Essay On Gender Pay Gap

“There is nowhere in the world where women’s wages are equal to those of men” (Off Our Backs 2003). In the United Kingdom, women make 27% less than men (Off Our Backs 2005). In Korea and Japan, men make over 30% more than women, meaning that for every dollar a man makes, a woman makes less than seventy cents (Rampbell). In Belgium, the gender wage gap is less than 10%, meaning a woman makes more than ninety cents for every dollar a man makes (Rampbell). In the United States, women make about seventy-five cents for every dollar a man makes; between men and women, there is a 23-25% gap in income. There is no denying that the gender wage gap exists, but many question whether we should attempt to close it. The gender wage gap should be closed because there is no logical reason why it should exist in the first place, as there are just as many qualified women out there as there are men, if not more, and because it exists due to the fact that women are discouraged from entering various career areas that oftentimes pay more. In the past, women were expected to stay at home,
Some say that women’s search for equality has reached a plateau, that it can’t go any farther, and even if it did, it wouldn’t be good. Christina Hoff Summers stated, “if we continue on our present course, boys will, indeed, be tomorrow’s second sex” (Off Our Backs 2003). Although some hold this belief, the fact is, women still have a very long way to go before they reach that point. Part of achieving gender equality is closing the gender wage gap. It hasn’t even been a hundred years since women gained suffrage in the United States, and there is so much more left to achieve. Some believe that we shouldn’t bother closing the gender wage gap because in other countries there is an even greater disparity in gender equality. However, just because one thing isn’t as bad as another thing, it doesn’t mean that the first thing doesn’t need to be