As mentioned in the text, although the Equal Rights Amendment had substantial support, it failed to get the necessary votes to be ratified. Many who were opposed to the amendment suggested that women would be subject to the military draft and that full-time housewives and mothers would be forced to work outside the home.
Even without the ERA, the role of women in American society has changed greatly since the amendment was first passed by Congress and submitted to the states. In 1973, for example, approximately 76% of all men were employed in the civilian labor forced compared to only 42% of all women. And, unemployment figured for women seeking work during that year was 50% higher than for their male counterparts.
In contrast, by 2010 nearly 54% of all women were employed in the civilian labor force compared to 64% of men. Although unemployment figures for both men and women were higher due to the troubled economic conditions of the day, a smaller percent of women who were actively seeking work were unable to get it (8.6%) as compared to men (10.5%).
Even though women are more greatly represented in the workforce today than they were when Congress passed the ERA, one of the proponents' primary goals, removing income inequality, has remained elusive. According to the Department of Labor, women on average received lower wages than men. For every dollar the average male worker makes, the averages female worker makes only 81 cents, even after controlling for the type of employment. For examples, in 2010, the median weekly salary for male financial managers was $1,546 compared to only $1,022 for their female counterparts.
Why might income inequality persist even though men and women serve in more equal numbers today in the work force?
(Information from David Magleby's text: Government by the People)
The income inequality persists , becuase they government still doesnt want women to make more money then men, even though they may be smarter than men, and also have a college education.Even though men and women serve in equal number today in the workforce, men are still considered more intelligent and work harder than women, which results in higer salaries for the men.
ReplyDelete- lillian smyth 1B
Mike Jeune 1B
ReplyDeleteAlthough the ERA gave women equal rights. In society there are unspoken laws, such as you would never find a straight man wearing a skirt and high heels, it's not because it's illegal but it's because "we" society "expect" that will never happen. It's the same for women equal rights although it is literally written in the constitution,if it's only practiced in papers and not in our mind and beliefs, then there's a strong probability that men might be regarded as superior to women.
Interesting point! What do you think would have to happen to get people to change their mindset?
DeleteAngelica Witherspoon 1B
ReplyDeleteIncome inequality might persist because of the continuing views of the overall role of women in society. The view that women are a less dominant species than men is evident in the minds of some people, today. People believe the primary role of women is still to be the homemaker and take care of the social and emotional needs of the family while the man continues to take care of the economic needs of the family. This theory is not true at all. Women can be homemakers and still work just as hard as men do. If they work just as hard as men they should get paid just as much as men. But if certain people in society do not change their views, then income inequalities will continue to persist.
Income inequality might persist because we are still living in a "man's world" until that changes I doubt there would be real equality. Now a days there are a lot of women who have reached greater heights than men. I also think that by making the wages for women lower they're trying to discourage them. Women are perfectly capable of doing a man's job and more. But there are some things women can't do. For example men are more suitable for construction and hard labor because they're able to carry more "heavy stuff" than women. (although I've met plenty of women who could beat guys when it came to strength , but that is not the point). Men still have that gene of protecting women, even if it's buried very deep, deep, deep, down. It's part of their nature to provide and care for their women. I don't believe it's really fair that just because we live in a "man's world" we (women) are not able to get the same equality as a man. That just means we (women) need to work harder to prove we are equal or better than the guys. (sorry to all the guys out there if this offended you, hopefully not)
ReplyDeleteJorean Bradley of Class 1B
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of a 'loophole' aspect of the workforce; to the average person's mind, it's unconstitutional. However, it's actually not. If I recall, the Amendment never said that female pay rates couldn't be 'exactly the same as men's.' So the heads of the work forces tend to keep the pay rates slightly higher for the men than the women. If they had a way to balance it out, I would be pretty happy; More equality and all that awesome stuff. But until the bosses stop thinking slightly more about that 'loophole' and think more about equality, this might persist for a while longer.
Great response! Why do you think that they probably keep men's pay higher? What would be the reasoning/justification for this?
DeleteJarrod Archambo
ReplyDeleteTrue equal rights will never exist on the idea that these major unions, companies, and Government Agencies are being controlled by these old school males that were born into a time that parity only exists within whites males. Some businesses claim that most of the jobs that women occupy are less important to society, therefore automatically receive less pay. But now, when women are melting more into the mix with male occupations, I feel that it's just sexism and a disgrace to the female work force. My mother worked her butt off for the last eighteen years to put me through this benevolent life style that I have, so knowing that my mom did all this knowing she makes less than a male makes me sick.
