Women, Socioeconomic Class and Sexual Orientation Issues

Thought Paper

We have come to a closing with this thought paper focusing on women, socioeconomic class, and sexual orientation. Specifically, women and men getting paid differently for doing the exact same job, a mother and her family growing up on welfare and making it out from under the poverty line, and someone finding their happiness in America being a gay man. A lot of this information I had already thought about and somewhat knew about but some of this information became more realistic as I read actual articles on them.

In the article, “Fatherhood Bonus & Motherhood Penalty” it talks about the pay gap between men and women but specifically focuses on adults starting families. The average woman makes 77 cents to a man’s dollar. Why is this? Mostly when asked, bosses or other people in a higher position will say it is determined by the choices women make such as, the choice to work fewer hours, take on lower-paying jobs, or opt out of the workforce for longer periods of time than men. In the article it says, “For most men the fact of fatherhood results in a wage bonus; for most women motherhood results in a wage penalty” (Budig). This didn’t make sense to me seeing as though most of the time people link a mother to the duties of taking care of a child so why penalize her for getting pregnant; she needs the money the most at this time because she will have to take care of another human being soon. America is the only place where there is no type of pay for maternity leave, yet for some reason fathers are getting a bonus if the boss finds out that they will become a father. Reason being the male is still considered the “bread winner” so he will need the extra money. I am still struggling to understand the logic behind this kind of thinking but hopefully it’ll change before I am forced to understand it.

In the article, “So How Did I Get Here: Growing Up on Welfare” it basically focuses on what you would call a story with a fairy tale ending. A mother is on welfare and has to figure out a way to raise five kids while trying to provide them with the best life she can possibly give them. She made sure they ate and got an education if nothing else, she felt education was the key to making it out of the projects and off of welfare. “Five people on welfare for 18 years had become five working, taxpaying adults. Three of us went to college, two of us finished, one of us has an advanced degree, all of us can take care of ourselves” (Bray). Everyone would love for this type of ending, and this story proves that this is possible, but not possible for everyone. I loved the ending of this article and wish everyone could get a happy ending but all wishes unfortunately don’t come true and that is a hard pill to swallow.

In the article “Why Gay Marriage is Good for Straight America” a British man made his way to America to find his “home” and be happy again instead of having a part of his life feel so blank and incomplete. He talks about finding himself and discovering that all people deserve love. He found love, experience how it felt for someone to really care for you, and no longer feels ashamed by not following the “social norm” of being a straight male. He never thought someone could love him, he felt he was too destroyed/damaged mentally and emotionally. “And when we finally got married, a few years later, and our mothers walked us down the makeshift garden aisle, and my sister gave the reading through tears, and one of our beagles howled through the vows, and my father put his arms around me and hugged, I did not hear civilization crumble. I felt a wound being healed” (Sullivan). He learned that not everyone will accept him and approve of his life style but the people that really matter will love, accept, and care for him and that is all that matters. Stories like this are inspiring and amazing in showing how far America has come in as little as five years, we still have work to do but it’s a start.