of this gap. Thirty four countries are below the world average (World Economic Forum, …show more content…
Thirty-five countries have completely closed this gap. The countries with the largest gap in this sector include Vietnam, China, and Armenia. Nine countries are below the world average for this sector. Finally, in regards to Political Empowerment, 21% of the gap was closed by 2014. Iceland and Finland closed more than 60% of this gap. Thirty-seven countries have only been successful in closing less than 10% of this gap. These include the Middle East, North Africa region, Asia, the Pacific, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Five countries, including Yemen and Lebanon have only closed less than 3% of this gap. Further, ninety-eight countries are below the world average (World Economic Forum,

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Prayer

...d.moore Composition II Professor Research Paper Proposal General Topic: Lack of Money Narrowed Topic: Wage Gap/Working Poor Rationale for Research: My main goal is to inform my audience about the wage gap that lies in the way of moving up the financial latter. The wage gap has been statistically proven to affect many races, genders, and wealth class, yet no one is aware of it. The wage gap has hindered the working poor, whom are looking to move forward. Many times people are aware of this situation, but have no idea whom to see to prevent the repetition of this act. Sources: Article: “The Gender Wage Gap: An Explanation of Men's Elevated Wage Entitlement” is an article on why men have avoided the wage gap or worked through it. Article: “The Working Poor” explains the increasing differentiation of incomes and how the scale of relative poverty has increased. Many people have become poorer relative to more successful groups and fundamentally new opportunities. Book: The Wage Gap, gives various perspectives on controversial issues related to the wage gap gathered in one book of essays. Book: Understanding the gender gap: an economic history of American women, is data from the US Census, city directories and other sources to examine the differences between men and women in the US labor force and to survey the economic history of American women Book: The working poor: invisible in America goes into the lives of the factory workers, the store clerks, those with student...

Words: 356 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Why Women Earn Less Than Men in Oced Countries

...Eloïse Stark Midterm Essay How to explain that women still get lower wages than men in the OECD countries? In western countries since the Second World War, women’s growing participation on the labor market has been one of the most profound transformations not only of the economy but also of society as a whole. Dual income families have become the norm and in a bid for sexual equality, most OECD countries have created laws to protect pay equality for men and women, such as the Equal Pay Act in 1963 in the US, or the article 119 of the EEC treaty. Nonetheless, women continue to earn less than men in all OECD countries. There are different ways of measuring this. Comparing annual or monthly earnings shows the difference between what both sexes “take home”, which is interesting from a sociological perspective. However we shall focus on the “gender pay gap”, defined as the “the relative difference in the average gross hourly earnings of women and men working full time”. This shows the difference between the actual “price” of women and men’s labor, taking into consideration the fact that men work more hours on average. How does the gender gap stand today?  Despite differences between countries the gender pay gap remains a persistent characteristic of OECD labor markets. In 2006, women earned an average of 16% less than men, per hour worked.  … Although we can see a slow but continuous drop over the past few decades in all countries In OECD countries, which are...

Words: 3444 - Pages: 14

Premium Essay

The Gender Pay Gap

...about throughout the decades is the pay gap between men and women. The pay gap began in the past and has continued to be a consistent problem throughout time. The issue of pay equity has been mentioned in multiple speeches in order to sway the public’s opinion on whether or not policy changes need to be made in workplaces across the country. As big as the publicity surrounding the pay gap between men and women is, researchers have found that the gender pay gap is not as wide as some people...

Words: 2008 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Gender Wage Gap Analysis

...protest against unfair and unequal wages as early as 1820. In 1844 women who were mill workers in Lowell Massachusetts created the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association which testified that the work they were doing was dangerous and ended up finally leading to an investigation in worker safety. (Leckie, 1) This was critical because it allowed women to be heard. A step forward for women in the workplace occurred in 1881 when the members of one of the largest and most important labor organizations of the 1880s, the Knights of Labor, voted to finally admit women. This organization stressed equal pay regardless of sex and this was a huge accomplishment. Although the organization did not last long, it helped women immensely by...

