...The article “Gender, Pay and Work Satisfaction at a UK University” by Maria Smith is an exhaustive quantitative study of a particular state employer. The paper analyzes the facts and figures on salary and examines results from a staff satisfaction survey held at a UK University (University A) and discusses the ‘paradox of the contended female worker’. This paradox states that although women earn less than men, their satisfaction with the payment seems to be higher than in the men’s case – despite of disadvantages such as job security and content, promotion opportunities and sexual harassment (Crosby, 1982). Also, the author explains that these gaps vary from institution to institution. The purpose of the article is to contribute to the small amount of the existing job satisfaction research for men and women working at higher education institutions. The study described in the paper focuses on the satisfaction levels of two groups of University A staff – the administrative and academic teaching staff. Despite all efforts in the past, gender pay gap has persisted to the present time and takes place even at higher education institutions in the UK, where a clear agenda on pay equality, as negotiated by various organizations and unions, should exist (Smith, 2008, p. 622). Still, studies show the existence of pay gaps between genders and conclude that women have less promotion opportunities and a lower chance to earn as much as their equally ranked male colleagues (Blackaby et al...
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...Introduction “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes flex time and a baby carriage.” Said by a supervisor at Novartis who refused to hire women (Carter 2010) Traditionally, the work done by women is often assumed to be less important than the work performed by their male counterparts. This statement continue to plague women in all societies today, as theorist like Murdock believe, given the biological differences between men and women a sexual division of labour is the most efficient way of organising society (Haralambos & Holborn, 2008). This is one way in which the mainstream theorist sought to justify the invisibility of women and assigned roles based on the sex of the individuals. Women has always been viewed or defined by the role she is assigned by society, for which I consider to be socially constructed. However, the role women played in the home is domesticated in the role of homemaker and caregiver, thus, when we examine women’s work, we primarily think of the work that women do at home, their unpaid domestic labour. The old adage ‘women’s work is never done’ speaks to the various household tasks for which women are assumed to take overall responsibility. Many theorist used the biological theory as to heighten why women is best suited for some jobs rather than others. In reality we know that not all women are capable of assuming the role of the caring, nurturing and domesticated type, just as not all male are able to display a rough, tough and superior...
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...'Despite gender equality on the rise, are men and women equal in the workplace?' Introduction “The human race is a bird and it needs both its wings to be able to fly. And, at the moment, one of its wings is clipped we’re never going to be able to fly as high.” Although the number of sex discrimination claims have dropped by 41% from 18,300 in 2010/11 to 10,800 in 2011/12, it continues to be the most frequent type of discrimination claim received by tribunals. Gender equality is a known problem within the UK as organisations and the UK as a whole do not view men and women with equal value and therefore have unequal treatment. Whilst employers should enforce policies that are designed to prevent sex discrimination in recruitment and selection, pay, training, promotions, discipline and grievances, this is not always the case. Although women within work is on the rise as in 2013 the female employment rate reached 67.2, which is the highest it has ever been since Office for National Statistics’ records began, the median weekly earnings for women fell from £413 to £411. This means the gender pay gap has now risen from £89 to £97 pounds a week as weekly earnings for men rose from £502 to £508. With this in mind, I am proposing to argue the fact that women are still not treated equally to men within organisations in the UK based on my three chosen chapters that are ‘The History of Women and their Rights’, ‘Gender Equality Governmental Laws and Gender Pay’ and ‘Influential Women’...
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...Factors Contributing To Pay Gaps in Australia Name: Institutional Affiliation: Introduction Factors that contribute to the pay gap in Australia and why the difference is more significant in some industry sectors than others. The labor market is composed participants who are basically men and women. The rewards of the labor market are wages. The concept of wages is complex and has to be considered critically by employers. One of the greatest concerns in the labor market has been the disparities in the mean income between men and women. Differences between wages received by participants in the labor market is measured by the gender pay gap. The differences arises due to various aspects that differ from one organization to the next (Cohen 2007). In Australia for example, the wages pay gap is computed on the basis of full-time weekly earnings excluding overtime and salary sacrificed pay. Currently, the wage pay gap in Australia stands at 17.5%. The gap has been fluctuating with small margins but the figure has remained unchanged overtime. Differences in income levels of men and women are, for this reason, an important economic and industrial aspect worth consideration. In order to address the disparities in the pay gaps, it is important to examine the possible reasons as to the existence of remuneration differences between men and women. Why does the difference exist? Well, the answer to such a query is often critical and complex. However, the real explanation is the fact...
