Waging War On The Wage Gap

Waging War on The Wage Gap

Picture a man and a woman, doing the same job, working the same amount of time at the same office, the only difference occurring in their paycheck. Women in 2016 are still earning only 79 cents to the man’s dollar. This does not seem like an overwhelming statistic but that 21 cents adds up to the average woman losing over $10,000 per year. The wage gap is an ongoing  form of sexism and inequality in the workplace that has been present since women entered the workforce.  It has been considered taboo to talk about salary in our society but such a problematic issue facing half of the population must be discussed and resolved. The wage gap affects women across America when it comes to choosing a career,college debt, retirement, and family life.

College debt is a burden that controls every college student once they enter the workforce. A recent study by the American Association of University Women showed that 53% of women are paying more towards their student loan payments than they can afford compared to only 39% of men. With college debt and daily expenses, the average woman has no time to think about paying for retirement in the future. The pay gap leaves women, especially minorities, paying more money and for a longer time to pay off college debt. The same concept is implied when saving up for retirement. On average, women live up to 3 years more than men, meaning they have to save extra to retire. Retirement savings are based off of personal savings, a pension or retirement plan, and a Social Security benefit, but women today are not earning as much in personal savings or pension, leaving them with fewer resources to invest. Women over the age of 65 have a poverty rate of 11.6% compared to men’s 6.8% because of their lack of ability to save up for a “financial cushion” to fall back on in a financial issue such as a medical issue or losing their job.  For decades, women have been expected to pay a higher amount of money  while receiving reduced pay.

When it comes to jobs, women have been fulfilling the same duties for decades. While it has been the social norm for women to be nurses, teachers, and caregivers, this paired with the lower pay for women has led to the devaluation of feminized jobs. These important roles in society have been considered insignificant compared to “male” jobs in science and math. When women do pursue jobs in male dominated fields, they still experience a wage gap. Women in STEM fields would have to receive a master’s degree in a career where men only need a bachelor’s degree to receive equal pay. According to the US Census, women historically have had fewer opportunities to achieve the highest earnings in their profession, despite their equal level of education to their male counterparts. When women are not able to save as much money as men, there is a smaller room for error when it comes to entrepreneurship and new career ventures for women, confining them to the same feminized jobs.

When you picture a typical American family, women automatically conform to the stereotype of the “stay at home mom” while men are still often seen as the major breadwinner of the family. Women often fill this position because if they were the primary income, it would not provide enough financial stability for a family due to lack of pay. Women are often required to pay for  “luxury goods” such as feminine products and overpriced versions of products once the statement “for women” is put on it. The Pink Tax is another financial burden on families, especially mothers, who are not receiving equal pay and are required to pay extra for necessities. When women are the caregivers of the family it is normal or even as if they are less qualified to work but when men fulfill the role, they are praised for their “enlightenment” or creating a “modern family dynamic”. But, women working to provide for their families are still judged as “unmotherly”. When it comes to earning money for a family, women just can’t win the approval of society.

Women who have been affected by the wage gap through career choice, financial stability in families, or college debt and retirement are seeking a change. The answer may seem simple enough which is to provide equal pay for both men and women, but the government needs to start funding for federal agencies enforcing fair pay. Workplaces need to start providing family friendly workplace standards for men and women to fit the needs of all workers providing for a family at work and at home. Making changes could lead to the workplace dynamic being changed while women enter new fields and improve others with their greater social standing and newfound equality.

Works Cited

@GCgettysburgian. "Tech Companies Start to Close the Wage Gap." The Gettysburgian. 13 Apr. 2016. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Chittal, Nisha. "Why Sarah Silverman Wants to Be a Dude." Msnbc.com. NBC News Digital, 08 Oct. 2014. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Covert, Bryce. "New Census Data Shows The Gender Wage Gap Hasn't Improved In 7 Years." ThinkProgress. 16 Sept. 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

"The Feminist Myth That Won't Die: The Gender Wage Gap." Odyssey. 06 June 2016. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

"Women's Institute For A Secure Retirement." WISER Women. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Https://www.facebook.com/CNBC. "You Thought the Wage Gap Was Bad? Consider This." CNBC. CNBC, 19 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Trump 1, America 0

Donald Trump.  A successful businessman, presidential candidate, and the mastermind behind the scamming of the American people.  Donald wants us to think that he is a charitable person who spends his money on things that help the world become a better place.  On the surface, this is apparent, as you can see in his many charitable donations over the years. If you dig a little deeper, though, you will find that his so called “donations” do not actually come from him.  Although Donald likes to say he is very generous, he has been scamming America through his college and his charity foundation.

