Gender Inequality in the Workplace
For many years, women have fought to get equality with men. While there have been many great advances, there is a lot left to be desired. One of the biggest problem areas, is the workplace. According to the American Association of University Women, a woman will earn only about 79 cents to a man’s dollar for doing the same job. Also, there are many job fields dominated by men, mostly technology and engineering. Gender pay inequality and job field domination are both big problems in our society that without a doubt, need to be dealt with.
In the article, “My Reality: Gender Inequality in the Workplace”, on Gender Focus, Kristen Bright talks about her experience with gender inequality; one of the many important problems quite present in our society that have to be taken care of. It is very common for this type of inequality to occur in a work environment, as it was in the case of Kristen Bright. After a long search, Ms. Bright finally found her dream job. When she arrived, the very first thing she noticed was that there were almost no other women in the office, forcing her into an uncomfortable situation where she focused mostly on her gender and not on her work. She spent lots of time wondering if she only got the job because she was a woman and the company needed to fill a quota, or if the other women were in a meeting. Within a few of days. she met all the people she would be working closely with. This group was about 50 to 60 people, and out of that, there were only six women including herself. The longer she stayed at the job she says “the more I started to realize how much the technology industry is dominated by men” (Bright). She also noticed that she was almost always assigned to work with the female clients. She did not mind this, but thought was a little odd, becasue she was perfectly capable of working with the male clients just as well as her male co-workers. In addition, she also noticed that her male counterparts were receiving fairly routine raises of greater amount than the raises the women in the office were given. They were also able to get said raises with more ease than the women. She stayed there for a long time even though she felt so miserable there, but after three years she gave into her dissatisfaction and quit in order to find a more gender neutral job. Ms. Bright is not the only woman to have experienced this depressing reality. In fact many women are currently experiencing this discomfort and distress, and that is something that we, as a society, need to change.
The Women Are Getting Even (WAGE) Project, is a charitable organization that has one purpose: “to end discrimination against women in the American workplace”. The people working with WAGE inspire and help women take the nessecary steps to get equal pay. They are able to do this through workshops, which they have two varieties of: $tart $mart and Work $mart. Women can come in for two or three hours and learn about how to tell if she is being paid a reasonable amount for the job she is doing, and if she is not, she learns how to negotiate with her employer about the matter. The main difference between the $tart $mart and Work $mart workshops, is that $tart $mart is more geared towards women who are in college or have recently graduated, and Work $mart is more for women who already have work experience. Although they are both meant for a certain audience, neither of them are exclusive. The details about them are unknown at the moment, but they have two additional types of workshops coming soon called Trade $mart and Return $mart. Both $tart $mart and Work $mart workshops are held all over the United States, and it is likely that it will be the same for Trade $mart and Return $mart. This allows for almost any woman in the US to have access to the tools and skills taught at a WAGE workshop, which is one of the ways you can help to reduce the wage gap. Along with attending a WAGE workshop, you can help with pay inequality by donating to the organization. WAGE is working as hard as they can to empower and teach women of all ages to stand up for themselves in regards to their pay.
Gender inequality is a very common problem in our society, and it is especially present in the workplace. Two parts of gender inequality in the workplace are pay inequality and job field domination. There are many people out there struggling with these problems, but there are also organizations out there, trying their best to solve them. For most organizations, you can do more than just hope that they are going to solve the problems. You can donate to their cause or you can become informed about the issue. So, even though there are problems in our society, there are good people who you can join to solve these issues.
Works Cited
"The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap." American Association of University Women. N.p., n.d. Web. 3
Mar. 2016. <http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/>.
"My Reality: Gender Inequality in the Workplace." Gender Focus. N.p., n.d. Web.11 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.gender-focus.com/2013/04/18/my-reality-gender-inequality-in-the-workplace/>.
"What Is a $tart$mart Workshop." WAGE. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.wageproject.org/files/WhatIs$tart$martWorkshop.php>.
"What Is WAGE?" Women Are Getting Even. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2016
<http://www.wageproject.org/files/wage.php>.