Women of Guilford, would you like to have to work for free from the start of the year until April 16? No?
Perhaps we should rectify that.
Today in America, we like to look at our level of equal opportunity as constantly improving. While this is mostly true, we still have a long way to go, especially when it comes to women — in this case, their salaries.
Judy Isaksen, associate professor of communication at High Point University, used a hypothetical example in one of her classes to better illustrate the wage gap.
“If you start from the beginning of the year, men have been getting paid since January 1st, and will get paid the entire rest of the year,” said Isaksen in an email interview. “Women will work for free until April 16 and will only then get paid. For women, it is like working the entire year but only getting paid for 77 percent of it.”
Such imbalance isn’t something a country of freedom and equality should support. But, given that Senate Republicans voted against women getting wages equal to men’s, we aren’t as clear of discrimination as we should be.
“It’s a matter of justice,” said Maria Rosales, associate professor of political science. “There’s no reason that something like gender should be so predictive of something like poverty, and right now, single moms are particularly likely to be in poverty.”
It’s a fact that single mothers are more likely to fall into financial difficulty. Why is it so often disputed, knowing how unequal pay could affect them? Are there any valid excuses?
“I’ve heard everything from ‘women like to spend more time with their kids,’ and ‘women like flexible jobs, so they make a trade-off of flexibility for salary,’ to ‘women just don’t care about money as much as men,’” said Rosales.
So not valid excuses. Terrible ones.
“If you pay women less because the man is the main breadwinner in the house, that’s not always the case,” said Early College senior Christianna Van Dalsen. “Sometimes women are the only breadwinners.”
Not only does unequal pay pose financial problems, but it paints a prejudiced picture of American society as a whole, which is definitely something we don’t want.
“By accepting the wage between men and women, we are, in a sense, making the statement that we live in a society that values men more than women, and that we are okay with letting these inequalities persist,” said Jenn Brandt, director of women’s and gender studies at High Point University, in an email interview.
These inadvertent statements have been around for years.
“It shouldn’t be an issue,” said first-year Allyson Quigley. “This should have been resolved 20 years ago.
“We’re making baby steps toward resolving the issue, but it’s going to be resolved through generations.”
Others, however, are sadly unsurprised this inequality remains a prevalent problem today.
“I wish I could say I am surprised, but I’m not,” said bartender and server Sarah Welch in an email interview with The Guilfordian. “Gender norms and stereotypes are rampant in American society, and this includes the workplace.”
Welch also included that she has worked for far fewer female than male bosses.
“The female business owner often has to prove that she is strong and tough enough for the job — qualities that males in this position often do not have to prove,” said Welch. “While these examples might not translate directly to equal pay, I think they show that the American workplace on the whole is not fluid or an ‘equal opportunity employer.’”
Ironically, inequalities such as those in management could help rectify the wage problem if balanced out.
“Nothing will change until the people that are in charge of dealing out salaries are willing to look at women on the same level of professional value in the workplace that they do men,” said Van Dalsen.
This is a call to us, the generation headed for seats of power in businesses and government. If current wage-givers aren’t changing anything, perhaps it’s up to us to re-invigorate the push for equality.
The wage gap has already closed about $0.24 since 1963. Let’s see if we can get it to close entirely.