You make some really good points, evidenced by the fact that many people below have agreed with you! :)
DeleteI agree with Jarrod. "True equal rights will never exist". There's a reason why we don't have a woman as president. America was formed by Men that thought very little of women. Women were considered a possession for ages. Then once they started getting rights, such as being able to enter the workforce as like industrial workers and being given the right to vote, Men started noticing that women have a place in America. But no matter what happens, there will always be men of power that will say that women don't belong here and they don't belong there and the men (and some women) that have power, which can be considered followers, will agree with those men and vote for them instead of women. So in the end it doesn't matter how great of a person you are, if you're a woman, there will always be some man with power that says that men are better and give those men more money for the same job. In my opinion, i believe that people should and in some cases are paid by effort. If you can do your job and do it good, then you deserve the pay, if you can barely do a task in your job description, well then that position needs to be filled by someone who can do it. Maybe that's why women in certain professions receive less pay than Men. But I can't say because i don't know.
ReplyDeleteWomen get paid the same amount as men as long as they apply for the same position and same job. There really isn't a big difference anymore. I know certain girls who make more money than I do but that's because they have a better job. The United States as a hold is pretty sexist so that is also another reason why men make more money than women do.
ReplyDeleteSebastian
I think it just depends on the job and qualifications, honestly.
ReplyDeleteBecause if we are going to pull out examples ALLLLL of y'all know we got a female principal, and she is a GREAT principal. BUT when I think about a principal I think of a male (sorry Cathy). And homegirl made over $95,000 last year. I looked it up haha.
But say we are looking at a job where males are more useful, then of course I am sure the man is going to make more than the woman because he has more capabilities in this certain career field than the woman does, and I wouldn't complain because I know I can't do some of the things a male colleague can do.
But in the words of Beyonce on the topic of women: "We run the world." sooooooo I could say we are about as equal as we will ever be.
Just to throw it out there: What kinds of jobs would a man be more capable at than a woman? :)
DeleteGeovany Melendez 1B
ReplyDeleteJarrod made an excellent point in his comment about the "old school males." A vast majority of these law-making bodies as well as the leadership in big companies and small business are, well, old school males. If you look at advertisements in the 50s (Not too long ago in the grand scheme of things), a good chunk of them were overtly sexist. As children or young adults growing up with these kinds of ads and mentalities, it's understandable why they would be sexist and pay women less. It's not right under any circumstances but I understand where their minds are coming from. Since the situation is such, women will not get paid the same as men for the same job unless the ERA is passed. Even then, equality is not a guarantee.
Kymber Myers 1B
ReplyDeleteIncome inequality persists because people still believe women shouldn't make nearly as much money as a man does, but I believe a woman is capable of doing anything a man is. Depending on the job a woman or man is in depends on how much money they make, yes people are very sexist but women today can make a lot more money then they did back then, that is because women have achieved so much over the years at hand, their able to work just about anywhere so they could make just as much money as a man, the same amount, or maybe even more.
Oh, it is so, so depressingly comical that we still exist in a world where women are viewed as beings that deserve less simply for being female, truly an abhorrent display of humanity.
ReplyDeleteI don't answer any question solely with anecdotal evidence. There have been so many studies pertaining to this issue that the only thing left is to do something about it. Women are not being paid the same amount for doing the same job as men, simply because they're women. If they do, they aren't promoted as often. Employers are reluctant to hire women for "high-powered lucrative jobs" because they fear they may take too much time off due to the chance of having a baby.
Women simply aren't entering the male-dominated fields that pay higher; the number of women in congress is grossly disproportionate compared to the population (lowering the attention the wage-gap receives). Lest not forget the systematic push that each gender conforms to arbitrarily conceived societal ideals and the centuries of dread women have endured, reduced to nothing but beauty pieces and sex dolls for much of human history, forbidden from colleges, beaten by their husbands, and not allowed to vote...
From the little that I know, the wage disparity isn't outrageously disgusting, but it should not be here at all. What we have done and what we continue to do to women is one mankind's many, many, many embarrassments.
NICE observation!! There was a story just this morning on NPR about how women choose (whether knowingly or unknowingly) fields that pay significantly less (teaching, social services) than male-dominated fields (engineering, chemistry). Great comment!
