Equal Pay For Women. Help Spread Awareness!

We need to make equal pay and equal opportunity for women and girls a reality so women’s rights are human rights once and for all. -Hillary Clinton

Gender Pay Gap

• The gender wage gap refers to the difference in earnings between men and women
• Women of all races earn of average just 82 cents for every $1 earned by men of all races
• The pandemic has set women’s labor force participation back more than 30 years

Why is there a pay gap between men and women?

1. Discrimination and bias in hiring an pay decisions

Women are consistently overlooked by employers, who tend to view men as being more competent for the job. This mindset is mostly because of old stereotypes

2. Women staying home

Given their lower earnings, women are usually the parent who take time off to raise their children. This means that they are out of the workforce for a few years, which lowers their pay when they return

3. Women’s jobs pay less, even when equal in value

The jobs dominated by women in a company are not valued in the same way that men’s jobs are. Studies have shown that the more women fill an occupation, the less it pays

Pink tax

The pink tax refers to the tendency for products marketed toward women to be more expensive than those marketed for men. Ironic, isn’t it?

Ex- Hygiene products, kids toys, etc

Human Rights

The basic rights and freedoms to which all human beings are entitled. The gender pay gap violates many of the 30 human rights.

• (Article 1) Children are born free and equal with rights. Each should be treated the same way. (pink tax)
• (Article 2) No-one should be discriminated against any reason (gender discrimination)
• (Article 23) You are entitled to equal work and equal pay (women aren’t paid the same as men in nearly all occupations)
• (Article 29) We all have a responsibility to the people around us and should respect their rights and freedoms (women’s rights aren’t being respected)

Solutions

What actions has the USA taken already to stop the wage gap?

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was signed by former president John F. Kennedy. The Act was signed with good intentions of giving women a better future. There were still many reasons that let businesses justify unequal pay. Examples are….

• Some states didn’t let women work at night
• Some laws limited the amount of hours women worked

This led to women still not being able to earn as much as men.

What has the UN done to try and stop this violation?

According to our research the UN hasn’t done much to stop unequal pay. However the UN has done some things to spread awareness. They included in the Universal Declaration of Rights that everybody should be paid equally. They also formed International Equal Pay Day on September 18. It is a day especially designed where groups can come and promote equal pay at their live event.

What should be done?

Unequal pay for men and women should become illegal. Obviously, this might take a while, so in the meantime we can pass the paycheck Fairness Act which has preventive measures.

What we all can do?

My friends and I wrote a letter to Kamala Harris expressing our concern. Here’s our letter:

• Write letters to our representatives
• Create a petition
• Find a platform and educate (blogs, youtube videos, social media, speeches, etc)
• Organize campaigns and other events

Resources