Gender Gap Existence in America
Introduction
The gender gap refers to the opportunities differences between men and women as reflected in economic, political, cultural, social, and intellectual attainments. Gender gap has attracted endless debates by researchers, with many affirming that the social issue still exists in America (Mandel & Moshe Semyonov 1600). The problem about gender wage gap has been present in America since women starting having careers and getting jobs. Although the gender gap was purely an issue pertaining prejudice and discrimination by social stereotypes, now it has turned to be a more complex issue than that. Today, the issue has evolved into a complicated challenge that combines the American culture with business economics. Due to this, some researchers have become highly skeptical of the issue while others remain adamant in their beliefs.
The gender gap entails not only gender stereotypes but also government, educational, and business best policies practices. In this perspective, most researchers affirm that gender gap is still evidenced in America today, arguing that women are exposed to fewer opportunities in STEM-related fields and earn less income than men irrespective of qualifications, skills, expertise, and experience (Blau and Lawrence 21). Contrastingly, other sociology researchers postulate that the issue of gender gap in America is a myth given the more time, complexity of job, and high-stress advancements pursed by men in the workplace in comparison to women. The aim of this research paper is finding out whether the problem of gender gap exists today, and if it exist finding out the solutions to fixing the problem. Also, the research paper will determine the factors that make researchers affirm that the gender gap issue exists in America today.
The Gender Gap Existence
The gender gap is a major social problem that has been affecting women, especially the wage aspect. In the U.S., the gender wage gap started long time ago, and this prompted President Kennedy’s administration to initiate the Equal Pay Act to defend women rights. Nevertheless, research by Cha, Youngjoo, & Kim (480) shows that men significantly out-earn women at every point in the wage distribution. Despite the U.S. government’s continued initiatives to curb wage gap issue by the Equal Pay Act and other lobby women associations, the problem is still evidenced today in a variety of forms. For example, gender discrimination in the workplace when it comes to recruitment, pay increment, occupational segregation, and sexual harassment among many other forms in which women’s position in the workplace get undervalued. The following are the ways in which gender gap challenges are experienced by women in the U.S. today.
Education Gap and Glass Ceiling
According to (Blau and Lawrence 20), specialists in issues about women rights, most businesses hide behind the “she did not ask for more” maxim. Their argument is a good example of how businesses continue to take advantage of ladies for their knowledge and skills. Sad enough, most U.S. based businesses continue to get away with such an injustice. In Forbes.com, 70 percent of college majors chosen by women in the U.S. are Arts related. Since their childhood, women get encouraged to become nurses, psychologists, and teachers. Contrastingly, men are always advised to become engineers, doctors, and other scientific related careers (Cha & Kim 102). However, assertiveness defines everything in the business world for the top-most positions are secured by the most assertive people. For the women, this is a huge challenge. Assertive women in the workplace get stereotyped as rude, pushy, and disrespectful; this makes its challenging for them to acquire top ranks of the corporation. At the same time, if women are not assertive in the workplace, they get viewed as non-committal to the job they do.
Employer Bias
According to (Cha & Kim 100), increased bias by employers on sex is another blame for the continued wage gap in the workplace. Employer bias contributes to devaluing women’s contributions in the workplace thus offering them a disproportionate pay. Recent studies by (Cha & Kim 460) indicates that even when women and men possess similar qualifications, education, and work experience levels- on average women get paid less. Despite the imagination that this gap will be bridged, and despite federal law’s requirement than women and men get paid equally for work done, sociological researchers found that men get 5.4 percent more in basic salary when compared to female counterparts, and 7.4 percent more in average pay. As noted by (Mandel & Moshe Semyonov 1610), the pay discrepancy results from extensive prejudice against women in the places of work, as well as undervaluation of women’s ideas at work. Fixing employer bias has been difficult. Negatively rooted stereotypes by most American employers on women abilities is the major root of gender discrimination, and this provokes social issues such as occupational segregation, salary disparity, and lesser leadership opportunities.