DeleteSince the beginning of time women have never been equal to men. Even when women fought for half the rights to be considered equal it never happened. Men are seen as superior to women for a number of reason. Take Greece for example. The primary purpose for Spartan women was to produce offspring (preferably male) to carry on the legacy the men left behind. Maybe its the issue of control. Like how Kings never share their power or riches. Or even how like you would never let a little kid take the wheel while driving. You either don't think they handle the pressure or don't think they are intelligent enough yet to do so. Either way you don't want them in control. Maybe that's what most men believe.
ReplyDeleteIncome inequality persist even though men and women serve in more equal numbers today because of the society that we live in. Equality in the work force has come a very long way over the past few decades and we are closer to equality now than ever but woman are still valued less than men in many professions and I don't think that will ever really change. The idea that men are superior to women dates back to the beginning of time, this idea was accepted in-till recently with the events like woman rights movements. I guess my point is that the this has been drilled into the minds of humans for a LOT longer than the idea of equality that's why men are still seen above woman in the workplace.
ReplyDeleteincome inequality persists this day because, from my opinion, not enough time has passed to really look at the overall difference between then and now. I would say in the next half century or so these two percentages would slowely become even. Its not because one or the other works harder or less. Its because of the huge difference in statistics between now and then that leads to a more skewd data
ReplyDeleteJacob clark 1/B
Francis Perez 1B
ReplyDeleteI believe that the income inequality still persists because in people's mind(and I say people's because many women apply here) women aren't equal with men. I include myself in this mindset. When I think of athletes, soldiers, or even police or firefighters(basically anything needing physical activity or strength) I think of men. I'm not saying that men are stronger or smarter or vise versa, all I'm saying is that as a society, we all tend to create our own "stereotypes" or "unspoken rules" as Mike said above. A very common comment from women regarding carrying heavy things is "You do it, that's man's work". We demean ourselves. We don't do it on purpose, and most of the time we don't mean it, we're just being lazy, it's just our mindset and I believe us as a whole(society)have that same mindset.
Sam Tith 1B
ReplyDeleteI think women and men are treated differently, because in some peoples mind women are seen to not do the same as males. Males has always been seen as more dominant than females. Its because stereotypes has judge women as weaker than males, or simply judge them to not do the same as males. I am not sure why a women would get paid less for doing the same as a male, but whatever it is it's unfair.
I agree with Tyra. The income inequality persists, in part, because of the belief that men are superior to women. Not everyone may believe this, or blatantly admit to believing this. But the idea of equality is still a relatively new idea. Compared to the gender roles which have been around for centuries, the idea of equality still has a long while to go before it is still truly achieved.
ReplyDelete-Angelina Alejo
1B
Oops I totally forgot about this discussion.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, everyone seems to be making the same point, in which I agree that society has deemed woman unable to do a man's job as well and efficiently as he. I think woman are looked upon as more sensitive, physically weak, in that jobs that require social ability (principal, anything not hard labor) since woman seem to be more emotional and perhaps shy. However, many woman present themselves as strong and independent and outgoing and can do the job just as well as a man. But socially, however, men are more strong, they dabble in jobs that are physically demanding, and they most of the time like to be in control, therefore have the voice and mentality to serve in the military, give orders, etc. It's hard to explain, even if a woman can show that she is able to perform just as well as any man (many woman are in the military, are bosses, etc) men are just viewed upon as more.....manly. There's no other way to put it, and there's some things that just can't be changed unless our universe was completely wiped out and somehow woman managed to wear the pants (not saying that they dont lol).
There will never be a true equality of the sexes. EVER. Men will always see themselves as being superior to women. Women today are seen as uncapable of performing tasks that a man would do, such as construction or simply running a business. We are seen as being unfit and "too needy " so we wouldnt be able to do that of what a man could do. However, we have the right mentality and determination to do anything that a man could do ( and posssibly do better ;) ) But the whole thing is a stereotype that won't be let down anytime soon. Physically we might not be able to do the same as a man, but there are MANY fit women that could do much more than a man. Just don't underestimate what a woman could do, she could pull off way more than you. - Christine Baezaponte 1b
ReplyDeleteI agree with what most people have said, like Christine when she said " There will never be a true equality of the sexes." To be honest men will always feel they are the superior sex, no matter how much we females go up in the Gov't, business, etc, they will always be "superior" in some type of ways. Females are seen just because the majority are emotional and "needy" that we are all unfit to run in any part of an important system. Personally I feel that is unfair, because women should have the same advantages in everything men do. Look at it this way, before women weren't allowed to vote or be in the military, but look at us now. So many honorable men and women that have served our country and did what they felt that was right. But no, women in the majority's eyes are still inferior.
ReplyDelete