After going to university, I have to face the problem of employment, so I will gradually start to pay more attention to some information about work. I believe everyone will notice that women consistently earn less than men, and the gap is wider for most women of color.
Analyzing the most recent Census Bureau data from 2018, women of all races earned, on average, just 82 cents for every $1 earned by men of all races. This calculation is the ratio of median annual earnings for women working full time, year round to those of their male counterparts, and it translates to a gender wage gap of 18 cents. When talking about the wage gap for women, it is important to highlight that there are significant differences by race and ethnicity. The wage gap is larger for most women of color. (see Figure 1)
The most frequent way of discussing the wage gap, in terms of dollars and cents, may unintentionally obscure the real impact on working women and their families. For context, a woman working full time, year round earned $10,194 less than her male counterpart, on average, in 2018. If this wage gap were to remain unchanged, she would earn about $407,760 less than a man over the course of a 40-year career. Again, these earnings gaps are larger for most women of color. (see figure 2)
It is recognized that there are some gender inequalities and even gender discrimination in the workplace. I think a common factor that contributes to the gender wage gap is the gender stereotypes at the job level, some positions and industries are considered more suitable for “male” or “female” jobs, resulting in a split in the labor market. In the construction, engineering, machinery, science and other industries considered to be male, higher salaries can be obtained.
I think it relates to “one” and “other”, “which de Beauvoir’s work discusses the actual effects of power relations on the lives of women and non-White people. Her book The Second Sex, from which this excerpt comes, talks about how being a woman is constructed in contrast to being a man, which most cultures have treated as the default fully human type of person. Woman is a contrast with man, and therefore defined by being “Other.” The Other is a really important idea in understanding how the combined forces of culture, politics, economy, and history shape identity and inequality”. If we want to change this, and truly bring the wages of men and women to an equal level, so as to promote the complete equality of the status of the two, this requires a very deep change. What is at work is no longer educational factors, but more erratic, elusive but ubiquitous things such as power and culture.
Citation
Bleiweis, Robin. “Quick Facts About the Gender Wage Gap.” Center for American Progress, www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2020/03/24/482141/quick-facts-gender-wage-gap/.