For this week's posting I found three articles related to the gender gap and equal pay. In today's society it is startling that men and women still are not earning equal pay for the same work being done. If a woman is in a position of leadership within a company or school, she should be earning the same amount of money as a man in her same position. We encourage our young girls growing up to "dream big" and to go after their goals, no matter what it takes, so they can become successful later in life; but how can these girls achieve their dreams if the gender gap continues to hold them back?
In Gender Roles and Wage Gaps in Higher Education, Shaadi Shoubaki discusses potential reasons why women are in these lesser paying jobs, specifically because of the occupational gender segregation that is evident when choosing a major in college. The article goes on to discuss how women are consistently choosing "women-appropriate majors" even though the idea of gender inequality is believed to be a problem of the past. When I reflect on my experiences at UW Oshkosh, I go back to hearing friends of mine saying there was only one male in their nursing classes, or only a handful of males in their education courses. On the other hand, I have good friends who are the only females in a few of their finance or science courses. Gender disparities are seen throughout a college campus, and with the consistent wage gaps, female students in higher education are being set-up to earn less after graduation.
Finally, Gregory Linton discusses why these gender gaps in higher education need to be discussed in Higher Education Gender Gap Deserves Attention. While many articles seem to focus on disparities against women in the gender gap, Linton focuses on how males are struggling through this phenomenon. A staggering fact he states is "Since 2000, a little more than 57 percent of bachelor’s degrees were conferred on women each year. By 2020, that will increase to 58.5 percent. In the next 10 years, 2.78 million more women than men will receive bachelor’s degrees" (Linton, G. 2013). With the gender gap affecting both men and women, it is something that needs to be addressed not only in higher education, but also in K-12 as well.
The gender gap is not something of our imagination, nor is it something that is going away on its own. It is something we all need to think about in our daily lives, not only at work, but also at home. What stereotypical gender roles are we, or family, or friends, implementing on our children, and more importantly, how can we set them up for success no matter what their gender.
For the complete articles, please see the links below:
The articles I found focus specifically on the gender gap in both higher education and the rest of the working world. The first article written by Kate Michelman, How Long Will Equal Pay Take to Achieve?, focuses on on why there is still such a wide gap in pay between genders when the equal pay act has been in place for over 50 years. Michelman states that "Pew Research Center reported that women are the sole or primary source of income in 40 percent of American households with children under age 18" (Michelman, K. 2013). Such disparities in wage are simply unacceptable in today's society and this gender gap does not seem to be getting any smaller, or seem to be closing anytime soon. In order to bring about change in our society, we must do something to ensure that women are getting paid a fair, equal amount as their male counterparts.
In Gender Roles and Wage Gaps in Higher Education, Shaadi Shoubaki discusses potential reasons why women are in these lesser paying jobs, specifically because of the occupational gender segregation that is evident when choosing a major in college. The article goes on to discuss how women are consistently choosing "women-appropriate majors" even though the idea of gender inequality is believed to be a problem of the past. When I reflect on my experiences at UW Oshkosh, I go back to hearing friends of mine saying there was only one male in their nursing classes, or only a handful of males in their education courses. On the other hand, I have good friends who are the only females in a few of their finance or science courses. Gender disparities are seen throughout a college campus, and with the consistent wage gaps, female students in higher education are being set-up to earn less after graduation.
Finally, Gregory Linton discusses why these gender gaps in higher education need to be discussed in Higher Education Gender Gap Deserves Attention. While many articles seem to focus on disparities against women in the gender gap, Linton focuses on how males are struggling through this phenomenon. A staggering fact he states is "Since 2000, a little more than 57 percent of bachelor’s degrees were conferred on women each year. By 2020, that will increase to 58.5 percent. In the next 10 years, 2.78 million more women than men will receive bachelor’s degrees" (Linton, G. 2013). With the gender gap affecting both men and women, it is something that needs to be addressed not only in higher education, but also in K-12 as well.
The gender gap is not something of our imagination, nor is it something that is going away on its own. It is something we all need to think about in our daily lives, not only at work, but also at home. What stereotypical gender roles are we, or family, or friends, implementing on our children, and more importantly, how can we set them up for success no matter what their gender.
For the complete articles, please see the links below:
- Michelman, K. (2013, June 10). How Long will Equal Pay Take to Achieve?. In Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-michelman/how-long-will-equal-pay-to-achieve_b_3417743.html
- Linton, G. (2013, March 23). Higher education gender gap deserves attention. In Knox News. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/mar/23/gregory-linton-higher-education-gender-gap/
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