Men and women have been valued differently since time began. However, history should not stand to validate that difference. Men and women should both be equally valued and prosperous.
The value and prosperity is where women fall behind as the struggle to break free of the prescribed gender role continues.
Women now are more educated than they have ever been. They take advantage of more educational opportunities and they have taken the workforce by storm. What then, stimulates the continuous difference in status? The gender roles.
“Women In America”, a report detailing the roles women in society and their respective statistics, explains that while women are actively pursuing a higher education, they are still being directed into the same areas.
Humanities and Liberal Arts subjects are among the top fields for women to enter into while the number of female scientists, physicians and CEO’s remains low.
Valerie Jarrett, the chief of council on Women and Girls and Christina Tchen, chief of staff to the first lady both write in the report:
“Women have made progress on some fronts. Yet, these gains in education and labor force involvement have not yet translated into wage and income equity. At all levels of education, women earned about 75 percent of what their male counterparts earned in 2009. In part because of these lower earnings and in part because unmarried and divorced women are the most likely to have responsibility for raising and supporting their children, women are more likely to be in poverty than men.”
Is this what is meant by equality? It may not seem like a big difference to some, but when raising a family on one salary 25 percent makes quite the difference.
Therein lays one of the problems. Women are entering the workforce with degrees and being paid 25 percent less yet they are still expected to take care of children and maintain a household. Women are still held responsible for roles thrust upon them by a deeply patriarchal society.
Fewer women are getting married now, according to “Women In America” and so fewer families have a double income. If a woman has a child and is not married or there is a divorce, the child is generally placed with the mother leaving her to support that child on a salary that is 25 percent less than what her male counterpart would make. How is that, in any way, just?
This report, “Women In America,” brought together data from a study done in 2009 that explains how women are not as prosperous as men. So, the answer to the question is simple.
No, there is not an equal footing among the sexes because there is still that gap in pay and a lack of support. There cannot be an equal footing with gaps in expectations. Women have no problem working to earn society’s acceptance even though they should not have to.
It took until 1920 to get the right for women to vote and it took until 2009, when Barack Obama was elected president, for a law to be passed demanding equal pay for equal work.
The Lilly Ledbetter Act was signed by Obama in 2009 to allow women the right to sue their employers when they found out about the difference in pay among their male colleagues.
This does not protect women entirely though. It gives them better protection and the right to sue their employer but it does not denote equality. Women should not have to sue for correct wages.
Women should not have to constantly ask to be paid fairly. They have endured the same rigorous training and education that men have and should be valued equally.
Paying women less will not force them back into their previously prescribed roles of the housewife. If anything, it will enrage them to the point of a social revolution that will demand their rights be recognized. Equal pay is a right, not a privilege and this should be remembered.
