In the winter of 1916–1917, suffragists took their ongoing battle to our nation’s capital, pressing the newly re-elected President Woodrow Wilson to grant women the most fundamental of all American rights — the right to vote. Picketing outside of the White House, they asked President Wilson, almost a century ago: “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?”
The question was finally answered on August 26, 1920, and today, on Women’s Equality Day, we commemorate the 90th anniversary of the enactment of the 19th Amendment — the amendment that finally granted women the right to vote. On the anniversary of this watershed moment in American history, we are reminded that the struggle for women’s equality continues. Looking back on past victories highlights just how much more we must accomplish.
Women’s Equality Day not only commemorates the victory of securing voting rights for women, but also serves as an important reminder that, although women have won political rights, we must still work to achieve economic rights. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, legislation intended to secure equal pay for equal work. Unfortunately, nearly 50 years after the Equal Pay Act became law and hundreds of years after American women joined the workforce, there remains a pernicious wage gap between men and women doing the same job – women, on average, still make only 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. The statistics for women of color are even worse.
However, today, like 90 years ago, we are on the verge of securing monumental rights for women. The Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 182), a law that would update and strengthen the Equal Pay Act, is poised for passage in the Senate. The Paycheck Fairness Act would provide workers with the tools they need to help close the wage gap, including requiring employers to demonstrate that wage differences between men and women doing the same work have a business justification; prohibiting retaliation against workers who inquire about their wages; leveling the playing field by ensuring that women can obtain the same remedies as those subject to discrimination based on race or national origin; and reinstating the collection of important wage-related data.
Last year, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Paycheck Fairness Act, and the bill currently has 40 cosponsors in the Senate. In addition, President Obama, Vice President Biden and other senior members of the administration have announced their support for this important legislation. The Middle Class Task Force and the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force have both recommended the passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act as an important step in for economic security for women and our nation’s families.
In calling for the Senate to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, President Obama recently stated:
In America today, women make up half of the workforce, and two-thirds of American families with children rely on a woman’s wages as a significant portion of their families’ income. Yet, even in 2010, women make only 77 cents for every dollar that men earn. The gap is even more significant for working women of color, and it affects women across all education levels. . . . this is not just a question of fairness for hard-working women. Paycheck discrimination hurts families who lose out on badly needed income. And with so many families depending on women's wages, it hurts the American economy as a whole. In difficult economic times like these, we simply cannot afford this discriminatory burden.As the 19th Amendment gave women equality at the polls, the Paycheck Fairness Act will give women equality in the workplace. It is the next milestone in the fight for equal rights, and the Senate must act now so that women today and for generations to come can bring home the pay they rightfully earn. As I write this from our nation’s capital, I feel compelled to ask: how long must women wait for equality? I hope my question is answered, as it once was 90 years ago, with a landmark achievement in equal rights. We can’t wait much longer.
Lets look at white collar work so physical advantages don't matter. Lets remove experience differences by looking at kids fresh out of college who don't have real working experience yet. Lets give women an edge - women have slightly higher GPA's than men these days so on paper the women fresh grads look better ( And there are lots of theories as to why women have higher GPA's found here - http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCR/is_3_39/ai_n15944508/?tag=content;col1 )
Given this women should make a tad more on average fresh out of the gates than men on average. They are all callow youths, but the women have better scores.
What happens in reality?
http://www.bnet.com/blog/harvard/pay-inequity-for-women-starts-at-the-first-job-but-why/6548
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Looking at salaries of newly minted men and women MBAs at their first jobs, a recent survey discovered the women made on average $4,600 less. The split grows wider as careers advance.
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http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2007/6/6/07-men-make-more-male-harvard/
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The median first-year base salary for male members of the Class of 2007 is $60,000, compared to $50,000 for females, according to the survey results.
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even controlling for industry sector and academic background, males appear to earn about 8 percent more than their female classmates, according to The Crimson’s analysis.
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Society has stated - without evidence - that women are incapable of doing all sorts of things. Ride a horse. Drive a car. Handle a gun. Manage complicated machinery like ( I kid you not ) a typewriter ( when they were new male typing machine operators could charge a premium ).
And yet in other times, in other societies, women are considered just as good at these things ... in some cases they even become female dominated ( I want a PONY! ).
The real reason female aptitude in these areas was disparaged was because men wanted to do them and didn't want to compete with women. When horses got replaced by cars then men didn't care about horses anymore ... suddenly women "can" be awesome with horses ... but cars, of course, are beyond their simple minds.
As folks in some middle eastern countries still declare to justify making it illegal for women to drive.
Dream on. The focus is on the 77% number which, as you point out, bears little relation to actual discrimination. Laws are blunt instruments. Employers are risk averse. The result of this will be that those men who have earned more money, will see their pay reduced. When making salary decisions employers will avoid reliance on neutral criteria that, with their particular employee mix, favors their male workforce. Even winning cases can take several hundred thousand dollars.
Make them justify their discrimination on paper as the act does and you force them to actually *look* at the qualifications of their female staff. That this act will cause some managers to realize that their female staff has potential worth investing in is a given. With a population as large as ours it would defy all probability for it not to happen.
The only question is how frequently it will happen.
Read my post again: I said neutral criteria that, "with their [the specific employer] particular employee mix," favors their male workforce. My response to the prior poster concerned how the law would impact the application of neutral criteria that favored males employees. Obviously, when that situation does not obtain, the aspects of the statute we were discussing is not an issue.
Before you accuse someone of "discrimination" you might want to make sure you are responding to what they said, and not what you thought they said.
The male dominated society has been suppressing women for lord knows how many millennium and it continues to this day. Clearly, we are not the same physically or in our complex make-up but, when will women unite and DEMAND equality?
I suggest starting with beginning of the Declaration of Independence with some minor changes, maybe like this:
"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to freedom.
We hold these truths to be self-evident that all women are equal to men, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among them are Life, Liberty, Equal Pay, and the pursuit of Happiness."
Humankind has lost a woman Einstein, Da Vinci, or Galileo because of the suppression of women and most likely we would not have had so many wars.
Celebrate all you want but there is more work to be done!
Yes, a male wrote this.
In every job except those that revolve on physical strength and speed those reasons could just as easily entitle women to making more. Why did I make about the same as the guys when I'm roughly 3 times more productive? When I'm the one they all come to when they get stuck and need help?
Why did it take me presenting my resignation for them to suddenly realize that not only is there money available for a raise, there is money available for a counter-offer?
Why has this happened **at every company I have ever worked for**. And yes, I've been turning them down because if you are willing to increase my compensation by over 50% to get me to stay then **you knew dang well that I was worth more than you were paying me**.
Why do I constantly see gifted women at the bottom of organization hierarchies doing the lions share of the productive work? A place I was contracting at last year has 3 people in IT operations. The woman was the lowest ranked and was the ONLY ONE who could provide me log files on demand. Watching them you'd think she was the senior as the other two always made a beeline to her whenever someone asked them a question they didn't know the answer to. So I was shocked to find out she was ranked bottom of the heap.