Now more than ever are the rights of women are put into question. Women everywhere are looking more into their rights as humans. Isn’t it a shame that we are still fighting for equal pay in 2018? If you look into the roles of women today, most are leadership roles that require the most time and thought. And yet we still have to explain why having a woman president would not be detrimental because of her period.
Let’s look more into these topics —
According to the nwlc.org “Women in the U.S. who work full time, year round are paid only 80 cents for every dollar paid to men — and for women of color, the wage gap is even larger. It’s long past time to close the gap. The Equal Pay Act has been the law for more than 50 years — but the wage gap remains. It’s time to take action to fight pay discrimination. Women of every race are paid less than men, at all education levels — and it only gets worse as women’s careers progress. We can shrink the wage gap by lifting up the salaries of women in low-wage jobs, making it easier for women to enter high-paying careers, and ensuring that women don’t take a financial hit for being parents.”
Equal Pay Day actually occurred on April 10, and it celebrates how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year, the exact day differs both by year and by country. For example, Equal Pay Day in 2005 in the United States was on April 19. In 2016, the average salary for females in the United States was 79% of that of the average male.
Many organizations and individuals celebrated by
1. Urging elected officials to act.
2. Hosting an “unequal” bake sale or (un)happy hour.
3. Launching an equal pay social media blitz.
4. Hosting an issue forum in their community.
5. Bringing AAUW salary negotiation workshops to your community/campus.
Many issues still persist today with the wage gap. For the average women, she receives 80 cents to a man’s dollar. However it’s even worse for women of color:
As estimated by the AAUW (The American Association of University Women) In 2016, women working full time in the United States typically were paid just 80 percent of what men were paid, a gap of 20 percent? The gap has narrowed since the 1970s, due largely to women’s progress in education and workforce participation and to men’s wages rising at a slower rate. Still, the pay gap does not appear likely to go away on its own. At the rate of change between 1960 and 2016, women are expected to reach pay equity with men in 2059. But even that slow progress has stalled in recent years. If change continues at the slower rate seen since 2001, women will not reach pay equity with men until 2119. How crazy is it that these are the estimations? With wages like this, how could we try to fight for our first woman president? How does reflect society’s perspective of women and a woman’s contributions to society? We must continue to advocate to equal pay, our work is just as great, if not greater than male coworkers.