The Gender Wage Gap Still Exists
Uploaded by sls465 on Apr 18, 2007
The Gender Wage Gap Still Exists
Wages in the work place are equal, right? This is the year 2002. We’ve come a long way past the negative stereotypes of June Clever. Women are just as proficient as men. Several pieces of legislation have been enacted in an attempt to solve the problem of gender-based wage inequality. Then why do we still have the difference in wages? The answer is clear. Gender-based inequality still exists in the American work place.
The glass ceiling is an expression used to clarify the “invisible barrier” that limits advancement in the course of a number of women’s careers. There is documentation which states that women deal with challenges in their career that men will never face. Some of these challenges that women deal with are negative female stereotypes, increased visibility due to being a minority, exclusion from formal mentoring structures and negative valuation in management/leadership roles (Monks and Barker).
The glass ceiling phenomenon lists three models: the human capital model, the ruling elite model, and the developmental model (Daley). The human capital model describes results in relation to individual distinctiveness. When the ratio of women to men in the labor force is observed, the actual number of women in executive titles is lacking due to the lack of expertise, experience, skill and the decisions they have chosen. The ruling elite model suggests that women are not as successful in their careers due to the views of society. Female characteristics and negative stereotypes have hindered women and forced them to choose traditional careers or not allow them to hold supervisory titles. The developmental model views the glass ceiling as a short-term hindrance that training and development will solve. This model fails to acknowledge contributing factors of discrimination and the negative view of society (Daley).
President Kennedy passed the Equal Pay Act into a law in 1963. The Equal Pay Act forbids discrimination on the basis of sex in the payment of wages or benefits where men and women perform equal or substantially equal work of similar skill, effort, and responsibility for the same employer under similar working conditions. Employers may not reduce wages of another employee to equalize the wage. The Equal Pay Act addresses no more than the topic of gender-based wage discrimination. A policy targeted to deteriorate gender discrimination, Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, broadens the standard for...