Words: 1310 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Becoming The Third Wave Analysis

...How feminists are awful for gender equality Now I know what you're thinking “How dare you talk badly about feminism, you white cis male!” Look i'm not bashing feminism, because the concept of feminism itself is a good concept. Feminism by definition is “the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of political, social, and economic equality to men.” What I will be talking specifically is “third-wave feminism.” (which was coined by Rebecca Walker in her 1992 essay titled “Becoming the Third Wave.)” Now for those of which who do not know what “third-wave feminism” is, allow me to explain what I have gathered and experienced. In my eyes “Third-wave feminism” is like cancer, it spreads and grows and takes over different parts of a fully functioning system and eventually killing it. But in the average “third-wave feminist” eyes, they think that they are helping gender equality by...

Words: 1117 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Should Audits for Pay Gender Be Required of Eeoc

...Should EEOC Audits be required for Gender Pay Equality for Employers with more than 100 Employees? The year 2012 statistics show that full-time employed women earned just 80.9% of the salaries of their male counterparts in the United States. The number for 2011 was 82%. The pay gap is now as wide as it has been since 2005, following on the heels of six years of progress. The figures look even worse for some workers. In management professions, men earn $1,328.00 each week while women earn $951.00– A 71.6% gap, for financial professions, it’s 74% and in legal occupations it is 53.7%, (Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2012). Based on this information, a man would make $100.00 compared with a woman making just $80.90... The financial services employed male would make $100.00 compared to only $74.00 for the female (based on Bureau of Labor Statistics)... Employers are not complying with the current EEOC laws as the pay gap is becoming wider, especially in some professions. The EEOC law should be changed to require them to conduct audits of employers with more than 100 employees, to assure compliance with the law. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was updated in 1963 when congress passed the Equal Pay Act, clearly stating that employers cannot discriminate on the basis of sex by paying wages for equal work less than wages paid to the opposite sex. The problem is that the EEOC who administers the law is a reactive rather than proactive body. They...

Words: 1857 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Gender Inequality

...between nations. While these measures have traditionally focused on social and economic data, recent trends have extended to address other features. One important aspect in this regard is the underlying societal gender discrimination and the diverse outcome for males and females. This is commonly referred to as gender inequality. According to Dorius and Firebaugh (2010), gender inequality is where one gender possesses an excessively large proportion of valued items, such as political influence, wages or good health. Although every region of the world has developed policies and laws to tackle gender inequality, Asia-Pacific has countries with varying social and economic circumstances. This essay will examine gender inequality in two Asia-Pacific states, namely China and Singapore. The essay will consider employment and family-based gender inequality in each nation and assess the similarities and differences between them. Gender inequality has major impacts on nations, in particular on the Asia-Pacific zone. Francisco (2007) delineates various forms of inequality, namely mortality, natality, basic facility, special opportunity, professional, ownership and household forms of inequality. In this field, Jutting, Morrison, Dayton- Johnson and Drechsler (2008) argue that gender equality is vital to promote economic growth, wealth creation and poverty reduction. As an illustration, the Asia-Pacific region foregoes approximately 2-4 percent of GDP per year due to low female workforce participation...

Words: 2523 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Gender Based Wage Gap Analysis

...I think the biggest weakness of my composition one was that my evidences did not focus on my topic very well. My topic was that the gender based wage gap always existed since the WWII and it was difficult to eliminate it completely. However, at first, I gave an example, which was a woman who protected her basic right successful through the Equal Pay Act, which was contrary to my claim. Moreover, I also mentioned the Pregnancy Act in my previous draft, which was out of topic. My strength was that I wrote a lot about the history of gender discrimination in the workplace and I thought realizing the history related to a social problem was the first step to clarify this problem. I think I spent more than twenty-four hours to write my...

Words: 273 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

“to Investigate How the Canadian Capitalistic Structure Exploits Its Workers Today.”