Negotiation Issues
In endeavors to bridge the gender gap, women are required to take more responsibility of negotiating with the government and employers for what they what. In the U.S., the Senate is composed of more men than women, something which makes it difficult for women to present their grievances convincingly. Recent research by Blau, shows that women has less opportunities and power to negotiate their rights than men. This lack of assertiveness and confidence is subject to blame too. However, as postulated by Desposato, Scott, & Barbara Norrander, the gender gap issue may be more related with the manner in which women get treated in negotiating job salaries, rather than their skills and confidence employed at negotiation. For instance, women find it socially awkward negotiating for their higher pay than men. However, this hesitation may be expensive: a study done in 2008 in the U.S. by Harvard Business School revealed that failure to negotiate for better pay by women when joining jobs contributes to at least $500,000 loss before they reach the age of sixty. This is a sure evidence that gender gap still exists in the U.S. today.
Solutions to Fixing the Gender Gap Issue
Recent research by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) revealed that the problem of gender pay gap continues to go strong. In America, women are currently taking home only 82.9 cents in every dollar taken home by men, and the various is worst for the minorities. The following are the actions that the government, society, and businesses should implement in order to eliminate this issue.
Implement Pay Transparency
The U.S. government has the power to introduce pay transparency regulations. Pay transparency allows colleagues to know what others earn, this enables women find out whether they get paid less than their men counterparts. For example, when Sony hack indicated a gender salary gap among the actors, the management took the initiative to resolve the $10 million pay discrepancy (Blau and Lawrence 106). Naturally, people want to get treated equitably and fairly. With equity and fairness, the gender gap issue becomes self-correcting. Some U.S. based companies such as Walmart and SumAll have started implementing this strategy so as to eliminate the gender pay gap.
Eliminate Negotiation
Second, elimination of negotiation by employers will help in countering the gender pay gap in the society. Studies reveal that men are more assertive than women when it comes to negotiations. In most instances, women altogether avoid negotiation, and always accept the offer presented to them by their prospective employers in the initial stages (Blau and Lawrence 110). Sad enough, most women argue that they fear being hated and considered as disrespectful by the employers in case they negotiate for higher salaries in the workplace. Culturally, women are expected to respect men, and this contributes to their fear. Eliminating these negotiation opportunities by government, employers, and businesses would assist in resolving the gender gap issue.
Making sex equality part of education and training
The education and training of employees is another surest method of limiting the gender gap issue in the American society. The youth (both male and female) need to get adequate support while choosing jobs and careers that are future-focused and promising. Currently, the society continues to advise women to take Arts related courses such as Education and nursing while encouraging boys to undertake mathematics and science related courses, this is gender bias (Blau and Lawrence 798). However, gender equity must be made mandatory in education and training of people. Both male and female gender deserves an equal right to access education and training in order to growth professionally.
Avoid Limiting Talent Pool
Most U.S. based companies are limiting talent pool by hiring more men as compared to the women considered in job posts. In order to eliminate this continued gender gap issue in the economy, the U.S. based companies need to embrace the 50-5- percent gender rule in their workforce all the way from junior staff to the executive positions (Blau and Lawrence 800). Also, providing fair practical support such as training on new skills to both sexes helps improve talent pool. Gender diversity in terms of sex composition is a perfect strategy towards countering the gender gap and diversity issues in the workplace.
Conclusion
To conclude, the gender gap issue still exists in the current American economy. Women are still undervalued in the society in terms of job pay, education, careers, job promotion, and skills training. Today, most U.S. based employers have sexual bias against women’s position and ability to perform equally to their male counterparts in the workplace. Glass ceiling continues to persist, with women securing only fewer top leadership positions in the workplace as compared to men. Education wise, men are still being encouraged to pursue the most promising careers unlike their women counterparts who continue to pursue arts related and psychology careers. In the government, women are less-significantly represented in the Senate as compared to men. It is the responsibility of the government in partnership with employers and businesses to initiate equal payment policies that encourage gender equality and fairness. Also, embracing gender diversity in the place of work, elimination of negotiation, and the avoiding of limiting talent pool would help in the elimination of the gender gap issue in America.
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