Blog Post 8: Paper Outline

Introduction: Gender Wage Gap

The gender wage gap is the difference in income between male and female co-workers that hold the same position, when the numbers are taken into account it is found that women on average earn 20 cents less to every dollar a man earns. This has caused numerous conflicts and uproars from the female community expressing their outrage and frustration all over the free world.

Historical Background/Theme:

The mistreatment of women through generations from being denied the right to vote and now possible discrimination in the workplace. Women feel they earn less than their male counterparts because their male bosses do not feel they deserve it.

-Human Rights

-Gender Conflicts

-Income

Cause of Conflict:

Women are underpaid compared to their male counterparts because of discrimination against them. Women are often over looked and pushed aside in favor of males because employers feel that they will not put as much effort into the job because of distractions such as home life.

Strauss, E. (n.d.). Iowa Woman Fired for Being Attractive Looks Back and Moves On. ABC News. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from http://abcnews.go.com/Business/iowa-woman-fired-attractive-back-moves/story?id=19851803

Finn, L., & Media, D. (n.d.). Female Discrimination in the Workplace. Everyday Life. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/female-discrimination-workplace-2736.html

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Betty Dukes (10-277). (n.d.). LII. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/10-277

Solution:

The solution would seem very simple, just pay women equally to men and end this whole thing. Things however, are far more complicated than they may seem many believe that the pay gap is not even existent because when things like education, work hours and numerous other factors are taken into place it seems to even out the playing field. Legislation has been passed from Kennedy, outlawing discrimination in the workplace and Obama passing an equal pay act but things like this can not be enforced in every corner because it is too large of an issue to monitor. I have no solution for this conflict because of the numerous factors and the immense size of this conflict, it is near impossible to decide how to solve this, but their is definitely something that needs to be done.

Blog Post 6&7: Arguements- Gender Wage Gap

Blog Post 6: What do claim is the direct cause of your conflict?

Conclusion Claim: Women are underpaid due to discrimination against them.

Premise: Women are passed over for promotions/salary raises due to pregnancy and a mandatory 12 week paid leave. This makes women cautious about applying for higher ranking position to obtain higher pay grades because bosses don’t want to pay someone who won’t be there.(Finn, n.d)

Premise: Women are denied positions for companies because of their appearance, employers fear sexual harassment lawsuits(Finn, n.d). An Iowa women was fired from her job as a dental assistant because her boss found her too attractive and a threat to his marriage.(Strauss, n.d)

Strauss, E. (n.d.). Iowa Woman Fired for Being Attractive Looks Back and Moves On. ABC News. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from http://abcnews.go.com/Business/iowa-woman-fired-attractive-back-moves/story?id=19851803

Finn, L., & Media, D. (n.d.). Female Discrimination in the Workplace. Everyday Life. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/female-discrimination-workplace-2736.html

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Betty Dukes (10-277). (n.d.). LII. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/10-277

Blog Post 7: What do you claim is the direct cause of your conflict?

Conclusion Claim: The wage gap does not exist when things such as education, family life, personal work choice/job choice, etc are taken in for account.

Premise: Men are more likely to enter into higher paying fields and occupations by choice(Tobak,2011). According to Tobak women are more likely to enter into professions that generally do not have high salaries such as education and healthcare. Tobak provides a statistic that in 2009 only 7% of professional women were employed in the field of engineering compared to the 38% of men employed in the same field.

Premise: The real gap isn’t between men and women doing the same job. It’s between the different jobs that men and women take(Thompson, 2013, p1).

Tobak, S. (2011, March 11). The Gender Pay Gap is a Complete Myth. CBSNews. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-28246928/the-gender-pay-gap-is-a-complete-myth/

Thompson, D. (2013, May 30). The Atlantic. The Atlantic. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/05/the-biggest-myth-about-the-gender-wage-gap/276367/

Annotated Bibliography- Gender Wage Gap

Arulampalam, W., Booth, A. L., & Bryan, M. L. (2007). Is there a glass ceiling over Europe? Exploring the gender pay gap across the wage distribution. Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 60(2), 163-186.http://ehis.ebscohost.com.proxy-ub.researchport.umd.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=d0492e3d-1202-4422-89c3-7d183d06d245%40sessionmgr12&hid=6

1. The authors of this article are investigating the gender wage gap based on different levels of education in eleven different countries. They tend to find that the wage gap differs greatly at both ends, in certain countries those with higher level educations experience a larger pay gap while those with lesser education tend to experience less of a pay gap. Likewise, it is also found the other way around where there is a very small gap between those with a higher education and a considerable gap between those with a lesser education. The authors conclude that regardless of the differing levels of education women are still found to be underpaid in their work fields compared to men
2. I picked this article because it addressed an issue/theme related to my topic; women are under paid due to differing levels of education. This article takes a more specific approach to my topic, in that it focuses primarily on the educational levels of men and women in many different countries to find a cause for the gap. This article directly relates to my conflict because it mentions that women are considerably under paid by their employers and takes a look a common belief that it is due to an educational gap. I would have liked it if the author also talked about the home life of women, to get a perspective and see if it maybe a cause it the pay gap.