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...society may believe that we live in a world of gender equality. A belief that is in fact idealistic. Gender inequality stems from deep rooted cultural ideologies. The enculturation process plays a role in learning gendered norms. Gender roles ascribed to men and women have affect in our society. Social inequalities affect many women in different walks of life. It can be seen in the type of work women obtain and which accounts for the gender wage gap. Gender inequality can also be seen at the educational level. Even though there is gender inequality all around us we we can all strive for gender equality by diminishing the causes of gender inequality. Lets take a step back and analyze what gender inequality truly...
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...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...
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...especially with the formation of capitalism. In the last half of the 20th century this has been especially highlighted due to the increase of woman entering the labor market. This aroused the need for legislation for equal opportunity for both sex's to be passed in 1975. It stated that discrimination of a person's sex whether male or female was unlawful in employment, union membership, education, provision of goods, services, advertisements. Many people believe that men have advantages over women when comes to a topic such as occupation. Although this may be true, in some cases it is in fact exactly the opposite. In today’s society is so concerned with political correctness and equal rights to women that it has almost completely forgotten about equal rights to men. If, in a hypothetical example, a man and a woman go into the same job interview for a company that was involved in a sexual harassment suit with a female employee some years before, and has since had trouble keeping its female employees, there is a very good chance that the woman applicant will get the job, even if the man may be more prepared for the job that the women is. Woman hold a large percentage of the work force in companies but hardly any seems to...
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...proposed here asserts that equality of opportunity of women and men is more likely to be achieved if both genders embrace the changes now occurring in communication and information use with similar vigour. This term paper seeks to highlight on the concept of gender discrimination, even as sundry instances of the persistent issue is well sustained. The argument proposed here provides an anecdotal rather than theoretical overview of the way in which the use of information technology has come to dominate modern decision making in a variety of contexts. The dimension of women disparity and the need to correct such inequality is elaborated. Finally, the areas of applications of information technology in curbing gender differences and the probable outcome of such applications is well addressed. INTRODUCTION Women are key to the development challenge. Throughout the developing world, women are at a disadvantage at the household, community, and societal levels. Within the household, women have less access to and control over resources and limited influence over household decisions. Beyond the household, women have limited access to communal resources, are under-represented in public decision-making bodies; have limited bargaining power in markets (such as the labour market), and often lack opportunities to improve their socioeconomic position. Therefore, efforts to reduce gender inequality are required on multiple fronts. However, the feminization of poverty is not so much about more...
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...issue since the 1960’s, pay inequality based on gender still seems to an issue running rampant in today’s business world. While many people believe that equal pay is a must for men and women, there are many reasons why bridging the pay gap would hurt the economy, thus actually reeking more havoc than gender pay inequality ever has. Pay inequality is a major issue for many that remains in the forefront of the news. Pay inequality, otherwise known as the pay gap was brought to light in 1963 when the Equal Pay Act of 1963 labor law was amended to abolish wage disparity based on sex (“The Equal Pay Act: Equal Pay for Women”). While this amended law...
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...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...
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...Daniel Harris 5/04/12 Community Report Theories on Wage Discrimination and Occupational Segregation Substantial research has been conducted proving that occupational segregation and wage discrimination still exist in today's society. Despite recent gains by women and minorities in the field of employment, other factors aside (such as skills, qualifications and education) women and minorities still fall behind men when considering pay and occupational choices. The consequences of such actions are that women are often concentrated in clerical and service jobs which overall result in less pay and opportunities for advancement. Blau, Ferber and Winkler (2001) point out that even though an almost equivalent number of men and women work in professional positions, men are still more likely to be concentrated in lucrative professions including law, medicine and engineering, whereas women are segregated into lower paying positions including teaching and nursing (p. 211). Several different theories lend credence and explanation to occupational segregation and wage discrimination forces. Some are more supply sided in nature while others depend more on institutionalized practices. Human and capital theory for example suggest that women generally anticipate "shorter and less continuous work lives than men" and are generally paid lower at the outset, thus have lower wage penalties for taking time off from work (Blau, Ferber and Winkler, 2001:213). The studies that will...
