The Problem
For hundreds of years, women have been treated as inferior to men. This hasn’t always been the case though. In the times of hunter-gathers, all people were valued, integral parts of the community. In ancient Egypt, gender didn’t dictate any social status. (O’Brien) In modern times, however, women have been mistreated, disadvantaged, and abused, and had little to no consequences for doing so. Women are seen by some as having less inherent value than men. That mentality justifies a difference in pay between them. Instead, some believe every person, whether woman, man, or enby, should be valued equally, and should be paid equally for equivalent labor. Today, all around the world systemic problems face women, for example, for every eighty-nine cents made by a woman, one dollar is made by a man doing the same labor. (O’Brien)
Not only are women paid less, but they are sometimes unable to work high-paying jobs because societal norms force them to spend their time and energy running their households. They are expected to care for children, do cleaning and cook meals. This labor is unpaid, which means they often become financially dependent on their partner. Men in power have disenfranchised women for centuries, restricting them from owning land, voting, writing, being educated, or having high-ranking positions in society. (O’Brien)
Restricting women’s ability to earn their own money reduces the agency they have. If people are worried about earning enough to eat, they won’t take a day off work to march in a rally. Religious institutions have sought to sequester women, and force rigid, obedient, roles onto them, all done in the name of a higher power. These pretenses are used to justify cruel and unjust actions taken against women.
Governments use laws and policing to withhold self-agency from women, LGBTQIA+ people, and people of color, including indigenous people. Without the right to vote, their voices on political leaders are silenced, and they aren’t taken into account. Issues they value, like equal pay for all, aren’t addressed. People have taken stands against the system, but in trying to bring awareness to these issues plaguing women around the world, and speaking out against them, and the people responsible for their proliferation, many throughout history have suffered and been killed. (O’Brien)
Women endure hate-filled, ignorant, sexist, bigoted, crude, and dehumanizing remarks regularly. (O’Brien) One of the most common places for these interactions is in workplace settings. This awful treatment drives women out of the workforce, or into worse, lower-paying positions to get away from the people who mistreat them.
How do we reduce the impacts of issues like pay inequality?
One way to reduce these issues' impacts is by speaking out against inequality and raising awareness about the systemic issues women face simply for existing as they are. By addressing problems such as the wage gap, and calling on leaders to change policies. (O’Brien) Social media has become a home for discourse surrounding these topics. It is important to recognize the part we play within the system, and the power we hold to shape it.
Throughout the years, thousands of civil activists and feminists have rallied and written for their cause. They confront firmly instantiated institutions and beliefs. We can follow in their footsteps and march, picket truths clenched high. (O’Brien) Going on strike from businesses with unfair and unequal hiring, firing, or payment practices. By celebrating the achievements and lives of women, and voting for female leaders. (O’Brien) As a society, we should value everyone regardless of their gender, race, or other attributes. Everyone should respect, and be respected. It is irrational and unfair to pay someone less just for having a different body when it has no bearing on the work they do. It is selfish and cruel to force women to participate in unpaid domestic service, or to restrict their access to voting, ownership, and education. As a connected and intelligent culture, we should be able to solve these humanitarian issues. Regardless of who we are, these issues are our issues, for we are engaged in the anthropocene.
Do you think women should be paid the same?
Should women and men be paid equally?
Works Cited
O'Brien, Cynthia. Working toward Gaining Equality for Women. Crabtree Publishing
Company, 2021.
Imani, Blair, and Monique Le. Modern Herstory: Stories of Women and Nonbinary People
Rewriting History. Ten Speed Press, 2018.
Replies
I think women shoud be paid the same. There are men that can't do things a women can. It goes both ways. Obviously it depends on how they do the job what job they are doing or how long they have been working.
I agree with you but if a man and a woman start a job at the same time and have the same skill set then they should be paid the same.
I think women should be paid the same if not more than men. Women have been working haed for years, some years with no pay at all. We have been struggling to get equal right for the longest time. At the least we should be paid the same as men for all that we have done.
I agree that women and men should be paid the same but if you're doing the same work with the same hours you should get paid the same if women start getting paid more like men do that defeats the purpose of equality.
I think that men and women do get paid pretty much the same. I think that if you do as good a job than you 100% should. I think that people focus to much on the numbers rather than the percent of the money coming out. For example in mens soccer the women get a 40% cut of the earnings and men get around 5%. It is just more because they are part of a watermelon not a grape. I think that people should not worrie about the numbers and work hard.
I think that a man and a woman should be paid equally. I only thnink they should if they are both doing a good job. if a man does a job better than a woman, he should get paid more. I don't think it should be determined by gender. Instead, they should pay people by how well/hard they work.
I think that if they are both doing the job at the same quality in the same amount of time, then they should be paid the same. However, if the woman is doing the job at a slower rate of speed or at a lower quality, they should be paid less. It is all relative to the quality of work and rate of speed.
it depends slower does not always mean worse someone who is slower may have better quality basing pay on how quickly you can do something will cause sloppy work
I often think that most women are paid unfairly, but I think unfair is a stretch. If a girl is taking longer to accomplish what a man is doing, then she should be paid less. For example, if it takes a man, 30 minutes to make a drain pipe, but take a woman 45 minutes to make a drain pipe, then she should be paid less, she is getting less accomplished. Something that confuses me in your post is, "Without the right to vote, their voices on political leaders are silenced, and they aren’t taken into account." But they do have a right to vote, as long as they are a citizen. If they aren't a citizen, then they shouldn't be allowed to vote. They aren't paying taxes, and most likely aren't working, and the government is paying for them to live here. If I had an undocumented person working for me, If I would let them, I wouldn't take their thoughts into account. They could easily go and get citizenship and be a real citizen of the United States. But they are choosing not to. I understand that they are trying to better their lives and there are wars ravaging their countries, but as soon as they get over here, they should start working for citizenship. They shouldn't be having to worry at night about them being deported. It adds stress to them.
I agree with you but your reasoning can go both ways if a man takes longer then he should be paid less, but at the same time if we use your pipe draining just because one takes longer than the other does not mean they should get paid less, they still got the same amount of work done just different times.
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