Asplund, R., & Napari, S. (2011). Intangibles and the Gender Wage Gap: An analysis of Gender Wage Gaps across occupations in the Finnish private sector. Journal of Labor Research, 32(4), 305-325. doi:10.1007/s12122-011-9114-9 http://ehis.ebscohost.com.proxy-ub.researchport.umd.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=4af8edbb-a2e7-44cf-a739-824cdb076163%40sessionmgr113&vid=3&hid=116

1. This article takes a look at the gender wage gap between workers who change and become better to help the company thrive (innovation workers) and those who do not take as much initiative evolve with their company (non- innovation workers).The article looks at different factors that contribute to the gap as well as possible misleading sources in the role of intangible capital. The article in the end blames sector specific factors as playing a large role in the wage gap, and confirms that there are misleading conclusions about so called “intangible capital”
2. I picked this article because of its relation to my topic. The article presents are very specific viewpoint of the issue regarding misleading data about money that’s not there and the role of the worker. The article directly relates to my conflict because it discusses the gender wage gap, but in Finland. This article confused me a bit but it explains that there are incorrect findings about the wage gap which led to false conclusions and that is something I may want to look more into. I wish the author could have taken a more global stand point and look at the gender wage gap across the entire world.

Nyhus, E. K., & Pons, E. (2012). Personality and the gender wage gap. Applied Economics, 44(1), 105-118. doi:10.1080/00036846.2010.500272 http://ehis.ebscohost.com.proxy-ub.researchport.umd.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=6bf1940b-6437-40f0-8178-f7d8933af473%40sessionmgr4&vid=3&hid=110

1. The article looks at the personality of women compared to men and uses that as a possible explanation for why women may experience a pay gap. The article concludes that part of the “unexplained part” of the gender wage gap is believed to be due to discrimination. The authors give a multitude of reasons however they conclude that the differences in pay is due to the personality of the person from their own personal lifestyles and how they pick and choose in the labor market.
2. I picked this article because of its relation to my topic. This article gets very specific in blaming the gap for the different personalities of people. The article relates to my topic because a common belief for the gap is that women differ greatly in their life choices and personalities from men and women tend to take more personal days. The article confirmed a theme that I was curious about. I wish the author described a little bit more about the home life factor of women on wor.

UPenn, W. S. (2012, June 8). “The vicious cycle of the gender pay gap” Business & Money. Business money comments. Retrieved October 28, 2013, from http://business.time.com/2012/06/08/the-vicious-cycle-of-the-gender-pay-gap-2/

1. This article openly blames discrimination as a cause of the pay gap. The author says that lawsuits were filed against a stockbroking company that supposedly benefitted the male workers even though brokers were paid in commission. The company says that the reason women did not earn as much as men is because they are not good sales people. It was found that at the firms women were less likely to receive accounts that had higher commission earnings and that is what put a dent in their salaries.
2. I picked this article because of its relation to my topic. This article does provide a broad overview of the topic by giving a specific example, it is widely believed that the gap in wages in due discrimination. It’s relation to my topic is that it discusses discrimination of women in the workplace and how that leads to women being unfairly treated as well as underpaid. This article was very helpful with background information and giving a sense of this conflict. I wish Madden would have gave her own opinion on whether she believed discrimination was at fault or how she feels about the conflict.

Fitzpatrick, Laura. “Why do women still earn less than men.” TIME.com. TIME Magazine, 20 Apr. 2010. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. < http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1983185,00.html

1. The article talks about the gender wage gap between men and women. The article mentions specific values that indicate the percentage of what women earn compared to men. The article concludes that ending the discrimination would be beneficial to everyone who supports equal rights.
2. I picked this article because it provides great background information on the causes of the gender wage gap. The article provides a very broad perspective on the gender wage gap including some possible causes. This article has a direct relation to my topic because it provides background information as well as a few statistics. This article provided excellent background information to help me understand my topic. I would have liked more in depth explanation of the causes of the gender wage gap.

Exlporing Themes: Human Rights- Gender Wage Gap

UNDERSTANDING THE GENDER PAY GAP: WHAT’S COMPETITION GOT TO DO WITH IT?. (2010). Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 63(4), 681-698.

