How to fix gender inequality in the job market
Gender disequality is a subject about which we can talk about without it have to be taboo or exclusive feminist matters. Our legal system is not infallible nor is our society. We, as citizens of a Democratic State’s citizen, have 2 duties: Identify the problem and solve it.
There is a rooted insecurity within our women who have to think about what to wear so they can not be seen by those disgusting men on the streets. It’s not the women’s fault, but rather those disgusting men’s. However, that is not what I intend to stress here, but rather the job market’s gender inequality.
Identifying the problem
There are people that say that for every 1$ a man makes, a woman makes 0.80$, but that is not what’s important here, but rather the disparity in it of itself. Just the fact that there is a disparity between the average salaries of the two genders is a big problem, a problem which, after being identified, must be solved and the “after” is now.
No, the problem is not in the careers each gender tends to follow, the hatred of women in the job market nor is it the sexism in our legal system as a whole. The problem is the same as always: children.
We could give the argument that women tend to follow less promising, less rewarded career paths and that would all be true, but we that is not what we should be focusing on, but rather what women and men get paid on the same job.
People tend to have a wrong image of family and the way domestic work should be distributed between husband and wife (I’m not even going to talk about gay marriage because it would make no sense two men or two women). There is, right now, in the western hemisphere, a rooted sense that the caregiver in the family is the mom that stays at home for months taking care of the baby while the father goes to work and gains the reputation of “dedicated” for working so much while having a newborn child at home. While the mom is more interested about the child’s school progress, attending school meetings, festive events, going to the doctor, etc, the father keeps his reputation and there come the disparities between the two genders (even though they have the same job). The father starts being promoted, is rewarded, while the mom stays a prisoner in that same old position because she abdicated her career progression so that she could take care of her child.
On average, moms tend to occupy 30.9 weekly hours on domestic chores and on the child, while the father only occupies around 17 hours (while occupying almost double the time on work than the mom occupies).
The sexist thinking that women shouldn’t keep working full-time (and in extreme situations, not even part-time) is the sole reason for the disparity in the genders’ salaries.
A solution
A real increment on paternal leave exclusive to fathers should be taken in strong consideration. It shouldn’t be optional, it should be forced. The more time the father spends with his child the more the domestic chores are distributed between the parents, this makes it way easier for the mom to progress her career. Giving the father a paternal leave as a “take it or leave it” thing would make it that they would be forced to take it without actually forcing them to take it.
This is the only way we will end with the gender pay disparity.
Sources:
- https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/09/12/despite-challenges-at-home-and-work-most-working-moms-and-dads-say-being-employed-is-whats-best-for-them/
- https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/10/parental-time-use_10-2013.pdf
