A History of The Issue of The Gender Wage Gap in America

The gender wage gap has been around since women began having jobs and careers in the economy. In the beginning of the wage gap was purely doing to discrimination as well as social stereotypes, now it has become more complicated than that. The issue today has evolved into a complex issue which combines our American culture, business economics politics and social culture. As a result, some are skeptical of the issue and some are very adamant in their mind set. The Equal Pay Act was initiated during the Kennedy administration. Since then, the gender wage gap has been narrowing every year, but it still does exist in the United States. The gender wage gap is the difference between what women get paid and what men get paid for doing the same job. Each year and pay quota women are paid 59 cents more than before which may be a good thing, more or less they the pay roll are not equal for working women and working men in the field. People have been trying to prove whether the gender wage gap is institute, or unimportant since before the first act was passed. In the 1963 the gender wage gap was a huge issue; women made only 63% of what men made in the same positions. As time has progressed, women now make on average 77% of what men make in the same position.

Every second a baby is born in the United States, according to the U.S. Census, and with a baby comes big responsibility. Whether it’s fair or not, the social norm is the woman stays at home, while the man goes to work to pay the bills. Since many women feel the pressures of family obligations more than the men do, they often are forced to choose between their family and their careers. Accordingly women statistically don’t put in as many overtime hours as men, says April Kelly-Woessner, a political science professor at Elizabethtown College. Employers complain that women regularly choose family obligations over their jobs.

In politics men believe that women should not be in the field because they are women; though can have the same education women in the feature will eventually have families and have kids to take care of. With that comes multiple respponicbities. Thus women would have to retire and quit their current job to take care of their growing family. Many companies believe that men can do a better job than women because men do nessecarrly need to be worried about their running the household since its mainly the women’s job as the “House Keeper”. When many companies say this it sparks a debate, riot, and protest on the working pay roll of working women.

To this day, there is still no definitive reason why, but the gap seems to close little by little each year. Can we contribute that to women standing up for themselves more, working harder to prove their worth, or even challenging the system? T.J. Billitteri wrote the article entitled Gender pay gap touching base on the important fact which is women working and sharing the same career title as a man are making far less money (March 14, 2008).CQ Researcher, 18, 241-264.Billitteri begins his article touching base on a large lawsuit of Ledbetter vs. Goodyear tire. Ledbetter, one of few females in her supervisory position, realized she was making $559.00 a month less than the males in the same position. She received around $3 million in back pay and damages.

That case stirred up a lit of press on the pay gap issue and put emphasis on bills such as the Fair Pay Act. Recognized female state officials are pushing the enforcement of Fair Pay Acts and Equal Pay Acts more and more on Congress and the Senate still to this day. Billitteri (2008) states with those in effect men and women would have equal compensation when working in the same field. A prime example is a women working as a Chief Executive makes on average 22 percent of what a male Chief Executive makes. Looking at the 2006 U.S. Census statistics it showed “the pay gap at about 77 percent of the men’s median full-time, year-round earnings.” (Billitteri 2008). In Billitteris’ article he discusses how when hiring a female the company takes into account the possibilities for maternity leave, higher insurance needs, time off to care for children, and a raised risk for sexual harassment claims. It has become apparent that women are intimidated to seek out executive or other high paying positions

In the 21st Century the number of women enrolling in higher education institutions is surpassing the numbers of men enrolled. The graduation rates of women from high school and higher education are most often higher than for men. The number of women graduates from most professional occupations, including higher paying medicine, law and business, will exceed the number of men graduates in the near future. In numerous occupational areas with a majority of women graduates, salaries already surpass salaries in occupational areas with a majority of men graduates. The idea that the majority of women are working the same types of jobs, and same amount of hours but still being paid much less than men is causing much concern.

In recent history the gender gap is slowly decreasing. Young women are shrinking the education gay and earning degrees such as a master's degree and bachelor's degree. In fact, women are earning more bachelor and master's degrees than men. In addition, women are also finding careers in law, business and medical schools. Women are starting to over come the limits of gender in the labor market. They are no longer settling for nurses, secretaries or salesclerks. Women are overcoming the great gender gap.

Over the years studies have taken place in order to try and resolve this problem concerning the gender gap. According to the tables on pages thirty nine through forty the studies that presented show that women earn seventy seven percent of what men make during an average of fifteen years, but the studies which show the true incomes pay between the two different sexes shows us that the gap is much greater. Women are actually only making sixty two percent of what men are earning. The figure is summed up when the men's average earnings were at $49,068 and women's were far below the men's income at $ 29,507 for the fifteen year average