The Disparity Between Men And Women - 1829 Words

Since the beginning of times, there has nearly always been a marked inequality between men and women. This inequality becomes apparent when examining the labor market and the wages between many men and women. The â€Å"pay gap† can be researched in three ways: are women paid less than men, are women paid less than men in other western advanced countries, and are there intended policies to address the gender pay gap. To begin to understand the pay gap, one must first understand the definition of a pay gap. A pay or wage gap can best be defined as the difference between men’s and women’s average salaries (Hill 7). This gap can be attributed to a number of causes including the occupations women choose, traditional female roles†¦show more content†¦Women earn less in jobs traditionally staffed by women, e.g., secretaries, teachers, and aides (Misra and Strader 8). Janet Adamy, an editor for the Wall Street Journal, put it like this, â€Å"†¦more than half of this pay gap can be explained by women-the industries women choose and occupations within that industry.† Another factor could be an unequal spread of workers across the labor industries (Blau and Kahn 6), meaning that there will be more men concentrated in higher earning sectors of the industry contributing more to the gap. Some believe that this shows that some of the gap can be attributed to women taking lower paid jobs, but that doesn’t represent the full picture. The traditional roles set by society’s maternal and paternal responsibilities also factor into wage inequality. The traditional society roles have the man working full-time outside the home and the woman taking the part of the caretaker working inside the home (Misra and Strader 2-3). This affects the work performed allowing the man or father to spend more time working and making money while the woman or mother may have to balance her caregiver responsibilities and work outside the home. The woman or mother may have to leave employment due to caregiving responsibilities eliminating her income gained (Misra and Strader 3). This is statistically significant in that the mother may earn less than childless women