Gender Wage Gap: Causes & Earnings Ratio - Essay Sample

Introduction

Earnings ratio refers to the ratio of men and women's median earnings, which is usually reported as the actual pay gap (Walker, 2018). In this case, the media refers to the middle value with equal numbers of full-time workers earning more and also earning less. It is expressed mathematically as shown below

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Earning ratio=Women's Median earnings/ Men's median earnings

On pages 14-17 (What Causes the Pay Gap?), the report provides three primary explanations for the gender wage gap: Occupational Segregation, The Motherhood Penalty, and Direct Gender and Race Discrimination and Bias. Explain in some detail how these three factors affect the pay gap.

For the occupational segregation, there are gendered expectations relating to what boys and girls should be focused on according to their educational experience. The expectations, together with the external pressure to conform to the gender roles stereotypes, follow men and women into the classes and the extracurricular activities, their career directions, and also college majors. In the motherhood penalty, becoming a parent produces very different professional outcomes for men and women, according to Walker (2018), taking time away from the workforce or even cutting back hours, which is both common for the mothers and fathers hurts earnings. Many working mothers also face the motherhood penalty extending beyond their normal time out of the workforce. The act of direct gender and race discrimination and bias is also another cause of the pay gap (Walker, 2018). It is depicted that not all of the people, as well as race pay gaps, can be explained through the observable differences, especially in occupations, college majors working hours, and time out of the workforce. Direct discrimination and bias against women in the workplace are the culprits in the pay gap.

Burnham identifies five factors that contribute to wage disadvantages for Black women in the labor market. Describe two of these factors.

The black workers face added dimensions of the disadvantages of gender bias as well as the disadvantages in the labor force. Some of the factors which contribute to the wage disadvantage for black women include a high level of employment discrimination based on race, gender identity and sexual orientation, and also high levels of poverty, especially among the transgender individuals and the black lesbians (Burnham, 2016). Unprotected from the job discrimination in many of the states and lacking access to the multiple benefits accruing to the married couples and state-recognized family forms. The black workers, in general, face particular challenges in the labor force. Both the gender gap and the racial gap in the wages and income are salient within the community (Burnham, 2016).

When Cohen examines only college graduates in the demographic group being studied, rather than all men and women in this group, how does the story about women's wage advantages change?

The gender pay gap persists across the educational levels and is worse for the Hispanic women as well as the blacks, even among college graduates. Due to the stated pay gap, women who wind up college degrees are less able as compared to men initially to afford college and then less able to make payments for an extended period of time. Understudy obligation and the compensation hole imply that ladies have a more troublesome time making a decent living while they are reimbursing their credits. In 2012, among understudies who graduated in 2007-08, ladies working all day had paid off 33 percent of their understudy credit obligation by and large, while men working all day had paid off 44 percent of their obligation (Luscombe, 2010)

Describe why and how Black and White women viewed the issue of sexism through different issues.

The black female civil rights did not worry about the aspect of sexism to the extent that the whites viewed. The female activist criticized the white women for bringing up the issues in relation to gender within the racial struggle of life and death. Many of them had declined the allegations of experiencing the kind of sexism about which the northern middle-class, which the white volunteers of the civil rights complained (Breines, 2007). Many of the white women than the blacks had focused on the issues related to gender, discontented with the expectations that they would work within the offices and within the freedom schools i.e., the informal schools which were commonly taught by the white females which were set up for the black children. The black women had no patience of what they related as the middle class, issues of white women when the black women were risking their lives against the white segregation, which was regarded as dangerous in a racial struggle of immense magnitude (Breines, 2007).

In Breines' view, why and how were the Black and White women able to come together in response to the murders of 13 women in Boston in 1979?

The black and white women came together in response to the murder of the 13 women in Boston because they were critical of the prevailing male chauvinism. Hence, they formed their autonomous groups, which comprised of the radical wing of the feminist movements. The feminists mobilized out of fear and rage at the police as well as the media for assuming the murder case. According to Breines', they focused their wrath on movement men as well as on sexism in the society of the capitalist. Therefore, as the antiracists and socialists, they were fully aware of the racism as well as class exploitation. Their main aim was a radical and also integrated women's movement, which would be essential in building a just and also racially integrated society, which is peaceful. During that time, the socialists feminists acknowledged that despite that their gender placed them at a disadvantage, their race and classes created privileges.

Describe the differences between institutional and structural discrimination, giving examples of each.

Institutional discrimination pertains to policies of a superior ethnic/race/gender institutions and the behavior of individuals who run these institutions and implement policies that are aimed to have a differential or harmful impact on minority ethnic/race/gender groups whereas, structural discrimination is termed as the policies of dominant race/ethnic/gender institutions and the behavior of the individuals who implement these policies and run these policies., that are race/ethnic/gender-neutral in purpose but have a differential or harmful impact on minority race/ethnic/gender groups (Pincus, 1996). Institutional discrimination involves an intention to harm, while structural discrimination does not include an intention to harm.

Examples of institutional discrimination include; Segregation of Jim Crow in the South during the first half of the twentieth century, State laws which authorized the separation of Blacks and Whites in all aspects of life, The 1992 trail and acquittal of the officers who were involved in the beating of King where the defense asked a change of the place and the trial was shifted to a predominantly white community where all the jury was made of white which finally acquitted the officers.

Examples of structural discrimination include; the lending patterns of banks where qualified Hispanic and Blacks have very low chances to receive loans than or even home mortgages than Whites. Also, the matter of seniority in employment where during the period of laying off workers, minorities suffer the most since they tend to be hired last hence putting them into the larger risk of being laid off.

Propose a strategy for activist groups to fight a specific issue of structural discrimination.

The activist groups could fight structural discrimination such as that of seniority in employment by creating intergroup activities that would bring people from different backgrounds such as the minorities and the dominants to contribute equally to the project involved. People involved in intergroup exercises bring to those skills assumptions about the duties they should undertake that are used based on anticipations shaped by preexisting attributions of power and by habits of the behavior of groups.

According to Lee, why did the Young Lords first decide to focus on the issue of garbage in East Harlem, and what did they do about it?

This is because people had begun throwing garbage as well as the wrecked furniture into the streets' middle. The traffic was then stopped frequently, with the businessmen avoiding the clog of the River. The police and the sanitation workers would hence clear one of the intersections finding that block ways had been blocked with the kind of debris where that in the middle sections were not allowed to languish on the sidewalks. The Barrio found a workable pace immediately. The remainder of New York didn't focus until, in December, they involved a Methodist church in the region. They had negotiated for quite a long time with the pastor for utilization of the congregation to lead a morning meal program, wellbeing facility, and daycenter.

References

Walker, K. A. (2018). Gender gap in professional entomology: women are underrepresented in academia and the US government. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 111(6), 355-362.

Burnham, L. (2016). Gender and the Black Jobs Crisis. Souls, 18(1), 126-134.

Luscombe, B. (2010). Workplace salaries: At last, women on top. Time. com.

Breines, W. (2007). struggling to connect: white and black feminism in the movement years. contexts, 6(1), 18-24.

Pincus, F. L. (1996). Discrimination comes in many forms: Individual, institutional, and structural. American Behavioral Scientist, 40(2), 186-194.

Lee, J. (2009). 8."The Young Lords' Legacy of Puerto Rican Activism.". City Room, 24.