Women and the American Economy Term Paper

Women and the American Economy

The American workforce has been composed of men and women for many decades now. Despite history shows that the American workforce used to be made up of only the male gender, the women gender had shown that they have the power and capability to perform what men can do. However, although the female gender was able to prove themselves, gender discrimination and inequality that were found in the early years of labor force still exists these days. This can be proven by how the wages of the male and female gender differs and how occupations between them are distributed.

"Women earn less than men." This is a fact that has been found by several statistics on the wage gap between men and women in the American workforce. Robert Longley indicates the following findings of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Women make only 75.5 cents for every dollar that men earn.

Before, the practice of paying men more than women for the same job and work that they've completed was considered by the society to be traditional, legitimate, and acceptable. That was because of the old perception and belief that women should not surpass the men. However, if we are to talk of this topic at the present times, the law is the only reference that the society must consider. That is, and specifically, the right to equal opportunity.

There are several reasons why women in the American workforce receive a lower pay than that of the same job where a man is in the position. The most common perhaps is the inevitable perception of stereotyping the female gender in a "female-type" occupation. Hence, even when a woman is in a high ranking position that is used to be dominated by the male gender, the continuous perception that men can do better because they have been performing the job longer than women overpowers the decision of granting who gets a higher wage. Amazon Castle Online indicates that,

Studies have shown repeatedly in men and women who have graduated from college with the same education, seeking the same type of job, that men will be offered more money and will earn at least 10% more than the women.

In the present law on employment in the U.S., discrimination and inequality are being prevented by the Equal Employment Opportunity Laws. However, based on the data shown by the U.S. Census Bureau, the big question is "Does our law really protects the female gender in the workforce?" As indicated by Dr. Barbara Gault,

To address the continuing disparities in pay between women and men, we need to raise the minimum…