It is hard for me as a future businesswoman in America, someone who wants to go into high tech sales for a large high tech firm, to think about the fact that historically, white women only make 82 cents for every dollar earned for a white male. And it gets significantly worse if you are a woman of color stacked up to a white male. The gender pay gap is real and relevant, but even arguably more important is the significant gap between women of color versus males, especially white males. I really have to take a second, stop what I am doing, and realize that whatever job I end up with in the future post-college, is probably not going to be one that is paid evenly among my peers. Now, some of the time, this gap is due to the fact that people, especially women of color are not holding as high of roles within a company and are working lower-level positions, along with different sorts of experience, such as the ability to go to college or not. But I would tremendously argue that a lot of it is still due to discrimination within hiring practices and the workplace. One company that has gone above and beyond to close this gap of discrimination is IBM. IBM has removed nearly half of its’ job posting requirements to require a college degree (specifically a Bachelor’s) in order to open up their job opportunities to those who may have the skills required for a job, but maybe haven’t had the opportunity to professionally study in those roles, but is still well qualified for the job. Ending discrimination in the workplace is key to lowering the wage gap, especially for women of color.
A concept that can be applied to this discussion that we have previously talked about would be the concept of the “Other”. In this case, the “Other” can be referred to as women, especially women of color, especially when talking about women in the workplace. Men have typically always dominated in the workplace (especially white men) and held higher roles, such as directors and executives. Women, in general, are already considered the “Other” in the business world because they aren’t paid the same amount compared to men (hence the gender pay gap) but also struggle to get higher executive roles due to discrimination (such as not having a bachelor’s or even a graduate degree). One of my biggest goals is to work my way to be a CEO of a large high-tech firm and in the back of my mind, I want to make real, sincere efforts to end the wage gap and discriminatory practices, especially to women and all people of color.
Attached below is a comparison of women of color’s earnings compared to white men:
Attached below is other ways that employers accept candidates, without a bachelor’s degree:
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2020/03/24/482141/quick-facts-gender-wage-gap/
https://www.ibm.com/policy/education-skills/
I really enjoyed your blog post. The gender pay gap is a prevalent systemic injustice in today’s society. As a woman myself, this is something I also fear as I start on my career pathway. Your bar graphs were great visual representations of this systemic injustice. Lastly, I like how you applied the concept of the “One” and the “Other” because it perfectly fits with your example.
Hi, I loved your post. I did one of my diaries about this too and was debating doing it for my showcase or not. Your visuals really helped tie the whole presentation together. I think sometimes when people read how much a man makes compared to a woman they do not necessarily believe it, but seeing the bar graphs really helped make it make sense. As a woman, this is also something that frustrates me especially since I want to be a lawyer and that is another occupation that women consistently get paid less than men.
Hello! I loved reading about your selection and I felt that you portrayed this major issue so well. The gender pay gap is something that has been glossed over in recent years, but it is still a huge issue in today’s society. Your graphs were wonderful and they were able to really provide a strong visual representation of how severe the issue is currently.