...capitalism is the ‘end-all be-all ‘ social system, but these people are more than likely one of the fortunate few who have benefitted from it. By the fortunate few I mean the bourgeoisie class - the owners of the means of production. They own the capital and the resources (factories, farms, stores) to grow their wealth further, but they need labor to do so. Then there is the proletariat class - the labor. I reference them as the labor because in order to feed their families, they need money, and they have no means to make money other then to sell their labor. It is between these two classes that exploitation occurs. The bourgeoisies offer the lowest wages that the proletariats are willing accept, that way the bourgeoisie consume all the available profit for themselves. This exploitation is prevalent in the Canadian workplace. In this essay, I will investigate how the Canadian capitalistic structure exploits its workers today. The reality of this structure capitalism is there will always be this exploitation from the ruling class (the bourgeoisie), but this will change as the process of proletarianization (more and more member of society become...

Words: 1596 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Gender Inequality

...Concept Map Essay - Gender Inequality Gender inequality has been present in the United States throughout the history of its existence. There are many forms of gender inequality such as occupational segregation or the gender pay gap. Over many years the persistence of these issue has been slightly alleviated. However, even with this alleviation gender inequality is constantly a pressing issue that can be found under the microscope of many sociologists and social science professionals. As well as being a formal and academic issue, many individuals from all walks of life argue over civil rights daily to mitigate these social problems. Equality is something that should be freely allowed to people of all social and cultural groups, gender included. However gender inequality manages to impose on even this most simple ideal. The idea to be unfair or unjust to the opposite sex is not one that we are born with, but the gender roles we are raised within might have influence on our later actions toward one gender or another. From a young age we are given, taught, shown, or influenced to act with a feminine or masculine behavior. Little girls are present with dolls and china sets, while little boys are given trucks and toy soldiers. When entered into the world of athletics young girls are often entered into ballet or gymnastics, on the other hand boys start playing baseball or basketball. It is now becoming more common to see just as many girls racing down soccer fields as boys...

Words: 1265 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Study Guide

...CHAPTER 7 – DEVIANCE, CRIME, AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM MULTIPLE CHOICE 1. Devance- Viewing deviance as a violation of social norms, sociologists have characterized it as "any thought, feeling, or action that members of a social group judge to be a violation of their values or rules "or group" 2. Stimga- stigma refers to the concept of people being 'marked' as different, specifically in a negative manner, based on some characteristic that separates them from the rest of the society. Some are based on inherent characteristic such as mental illness where people cannot change. 3. What is the difference between formal and informal deviance Formal deviance is behqavior that violates laws. Major crimes etc, informal is behavior that disregards accepted social norms like picking ones nose 4. What are the major sources of crime statistics? FBI’s uniform Crime report(UCR) and victimization surveys 5. Crime differs from deviance because- with a crime comes punishment 6. What are the shortcoming of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR)? The data doesn’t offer accurate measures on the extent of “crime” 7. What are examples of victimless crimes include Acts that violate laws but involve individuals who don’t consider themselves victems, offenses that are the least likely to be reported 8. Sanctions are rewards or punishments for obeying or violating a norm 9. ____functionalist/ strain theory___ believe that crime occurs when people experience blocked...

Words: 817 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Pay Discrimination

...seen with women in this age bracket now reported by official government statics provided by ONS (the Office for national Statistics), to be earning 1.7 percent more than men of the same age in full time work. The article also covers the issues of underpaying to the young, paying under the minimum wage and the issue of female pay discrimination within other age groups. The article is written by the independents economic editor Sean O’Grady and was published on the 9th of December 2010. It has been more than forty years since the order for equal pay and this year is the first time women in any age category have been shown to earn more than men. In the article is suggests that the reason for this is the recent rise in women graduating from university. It then goes on to say that the overall difference in pay is down 2% on 2009 to just over 10%, this is still a very sizable gap but little compared to the recorded 36.5% in 1971. So why has the gap shrunk? Why is there still a large difference despite laws being in place to tackle the difference for 40 years? In this essay I hope to go into depth about these issues alongside others raised in the article such as paying under the minimum wage. It is widely known that women in full time jobs are often held back by having a family. They can be discriminated against and not given a fair chance when applying for a job because of them potentially leaving to have children. They can also find themselves being demoted when they come back from...

