Men and Women in the Workplace

The gender wage gap in the economy, as a whole, is defined by “the relative earnings difference between men and women. His female counterparty makes about seventy-seven cents for every dollar a man makes.” Even if a man and a woman have the same background in education and work history, the man will go home with a paycheck higher than the woman. In society, there is a gender wage gap that cannot be remedied by increasing education alone. Inequality results directly from women’s unfair treatment, especially in their childbearing years, and from difficulties in executive and managerial positions.

How can women quest for liberation in today’s generation? Young (2019) discusses feminism and women’s quest for liberation, which in the U.S. has become an essential part of human liberty. Feminism holds the core theme of the sexual victimhood of feminist rage. Feminism mentions the role of rage as it traps women in bitterness and victimhood of feminist rage. I chose this article because today’s generations that are being raised with the standard of gender equality, men are still running this world and women are the ones at home taking care of their children, while the men are at work making money. Men shouldn’t be the ones that occupy all the positions of power instead women should share an equal amount of power and position.

Despite this, gender equality doesn’t only affect the women but men can also be affected by gender equality. The lack of gender equality is getting out of hand when women working full-time in wage jobs in 2015 had average usual weekly earnings of $719, which was 83 percent of male median weekly earnings ($871). Women’s earnings varied by occupation as a percentage of men. Even the top three jobs dominated by females, such as secretaries, administrative assistants, registered nurses, elementary and middle school teachers, were still lower than that of males. Women’s usual weekly average earning in the top three male jobs, first-line supervisors of retail sales workers, managers and driver/sales workers, were 91% of their male counterparts’ earnings, (U.S. Department of Labor, 2019); see Figure 1.

Figure 1 illustrates the number of full-time working men and women (in thousands). The top three occupations for full-time workers by sex and number of workers. These earnings and workers are wide-ranging and do not control many factors that may be important in explaining the difference in earnings.

Why are most business executives still men and why not women? When a female or minority takes over as a CEO, who is qualified enough as a man but who may not run the company like the way a man would. So that causes the business to not keep that CEO for a long time if they can’t set the company on the right path. Figure 2, down below shows that women are growing with CEOs in large businesses, but more female CEOs are being kicked out of office than men. Women CEOs are being forced out just do to the fact that the company isn’t giving them enough time to see if they can possibly fix that troubled business.

Figure 2 illustrates the number of female CEOs by industry sector for S&P 500 companies. The numbers on the left of the graph represent the number of female CEOS. The number of female CEOs in each major S&P 500 industry organization. Three of those top industries have no women at the CEO position.

The repercussions of gender inequality, if not resolved, could be worse than what they are today. Luckily, there are many ways that it could be fixed. First, they should rethink interviews within the job. The question normally asked: “What do you think should be your salary?” Women shouldn’t be asked, “what do you think your salary should be.” This should be abolished altogether. Interviews should provide a fair wage range that meets the requirements of all of the applicants by what’s fair of the company. Gender equality and the fair treatment of men and women should be a vital part of job training and education. Young people should be encouraged to choose jobs that are forward-looking and promising, regardless of gender. Young men should be proactive in hosting women just as companies should state clearly that they are hiring and promoting women. In order to ensure equal treatment, salaries and promotions should be regularly monitored and evaluated. Each individual’s “pool of talent” should not be self-restricted. Companies should aim for all teams within the rankings of the company to be at a 50-50 gender split, right up to the executive floor. It is part of this, as is the right attitude, to offer practical support such as childcare. To ask for extended leave should not be a career killer for a man because he wants to look after his kids. Rather, these attempts should examine where our economy provides women with unequal opportunities at every point in their choice of education, training, and career.

For example, an article by Desai (2014) found that the structure of marriage has significant implications for gender-related actions, optimism and the conduct with married men in the workforce. Men that are in established marriages who are married to non-employed women tend to disfavor women in the workforce. This then prevents the female to get an advancement of qualification compared to that of married men. Men then regard women’s presence in the workplace as unfavorable and ignore every qualified female for an equal opportunity more consistent than others in the same line of work. This gives the reader an example of how women are being looked at and mistreated in the workplace from their marriage.

Being calm under pressure, having attention to detail and potential for collaboration are all the biggest strengths in the work world for women according to A. Schneider, (personal communication, Feb 6, 2019) who is a lead dental assistant at Blome Family Dentistry. Increasing numbers of women are entering the once male-dominated profession in the U.S. Aaron says men aren’t afraid to improvise and are also good delegators. What really holds men back at work is not being in charge all the time and when a woman is in charge the females aren’t respected. Concerned dentists evaluate and administer quality treatment and care in much the same way, regardless of their genders. The way women interact with and listen to their patients is where they often differ.

Pay systems that are transparent and fairly reward the entire workforce send out a positive message about the values and working methods of an organization. Pay is a key factor that can affect workplace motivation and relationships. Developing pay arrangements that are not only right for your organization but fairly rewarding all employees by providing equal pay for equal work is therefore important. The ways to decrease the wage gap is that women need to take action. Women can evaluate their own company, push for an analysis gender wage gap at their company. It’s not just women doing all the work for equal pay men have a huge role in making it equivalent as well. Men can advocate on behalf of the women in their life, including the ones they work with. Men can take responsibility at home. The biggest thing men can do is set an example for their children. While we can all agree that the gender wage gap does exist, we all need to work together to make women and men equal in every aspect.

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