Trump likes to spend money donated to his charity on things for himself.  For instance, at a charity auction, he spent the money people donated to him for charity on a $20,000 painting of himself.  The whereabouts of the painting were unknown, until recently.  The painting is at his private club in Florida, away from the public eye.  This violates the rules of charitable purchases, and he should be punished.  It was quite wrong of him to do this, as it wasn’t even his money, but he disguised it as his own purchase and escaped responsibility for his actions.

Trump has his own college,Trump University, which many alumni claim is a total scam.  There was so much mystery shrouding the college, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was thinking of investigating it.  While she was on the fence about what she would do, Donald Trump donated $25,000 to her reelection!  The case was dropped after this generous donation.  Later, when he ran for president, Pam Bondi endorsed his campaign.  Bondi changed her opinion about him quickly after he put $25,000 in her pocket.  The Trump U scandal has been swept under the rug for long enough that people think it’s not a big deal, but he needs to pay the price for committing these crimes.  

Donald Trump says he is a charitable person.  One of the pieces of evidence he uses to back this up is his own Trump Foundation’s donation of $150,000 to the Palm Beach Police Department at a banquet he organized for them.  This seems kind enough, except for the fact that the banquet was held at Mar-a-Lago club, which is owned by Trump himself, and he charged the police officers for using the room and for everything else, bringing the bill up to a whopping $276,000.  Trump actually turned a charitable action into a way to make some money.  Not only that but before the banquet, he held a fundraiser for the Trump Foundation, which raised $150,000.  He took other people’s money and gave it away under his name.  That is just a terrible thing and Donald shouldn’t be proud of it.

Trump has been using other people’s money for his own personal gain for years.  He bought a painting of himself with money given to him for charitable causes.  He donated money to a campaign just to
escape trouble.  He donated the money of other American citizens under his own name.  America can stop this from happening by exposing him for all his faults and showing the public he is not the man he says he is. Then, the American people will not vote for him in this upcoming election.

Works Cited

Atkin, Emily. "Florida's AG Is Tied Up In The Trump University Scandal. And Things Just Got Worse." ThinkProgress. N.p., 06 July 2016. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <https://thinkprogress.org/floridas-ag-is-tied-up-in-the-trump-university-scandal-and-things-just-got-worse-7f73fdb50114#.ucu9sxdej>.

Fahrenthold, David A. "How Donald Trump Retooled His Charity to Spend Other People's Money." Chicagotribune.com. N.p., 12 Sept. 2016. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-foundation-20160910-story.html>.

"Trump Bought a 6-foot-tall Portrait of Himself with Charity Money. We May Have Found It." Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-clue-to-the-whereabouts-of-the-6-foot-tall-portrait-of-donald-trump/2016/09/14/ae65db82-7a8f-11e6-ac8e-cf8e0dd91dc7_story.html>.

Hofheinz, By Darrell. "Washington Post Looks into Trump's Donations to PB Police Charity." The Shiny Sheet: Palm Beach Society, Fashion, Arts, Business. N.p., 12 Sept. 2016. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/news/local/washington-post-details-trump-donations-to-police-/nsWyn/>.

Pictures:

N.d. Chicagotribune.com. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <http://www.trbimg.com/img-57d49b6b/turbine/ct-trump-foundation-20160910-001/750/750x422>.

Quigley, William. Donald Trump. Digital image. Hauteliving.com. N.p., 18 July 2013. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <http://www.hauteliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Picture-110.png>.