Words: 815 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Gender Inquality

...How gender is related to disadvantage in the UK Introduction Gender is the socially ascribed and constituted version of what is thought of as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’, and the relations between (Olsen et al, 1990). From time in memorial gender inequality has been a prevalence social hitch and has largely been practiced towards women around the world effecting different aspects of their life. The aim of this essay is to discuss how gender inequalities have evolved in recent decades in the UK. To achieve this, I will commence by presenting a historical insight into gender inequality, identifying the roles and expectations of women and men in society during this period. I will then identify the different forms of inequalities experienced by the genders and how these inequalities have evolved in recent times. In order to fully understand the extent of these inequalities I will discuss the sociological perspectives on the social problem, looking at the works of earlier sociologists and Marxist scholars Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels. I will then identify the policies implemented by the UK government to eradicate all sort of disadvantages associated gender from society and its effectiveness in abolishing the social problem. Finally I will conclude by identifying the benefits and possible boundaries of the UK government’s policies that have been developed to fully eliminate gender disparities from society. For far too long, women have tolerated unfairness at the hands of male...

Words: 3115 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

30 Mark Paper- Sociology

...Social Inequality essay plans for Part b) 30 mark question Evaluate the usefulness of sociological explanations of ethnic inequalities.(30) Evaluate the view that society is institutionally racist (30) Adapt according to question given Introduction Ethnic inequalities are still significant in the UK – give a few examples. Suggest some explanations e.g Racism, Institutional racism, social class of ethnic minorities (Marxism), welfare dependency (New Right). This essay will identify and assess these explanations. AO1 Define types of Racism e.g Barker and new racism, institutional racism – McPhearson report on murder of stephen lawrence – racism in met police. Jenkins suggests recruitment to jobs is more word of mouth and disadvantages ethnic minorities. Modood 1994 28% of african caribbean people surveyed said they felt they had been refused a job on grounds of race. AO2 There are many government acts such as Race relations acts which should prevent discrimination AO2 However because racism is implicit (hidden) now it can be difficult to prove in court. AO1 Marxists such as Westergaard and Resler argue that race is a distraction from the real issue which is social class. It is capitalism which disadvantages certain groups and ethnic minorities are more likely to be in lower classes. AO2 However this ignores the existence of racism in society e.g in education where black boys have the highest exclusion rates in school. AO1 Another marxist explanation by Castles...

Words: 5292 - Pages: 22

Premium Essay

Prose

...In: English and Literature Tess of the D'Urbervilles Male Dominance Male Dominance in Tess of the D’urbervilles The Victorian era, as described by Professor of History and Women's & Gender Studies Nancy Reagin in her essay “Victorian Women: the Gender of Oppression”, witnessed the ideology of separate spheres in which society viewed men as independent and reasonable while viewing women as passive, dependent on men, emotional, and submissive. Men were given the governing role in which they would dominate society due to their ability to make rational decisions while women were expected to unquestionably fill the social roles that men decided for them, and those roles usually revolved around a woman’s duties as a mother and a wife. In marriage, a woman was expected to abide by the orders and views of her husband, and man and wife became one in terms of a woman’s rights, property, and identity. In Tess of the D’urbervilles, a book written in the Victorian Era, Hardy conveys this ideology of separate spheres in his portrayal of men and their dominance over women in society, primarily Tess. Their dominance is shown in how the men act as the masters of society, but it is also seen in how the women in Tess unquestionably view the men as the dominant gender. Often, the women are blindly influenced and act passively when interacting with male characters such as Alec and Angel. They are also seen to be very dependent on the men, and the men acknowledge that, for that is expected of...

Words: 671 - Pages: 3