Time and time again, I’ve heard from men that wouldn’t likely label themselves as feminists: “I’m still very conservative, but the one thing we have to stop is the wage gap.”
Understanding that the wage gap is a real issue is definitely a step in the right direction. For women, however, the wage gap isn’t an isolated issue.
The fact is, the wage gap doesn’t exist because men at large firms sit around the table and twiddle their thumbs, saying, “Oh, I know what we can do–let’s pay all women less.” The wage gap exists for far deeper reasons. This isn’t a conscious “Bill-is-worth-more-than-Sally.” Women are being paid less because their value is being perceived as less.
A few weeks ago, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts (WNYC’s Death, Sex, and Money, listen here) when evidence of this issue popped up in a surprising way. The episode was focused on the challenges faced by a mother of two teenage boys with autism, but gender roles leaked into the conversation. In the episode, the woman, Diane Gill Morris, discussed planning to go back to work five years after her sons were born, but put her plans on hold when she discovered that her sons both had autism. When the host asked why she stayed home instead of her husband, the woman replied, “It’s very hard for a man to say to his boss, ‘I need to work fewer hours’ and still be respected in the workplace.”
I heard this and nodded to myself in sympathy, before pausing and realizing what I was doing. In that split second, it did sound silly for this woman’s husband to tell his boss “Hey, sorry, I need to spend more time taking care of my kids.”
Even though our society hears the exact same words from working women daily…and most of us nod in agreement.
As far as the podcast is concerned, I am sure Diane made the right decision for herself and her family. My point is, even in 2017, we still stereotype men to be focused on career and women to be focused on family. We don’t see married, heterosexual individuals as a team; rather, we categorize them according to archaic gender stereotypes. Because of this, the wage gap exists. We have drawn women into a box where family and domestic life comes before all else—even though women have moved even further than the Women’s Liberation movement of the 1970s, earning the right to work AND raise a family.
But in spite of this progress, we still have a large wage gap. And we have enacted laws (the Equal Pay Act of 1963 rings a bell) to try and fix the problem. However, experts in the legal profession still find that employers are blatantly breaking these laws, and the wage gap still exists. Joan Hastings, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law, reports that women are often discriminated against in the workplace because employers assume that women will leave the workforce to have children. And this makes it easier for executives to devalue women and make decisions about their pay based on their perceived role as domestic provider.
While this disjointed societal view of gender roles is unfortunate, it leads me to believe that we need to push harder for feminism in all aspects of daily life–not just in basic public policy. Yes, closing the wage gap is VERY important. But when we talk about the wage gap like it’s the be-all, end-all pinnacle of inequality, we miss an important point.
During the 20th century, we made modest progress towards attacking issues of social inequality head-on with policy. And policy bridged a lot of gaps. But now it’s time for our culture to bridge divides not yet crossed by law. It’s not just enough to close the wage gap. And it’s not just about the wage gap. We devalue women by more than a salary when we ask ourselves if they are capable of making decisions about their health care. We devalue women by more than 77 cents to every man’s dollar when we assume they’ll leave a firm for motherhood. We devalue women by more than just a paycheck when we see their gender role instead of their individual choice. And we devalue women by more than their salary when we assume that we can solve their problems simply by closing the wage gap. We need feminism so that we can have a dialogue on these issues.
Because this isn’t a black-and-white problem. This is a cultural phenomenon. And until we can see women as truly equals in all spheres, we can’t close the gap.
Sources:
http://www.npr.org/2013/06/10/189280329/50-years-after-the-equal-pay-act…
Specific Death, Sex, and Money Episode: http://www.wnyc.org/story/autism-death-sex-money