Are Teens Prepared For the Real World

      Are you prepared to be working and out on your own?  If you're a teenager, then in the next few years, you will have to face the terrifying reality of being on your own for the first time.  It may not seem like it, but besides working and keeping up with the housekeeping, your parents do difficult things like paying taxes and managing the money that they make.  Although some high schools offer classes to teach students important information about jobs and how to support themselves, many schools don’t offer the classes students need to succeed.

       Students sit in class and wonder when they will need to know how to find the square root of a number or know the periodic table off the top of their  head in the real world.  Chances are you will not remember most of what you were taught in school or if you do you will not use it ever again, but what about the information you wished you were taught so it could make the transition from high school to the real world a whole lot easier.  34% of high school students are ready for college and 23% of states have career-ready standards in their schools.  There are necessary skills that students are not being taught unless their school offers business courses like Managing money and Intro to Business.  Some schools just do not have the funding to offer classes to help their students succeed.  It is not that students do not want to learn, but some are missing out on a huge part of the preparation for college and the workplace.

64% of current high school students desire more demanding and interesting courses.  Some schools do a great job of having a wide selection of courses, but many do not have the funding to provide the courses that are needed like the fundamentals of business for example.   The core subjects are very important to teaching you how to be a well rounded intelligent person, but teachers could connect the subject to something we can use to benefit ourselves outside of school. “When a child is enjoying class they are more likely to absorb the information”.(TED Ed Blog Adora Svitak) Students are more likely remember information when they have two different connections to it.  By doing this students could even get higher test grades in the class and be more likely to remember the information for longer.

Some of the shops that a
vocational high school
in Massachusetts.

         Many schools offer business courses that help prepare you for life beyond school, like Managing Money, Intro to Business, Entrepreneurship and many more.  These are helpful electives that students can choose to take.  There are vocational high schools that prepare teens by giving them insight into the real world.  Many vocational schools like Shawsheen Valley Tech in Billerica Massachusetts offer the opportunity for students to participate in internships their senior year, which help them decide if they really want to pursue the occupation they are studying.  Many public schools do not offer vocational after school activities so students won't know if the job they are interested in is what they would like to do for the rest of their lives until they have already spent the money to start college.  20-50% of students go into college undecided and 75% of students switch their major at least once before graduation.  By fixing this issue the number of undecided students and students switching their majors could go down.

 If schools offered more courses like Cosmetology and Engineering students would not have to waste their money on college and not know the career they plan on pursuing.  By offering these sorts of courses students can try out different careers that they are interested in instead of finding out they don't like it after spending all of the money to start college.  If students pick a major that they think they will want to do and not something that they are truly passionate about they have to go through hassle of changing their major.  It would be a lot less stressful and save people a lot of money if schools offered vocational courses.

Citation:

Svitak, Adora. "Does School Prepare Students for the Real World? This Teen Speaker Says No." TEDEd Blog. TEDEd Blog, 07 Nov. 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

"Are Teens Prepared for the Real World?" Education Copyright Free Content. News USA, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

"Welcome to Shawsheen Valley Technical High School." Shawsheen Regional Technical High School. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016..

Starving Students Across America

Picture this, You’re sitting in class and you realize you forgot to pack a lunch. A horrible sense of dread spreads over you because you know you only have two options: go hungry, or take your chances with the school lunch. If you’ve had a similar experience, then you’re just like almost every other student across America. In the country, students everywhere are suffering because of the poor quality of their school lunches. Although laws have been made with the purpose of “improving” school lunches, students are still given extremely short periods of time to eat their lunch, very small portions, and low quality food in terms of taste, nutritional values, and appearance.

When thinking of how to improve school lunches, most people will think of the actual food, without considering the circumstances they are eaten in. In America, students are given an average of 20 minutes to eat their lunch. This short amount of time is one of the main reasons that students often turn to throwing away most of their lunch opposed to eating it. This 20 minute period has cause students to eat 12% less

vegetables, 10% less milk, 23% less fruits, and 13% less of their overall entree than they should have. In addition, students could be eating lunch as early as 10:30, which leads to students purposely skipping breakfast, knowing they will be only have the opportunity to eat lunch in a little over an hour.