The article describes possible reasons for the gender wage gap and the factors that contribute to the problem. The article hypothesizes that a major contribution to the gap is that women are a lot less competitive compared to men and only compete when the rewards/incentives are higher, and due to the lack of competition their performance falls below that of their male counterparts explaining why men earn more than women. The article concludes that while these reasons are a contributing factor it only makes up a very small percentage of the gap in wages and that misleading data as well as other published article take things for facts instead of putting more research into it, leading people in the wrong direction.

This article connects with my theme of human rights because its explanation of the factors contributing to the major topic of the gender wage gap. The gender wage gap is the difference of wages earned between men and women, and women believe they are being discriminated against as well as some violation to their rights as workers. The author of the article researches possible triggers for what may be the cause of the gap in salaries, the author talks about how data has been used to make the wage gap appear larger than it really maybe and that contributing factors do not have such a large impact as other make it to believe.

Feminist Group Burns $13,000 to protest Wage Gap in Sweden

http://s276.photobucket.com/user/feministing/media/burningkronor.jpg.html

A Swedish feminists group burns 100,000 kronor or the equivalent to 13,000 U.S Dollars, in protest of the Wage Gap between men and women, the group claims that the money represents how much each female worker misses out on every minute due to the gender wage gap

Gender Wage Gap: News Article Critique

These two article both discuss the gender wage gap, however they differ greatly in their content. The first article claims that if the gender wage were to close completely it would greatly influence women to enter the workforce increasing the amount of money they bring home, which in return they will spend on goods and services allowing that money to flow through the market and possibly increase the state of the economy. The second article uses statistics to show that over a 30 year period, the wage gap between men and women has dropped by half of what it was in 1979 and reasons women may be underpaid, such as women are less likely to work more hours than men due to home life. These articles take a similar point of view in that women entering the workforce can be a benefit, the second article believes that  the wage gap is shrinking which could potentially flow into the viewpoints of the first article. The second article lists numerous references including the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while the first article quotes numerous experts who have been conducting research on the subject. This article is news because of its prominence amongst women in the workplace, the subject has been brought up numerous times to political officials and has been dodged just about every time and it is getting frustrating to those that want equality.

Basset, L. Closing the gender wage gap would create ‘huge’ economic stimulus, economists say.  Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/gender-wage-gap-economic-stimulus_n_2007588.html 

Kolesnikova, N. A., & Liu, Y. (n.d.). Gender wage gap may be much smaller than most think. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis | Economic Data, Monetary Rates, Economic Education. Retrieved September 30, 2013, from http://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/re/articles/?id=2160

Gender Wage Gap

The parties affected by the gender wage gap are men and women in the workplace that hold similar or identical positions, other potential parties include feminists, economic researchers and politicians. The first party (women, Feminists) would like to earn the same amount as their male counterparts; some women feel that the reason for the difference in their pay grade compared to their male colleagues is due to discrimination against them.  Reports and statistics show that women on average earn about 82-84% of what their male co-workers earn in one year, which on average counts for about 1-1.3 million dollars over a lifetime. The second party (men, economic researchers, politicians) has interest in helping their female co-workers obtain the same wages they do, however some feel that the wage gap is a mere myth because women are more likely to work fewer hour and take more vacation/personal days compared to men. There have been many outraged women and feminists groups addressing politicians about what they intend to do about this issue and many politicians have ignored the questions or dodged them. At the second presidential debate a 24-year old preschool teacher stood before them and asked what they planned to do about it, only have both candidates dodge her question. The Paycheck Fairness Act was presented to the Senate but was down voted mainly by Republicans who oppose such bills because they believe it interferes with the job market.

Tobak, S. (n.d.). The gender pay gap is a complete myth – CBS News. Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News – CBS News. Retrieved September 16, 2013, from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-28246928/the-gender-pay-gap-is-a-complete-myth/

 

Gender pay gap – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved September 16, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_pay_gap#Anti-discrimination_legislation

 

Kingkade, T. (n.d.). Women’s Pay Gap Starts Right After College, Exacerbates Student Debt: Study. Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 16, 2013, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/women-pay-gap-student-debt_n_2008484.html

Basset, L. Closing the gender wage gap would create ‘huge’ economic stimulus, economists say.  Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/gender-wage-gap-economic-stimulus_n_2007588.html

 

Kolesnikova, N. A., & Liu, Y. (n.d.). Gender wage gap may be much smaller than most think. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis | Economic Data, Monetary Rates, Economic Education. Retrieved September 30, 2013, from http://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/re/articles/?id=2160