Women prejudice is the discrimination that is based on the fact that one is a woman. This usually leads to gender inequality which is major social issue in America.  The road to equality between men and women has been long. Many changes have taken place over the years and many people have mistakenly believed that discrimination against women is abolished. However, this is not the case. In America today, women run corporations, hold public office, and perform advanced surgeries and many other things that were historically done by men. However, in all these roles, women in often cases face obstacles or are paid than their male counterparts.

In many contexts, women are considered as the minority group. In America, half of the workforce is made up of women. They are also equal and in some instances main breadwinners of their families. Traditionally, men are supposed to take care of the family, but that have changed in our societies.  Women are increasing becoming the breadwinners in the families. Issues such as single mothers have strained the income of women who are earning less in the first place.  With the burden of child rearing, these single mothers are forced to work part time thus earning less. In addition, in a typical American family, the man and the woman share responsibilities equally.

These statistics show that women are not discriminated because they are few in number or because they have no families to take care of but because of the long held culture of discrimination. Gender equality has been achieved in most areas except the wage differences. Women are prejudiced when it comes to wages in the workplace. However, as discussed above, women have equal roles as the men and do the same of kind of work as the men but still earn less in most cases. This is a high form of prejudice on the women.

At a round table in Manhattan, presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton outlined that there is no discount for being a woman and so both men and women should earn the same for a similar job.  She started by detailing that an average working American woman earns 79 cents of what the average man earns. The disparity is bigger for the African-Americans and the Latinos.

Clinton argues that the Americans must be willing to address the implicit bias that leads to this inequality. Though a part of the wage gap is explained by experience, it does not explain the while wage gap. There are other issues that lead to the wage gap mainly bias against women. Clinton put an emphasis on the need to have the Fairness Act (Peck, 2016).  She urged the private companies to re-examine their wage practices to ensure that they are fair. She also argues that companies must be willing to encourage salary transparency and there should be retaliation for workers who get to know how much other employees are paid. Hilary Clinton is committed to closing the wage gap through growth and fairness.

The table below shows the women s earnings as a percentage of men earnings.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

In the year 2015, the women earned 79 cents for every dollar earned by men. This was not significantly different from the rates in the year 2014 and 2013. However, in the year 2012, the women earned 80.9 cents for every dollar men earned. There are many theories as to why there gender wage inequality exists. Some argue that it nor because of prejudice against women but due to differences in experience. In many companies, it is common for the more experienced people to earn more than the less experienced though the two sets of employees do the same kind of work.  This is true given that it is common for employees to receive a salary raise on yearly basis.

Another theory is that women in most cases work part-time. With the responsibilities of child bearing and rearing, women are forced to work part-time while the men work full time. Ideally, the men work for many hours compared to women which translate to higher earnings for the men. Another theory is that generally, there exists a prejudice against women when it comes to wages. Historically, women are supposed to stay home while the men look after the family. However, with the occurrences of issues such as single motherhood and poverty, women had to contribute to the well being of the families.

Recent statistics have shown that the gender wage gap in increasing. Specifically, 40 percent of the women in the workforce are main breadwinners in their families. 37% of these women are those who are married and have a higher income than their husbands. However, the rest 67 percent are single mothers (Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2016). The income gap between the two groups of breadwinners’ women is very high. The single mothers earn less income putting a strain on them and their children. Due to the responsibility of looking after the children, most of these women work part time increasing the chances of earning less than the men who have all the time to work.

In the year 2015, women who were working full-time made 79 cents for every dollar made by men. This translates to a gender wage gap of 21 percent. On average, women earn less than men in almost all occupation (Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2016). In this current century, men and women have equal responsibilities. Traditionally, men are supposed to take care of the family, but that have changed in our societies.  Women are increasing becoming the breadwinners in the families. Thus, women and men should have equally paid on jobs.

First, persistent inequality in earnings for women has translated to less income for their families and lower lifetime income for women.  This, in turn, increases the poverty levels in the United States. In every state in America, women experience lower earnings as compared to men. The effect on the economy due to this inequality is devastating. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, if the wage inequality gap were bridged, poverty for the working women would be reduced by half as well as add $482 to the economy (Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2016).

Equal pay would go a long way reducing poverty rates among the working women. In New Mexico for example, the poverty rate among the working women would reduce by 6.9 percent.  The extra payment on women would, in turn, be ejected to the economy by increased consumption, investment, and increased tax.

According to the Center for American Progress, men in the United States work for long hours than in any other industrialized country. With lower income levels for the women, men are forced to work extra hard to be able to take care of the family. In most cases, men have no time to spend with their children as women do. This to some extent affects the children socially and psychologically. It also puts a strain on men. If the women had an opportunity to earn as much as the men, the strain on the men would be reduced.

The man, as well as the woman, would have equal time to spend with their children. The strain on the men is one of the major causes of single motherhood (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016). As discussed earlier single mothers earn considerably less than the married women. Equal pay for men and women would go a long way reducing the cases of single motherhood which is good for our societies. In addition, when both men and women are earning equally, it becomes easy to share the family responsibilities. With the statistics above, the problem is caused by prejudice on the women. If it was a matter of experience, women also have equal experience as the men.

In addition, though most of the women work part-time, the calculations are done relative to that fact. There is no reason why men should earn more than the women for the same job. The only reason is discrimination. Prejudice against women when it comes to wages which most people think is a thing of the past is live and operating. Women are contributing equally as the men in the well being of the families but still earn less. In terms of education and experience, women are in the forefront but still they earn less. This can only result due to discrimination.

There is need to solve this problem. One of the ways this problem of wages inequality can be solved is for there to be a fairness act that stipulates that all people doing the same kind of job should earn the same relative to their experience. This would ensure there is fairness in wages. In addition, raising the federal minimum wage would also go a long way in solving the problem. The women working part time would have a chance to earn more.

One of the reasons why this problem exists is because women do not know it exists. When one is employed, negotiations are done concerning the wages. It is hard to know how much the other employees earn meaning one cannot know that she is underpaid. Employees should be allowed to know how much their counterparts earn.

The political proposal by the democrats would relate well with these solutions. The democrats are working to raise the tax on the rich and increase the minimum federal wages. The current president who is a democrat has done a lot to ensure there is fairness in the wages. Fairness is the key figure with the democrats.

Reference

Bureau of Labor Statistics,. (2016). Retrieved 24 May 2016, from http://www.bls.gov/OPUB/MLR/1999/12/art2full.pdf

Peck, E. (2016). Hillary Clinton: ‘There’s No Discount For Being A Woman, So Why Should We Be Paid Less?’. The Huffington Post. Retrieved 24 May 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-pay-gap_us_570d10e1e4b01422324a264b

Institute for Women’s Policy Research. (2016, February). The Economic Impact of Equal Pay by State. Retrieved May 4, 2016, from http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/the-economic-impact-of-equal-pay-by-state

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