Thursday, October 25, 2012
The Truth About Wages
This article from Brookings discusses the wages by gender and the role of women in the workforce. We can see through the graph below men's wages have been slightly decreasing over the years. The role of education plays a large factor in wages, as seen in the second graph. Please comment on what you think about the changing rate of earnings over the years. How have women changed the face of the workforce over the past few decades? If any of you have talked to grandparents/ parents about workforce gender changes, it might be interesting to add their insight. Bottom line, things are changing and with more people receiving higher education and looking to work the job market is more competitive than ever.
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Simply from these two graphs it is easy to see why some people would have higher wages than others. It is obvious that a college degree increases your likelihood of gaining a better job and therefore receiving higher pay. However, The first graph that distinguishes male from female wages actually tells us a lot more about gender movements and the changes within society as a whole over the past century. Although men still gain the advantages of a society that was based on a male dominated workforce, women are now playing a much greater role outside of the home. It is interesting to see how this trend continues and if women will eventually surpass men.
ReplyDeleteFrom looking at the graphs it is sad to see that the number of women earning a college degree surpassed men years ago yet women overall are still paid less. I don't really care what job a woman is doing, she should be paid an equal amount to that of a male doing the same job. Our whole society is built around patriarchy which stems down causing everything from wage gaps, to rape. Equality is something that should be examined to a much greater extent than it currently is. In my experience most people who were born with some sort of privilege be it wealth, male gender, or ethnicity, usually don't take notice of this privilege and seem to think that they don't have it better than anybody else. The article states that women's roles and participation in the workforce has changed dramatically over the last century (I feel like as almost if it were magical), but nothing is mentioned about than change occurring because it is no longer as unacceptable/shameful for a woman to work outside of the home. Why did we have this shame in the first place...patriarchy.
ReplyDeleteWe are now living in a time where being independent as a woman is much more encouraged than in the past. Like Beth mentioned, there had been, and still are, stigmas related to women in the workplace. I think the biggest factor in this recent trend that we are seeing is the amount of women receiving a college degree. It is no coincidence that as women become more and more educated as a whole group, their wages and incomes are becoming more and more equal to their male counterparts. Now it's just a matter of reaching that point of true equality and eliminating the stereotypes and biases within our society.
ReplyDeleteFunny that you posted this Bianca, because this was my entire SIP. Basically I analyzed the affect women-owned businesses have on overall payroll, and as we can see my conclusions mimic the top graph. I also came to a conclusion that things are improving in the work world for women, and we continue to prove ourselves in the business field. I find the second graph also very interesting to see; women are overall more educated then men. This is also proving my point, that women are determined and will go to extreme measures to prove themselves worthy in the work world, and more then willing to go above and beyond what is expected. Men may have had the upper hand for a while, which is understandable from the past, but women are not backing down to show they are just as capable and even more so than men in the work world.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Maureen, women are finally showing society that we too can hold high positions and so as much as men. It is still upsetting to see that women get paid less than men, especially since I am almost sure that the difference can still be seen within the same job and same position. Nonetheless, the number of women continuing with the education has increased and it has paid off with their jobs. I hope gender discrimination ends soon so that everyone can have the same opportunity and wage. I am glad women are not backing down, but these graphs show that less men are attending college which is also not good.
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