Final Draft: Evaluation Essay- Unequal Opportunity

We live in a country where the idea of a “male-dominated” society has, for the most part, met its demise. Today more than ever, women are achieving just as high of education as males, putting in just as many hours, and working themselves into higher positions within companies to work alongside their male counterparts. There seems to be a clause, though. Even after all of the laws in place to keep employment equal throughout the genders and ethnicities, there is one group of people continually being treated unfairly. Although recently the statute of 'Equal Opportunity' has resonated as a part of employment in America, there is in fact an inequality between the sexes in the workforce because women continue to be paid less than men, are less likely to be promoted, and have difficulty entering predominantly male patriarchal hierarchy. Equal opportunity isn’t so equal after all.

The Equal Pay act of 1963 came out during a spark of women empowerment and advancement. In summary, it says that employers may not discriminate how much they pay their employees on the basis of sex or race. Though there has been a significant rise in the amount of money women make in comparison to men in the last 40 years, the last decade has seen no improvement; women still make 23 cents per dollar less than men in the same positions with the same qualifications. How much of a difference is this making in the lifetime of the average woman working full time? A female high school graduate will make $700,000 less than a male high school graduate, a female college graduate will make $1.2 million less than a male college graduate, and a professional school graduate will make $2 million less than a male professional school graduate (2). That is an astounding amount of money that women unfairly not receiving. One speculation on the reasons that women generally are paid less is that they work less hard once they are pregnant or have children, but there is no empirical evidence showing that a woman nowadays cannot put just as much hard work into her career as she does into being a mother. This speculation stems merely from the fact that 60 years ago a woman’s main duty was considered to be that of her husband, home, and children. This is far from the truth today. Sure, having a baby does require a time period off from work, but these small breaks do not explain the entirety of the pay gap. Another proposed reason is that women choose lower paying jobs because they don’t want to do the dirty work associated with higher paying jobs, when in fact it is society and stereotyping that are leading women into lower paying jobs associated with females, like waitressing or cashiering (1). The reason that women are still being underpaid in comparison to men is because of sex discrimination.

In addition to being paid less, women also have a more difficult time being promoted compared to male counterparts. When it comes to an employer looking for an employee to fill a higher position, and a male and female are both equally qualified, the male is more likely to attain the position. In science, for example, women are less likely to be to promoted after ten years of receiving their Ph.D. degree than men of the same status. One study’s results suggested that “women’s accomplishments are downplayed relative to men’s” (4). This would then mean lower pay and more difficulty getting promotions.

Sex discrimination is also evident with the likelihood of women getting into predominantly male positions. Positions like Presidents, CEO’s, CFO’S, and directors have historically been held by prominent figures of the male gender. As women in general are climbing up the status latter more than ever, it is peculiar, then, why we aren’t seeing more of an equal disbursement of these high-up positions between men and women. One study in the British Medical Journal showed that while 14.5% of male doctors were promoted to a higher-up consultant position during a seven year time period, only 9.5% of female doctors were. Professor Kostas Mavromaras, one of the authors of the study, stated: "A clearly unpalatable explanation could be that differences reflect a form of discrimination against women reaching the highest rank in a male-dominated part of the medical profession. Similar glass ceiling effects have been observed in other parts of the labor market, such as CEOs ” (3).

As more research unveils this somewhat hidden fact that women in our country are not receiving the same advantages and compensation as men, there will begin to be more of a movement towards total equality in the workforce. During a two year span between 2005 and 2007, over 300 cases of sex discrimination lawsuits were carried out and the victims granted their rightful settlements (2). We will continue to see more of these as women become more aware of this problem. When women have to deal with other problems at work such as the high occurrence of sexual harassment by male co-workers-another issue in and of itself- they should not have to worry about not being paid fairly. Times have changed, women go to school, excel, and accomplish just as much as men do. Nothing should stand between a person and what they rightfully deserve, especially not their gender. “Equal opportunity” will not exist until this inequality is fixed.


Sources Cited
1. Murphy, E. & Graff, E. "The wage gap: Why women are still paid less than men." In , (p. ). : . (Reprinted from The Boston Globe, 2005, October 9)
2. The Wage Project. (2008). WAGE: Women are getting even. Retrieved Sep. 20, 2008, from http://www.wageproject.org/index.php
3. Duffy, J. "Women doctors less likely to reach consultant level than men." In , BNet (p. ). : . (Reprinted from The Sunday Herald, 2005, November 6)
4. Ginther, D. (2005). Women, work, and the academy. Retrieved Sep. 20, 2008, from http://www.barnard.columbia.edu/crow/womenandwork/ginther.htm