The Gender Pay Gap: Are Women Really Worth Less?
At the current rate, the gender pay gap will take 100 years to close.
“Imagine you’re a little girl. You have a dream. You work as hard as anyone you know. And then you get to this stage, and you’re told you’re not the same as a boy. Almost as good, but not quite the same. Think how devastating and demoralizing that could be.” — Venus Williams
What value do we really place on the “fairer sex”?
It seems like something has gone horribly wrong in the social evolution of mankind. Women are increasingly holding down full-time jobs while also statistically being responsible for the majority of childcare and unpaid “domestic work”.
And we are still being paid substantially less for doing the same jobs as men.
Men often expound on the “facts” of women taking time out of their careers to have a family. But this doesn’t explain why women are paid less and promoted less in every profession, even when they have never taken a career break to have children.
We can find it funny but it’s all too true.
“Pay Equality Day is Apr. 2 and was created in 1996 by National Committee on Pay Equity as a way to make the public aware of the pay gap between men and women. According to pay-equity.org, the day symbolizes “how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.” — Bustle.com
It still alarms me that one of the most heated arguments I have ever engaged in about sexism was with a guy in his late 20s.
He denied the existence of the gender disparity in pay, simply by repeating the same tired arguments that this camp dredges up every time. They are not interested in facts and figures, or in a meta-analysis of the data that is presented to them. Rather, they will repeat the obsolete mantra of “women choose to disadvantage themselves by having children,” ad nauseam.
We need to update our thinking in line with reality. There is no reason why women should be paid less for doing the same job as men.
Female voices need to be heard
My boss had a wall calendar in his office with inspiring quotes from famous people. One of the twelve months in 2019 featured a woman. I commented on this oversight to one of my other colleagues. His response?
“Perhaps women should start saying something interesting.”
This attitude, that women somehow don’t deserve equal billing with men, pervades our society, our workplaces, even our homes.
I would argue that the time is ripe in the wake of the #metoo and #timesup movements, to keep pushing a feminist agenda. We need to stop apologising for wanting equality and decent treatment as human beings.
This article in the Guardian, from earlier this year, strongly indicates that the public perception of women as equal to men is deteriorating over time.
What can we do about this?
Campaign for change
Feminist activist Caroline Criado-Perez has campaigned repeatedly for the representation of women in public forums, in consultations that influence legislation, in aspects of our daily lives such as Jane Austen appearing on banknotes and statues of notable women appearing in London.
“The culture we live in is made up of little tiny sexist acts which you can just ignore but when you think of them collectively you start to see a pattern.” — Caroline Criado-Perez
We can all make our voices heard.
There are so many writers writing wittily and brilliantly about their experiences of sexism, both casual and more pervasive.
You know you’ve struck a chord with people when some of them find your writing objectionable. They might struggle to find the words to give you a valid reason, but their objection is clear. That kind of comment is a win in my book. There is no greater validation for a just argument than dissent.
Support women in politics
The USA is seriously lacking balance in governmental representation.
Women are also hugely underrepresented in politics in the United Kingdom, with only 220 female MPs out of 650.
Clearly, any female political representation shows we have come a long way since the feminist movement began in 1848, but we have not come far enough. Not by a long shot.
As women, we need to support and promote women in politics and in all walks of life. By supporting one another, we will affect change.
If there is one positive thing to come out of the Covid-19 crisis, I would like it to be that women start standing up for themselves and being counted.
Because we do count. Not because of the way we look or act or because we have a really nice smile or great legs, but because we have a valid intellectual contribution and something to offer the world other than baking a nice loaf of banana bread.
According to the World Economic Forum, it will take 100 years to close the gender pay gap at the current rate. Is this acceptable, or will we all strive to speed up this process towards a better future for womankind?
For ourselves and for our children, we must choose change.
“When we pay women less than men we’re telling women their work isn’t as valuable. We’re all equally valuable. And we should be paid equally.” — Maria Shriver