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...would take time and change within the Government. There is not an established date or time for it to occur. It is a work in progress that has to be approached carefully. No one lives to work we all work to live in hopes of building a free community for our families. Both women and men work hard each day to make ends meet financially. Women are not worthy of the pay that men may receive for working the same amount...
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...Linkages Between Gender, Development, and Growth: Implications for the Caribbean Region Stephanie Seguino Professor, Department of Economics Old Mill 340 University of Vermont Burlington, VT 05401 Tel. 1 802 656-0187 Fax 1 802 656-8405 Email sseguino@zoo.uvm.edu July 2008 Acknowledgements: I am grateful for helpful comments and insights from Rhoda Reddock, Christine Barrow, Caren Grown, three anonymous referees, and participants at the Building Capacity for Gender Analysis in Policy Making, Programme Development, and Implementation: Research Seminar and Workshop, University of West Indies, Barbados, November 2007. Micro-Macro Linkages Between Gender, Development, and Growth: Implications for the Caribbean Region Abstract Over the last two decades, scholars have investigated the two-way relationship between gender inequality on the one hand, and economic development and growth on the other. Research in this area offers new ways to address the economic stagnation and crisis developing countries have experienced over the last two decades. This paper contributes to that literature, exploring the channels by which gender inequality affects, and in important ways, constrains economic development and growth in the Caribbean region. It further explores the endogeneity of gender inequality to the macroeconomic policy environment. The paper concludes with a discussion of economic policies that can promote a win-win outcome—greater gender equality and economic...
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...12:06 Page 1 WOMEN, GENDER AND WORK People are not defined solely by their work, nor is it possible to ignore the effects of factors outside the workplace on a person's status at work. To seek equality at work without seeking equality in the larger society – and at home – is illusory.Thus an examination of the issues surrounding women, gender and work must be holistic. That means considering the role of productive work in life as a whole and the distribution of unpaid work as well as the myriad questions relating to employment. This important anthology brings together the thinking of leading philosophers, economists and lawyers on this complex subject. Selected recent articles from the multidisciplinary International Labour Review are assembled for the first time to illuminate questions such as how we should define equality, what equal opportunity means and what statistics tell us about differences between men and women at work, how the family confronts globalization and what is the role of law in achieving equality. There is an examination of policy – to deal with sexual harassment and wage inequality, for example, as well as part-time work, the glass ceiling, social security, and much more. A major reference on the best of current research and analysis on gender roles and work. Martha Fetherolf Loutfi has been Editor-in-Chief of the International Labour Review, a Senior Economist for the Brandt Commission and in the ILO’s Employment and Development...
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...will discuss and analyze whether the flexibility of labour markets and the elite orientated education in liberal market economies, found in the UK and the US are the only reasons for higher degrees of inequality, compared to coordinated market economies. In order to understand the labour markets of liberal market economies and coordinated market economies, they must be defined in terms of their differences, which can affect the flexibility of their labour markets. Furthermore, it is important to note that there are numerous inequalities which may emerge in this analysis. Namely, gender inequality, class inequality, and wage inequality as well as some other perspectives will be examined. The aim of this paper is recognize which inequalities are more prominent in either liberal market economies or coordinated market economies, in relation to the flexibility of relevant labour market. Drawing on the work of Polanyi (1994), Esteves-Abe et al. (2001) suggest that market failures in economies can be avoided depending on the type and the extent of the social protection offered from national institutions. Liberal market economies, such as the US and UK, have an institutional framework which accents “general competences and skills”, deregulated labour markets within which management is largely in control, a short-term profitability corporate governance structure, and a market which is competitive in transfers of technology (Soskice, 2005:171). In contrast, in coordinated market economies...
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