The majority of students are also athletes, meaning that they need to consume more calories than the students who are not involved in these after school sports. Kindergarten through fifth grade students have a maximum of 650 calories. Sixth through eighth grade students are given a maximum of 700 calories. High school students are given a maximum of 850 calories. These amounts just barely meet the calorie intake that student athletes need. However, given the short time period, and the poor quality of the food, most students will resort to throwing their meals away, and therefore consuming maybe half of these calories.This means the athletes will be leaving school and heading to practice with an empty stomach and therefore no energy.

The biggest issue regarding school lunches is the overall quality of the food given. In 2010, the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act was passed to help with the issue of childhood obesity. This act calls for 100% whole grain and extremely low sodium levels, among other requirements. This means that the meat is processed down to remove fats until it is almost unrecognizable, the bread is always an odd color with no flavor, and students are forced to take some sort of fruit or vegetable that they might not like.

Overall, the meals may be healthier for students, but they are certainly not appealing. This is the main reason why the lunches are immediately thrown in the trash, or not bought in the first place. Chris Burkhardt, director of child nutrition in the Lakota Local School District in southwestern Ohio, claims, “We lost 15 percent of our revenue when we started putting the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act into place.” Take into account that in France, where the childhood obesity rate is lowest, gives students a two hour lunch period and a four course meal that includes salads, main pasta dishes and often a pastry of some kind for desert. This school lunch provided in France would not pass under the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, due to the grains, fats, salt, and calories.

Considering that these problems with the school lunches are present after “improvements” have occurred, changes have to be made. Students should be given a longer lunch period and should easily have access to bigger portions without having to bring food from home. Students should also be given many options for lunch. Food can be healthy without it being so processed down that it doesn’t look edible anymore. With these issues still present, students are continuing to suffer from the dreadful school lunch.

@aldianews. "It's National School Lunch Week, but Who's Really Celebrating?" It's National School Lunch Week, but Who's Really Celebrating? N.p., 16 June 2016. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Carroll, Linda. "Here's What Happens When School Lunch Periods Are Too Short." TODAY.com. TODAY, 15 Sept. 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Murphy, Kate. "Why Students Hate School Lunches." The New York Times. The New York Times, 26 Sept. 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Woldow, Dana. "Are School Lunches Starving Student Athletes?" Beyond Chron. N.p., 23 Apr. 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Pushy Parents and Stressed Athletes

Pushy Parents and Stressed Athletes

How many sports have you ever been enthusiastic to play rather than forced into by your parents? More often than not, children are dragged into doing sports than getting the option of picking for themselves. Nowadays, children as young as three years older are trained for various sports. Whether parents think it’s beneficial to strap on skates before their child can speak full sentences or they’re living through their child it is unhealthy for people's self esteem. Rides to practices and celebratory dinners after games which should be fun are stressful and make children resent their parents and avoid them. In the future when children have to pick what sports they want to play in high school, they’ll have a negative connotation with the sport and will shy away from it. While encouraging your kids to participate in sports, it's not ok to force them and they should figure their interests themselves.

A child's self esteem is more important than whether they will be the best on their soccer team. Parents force their children into sports young and push them to be better than everyone. Nowadays children are participating in soccer and hockey as young as three years old. This causes bad self esteem and children end up not liking the sport they are supposed to love. There’s already enough pressure from coaches and other players but to feel pressure from a parent on the sidelines or at home makes children stress levels increase. Children already have enough on their plate and stressing about sports is the last thing they should be doing.

When parents are constantly criticising their child over every mistakes they make and what they should’ve done, they drift apart from their parents. The child's parent expects too much out of them and suddenly car rides to games are filled with stress and anxiety. Children will resent their parents and a relationship without open communication will form. Researchers have found that “pushy parents” push their kids because they see themselves in their kid. Living through their children causes broken relationships and bad self esteem issues.

Once children have grown into teenagers and enter high school the big question is which sports they will play. After being pushed to play since they were in preschool more anxiety and stress is built up. By age 13 already 70% of student athletes have dropped out of sports. On top of the stress of being the best they have to worry about which team they make. They will shy away from the sport and their parents even which was what the parents were trying to prevent in the first place. Children should be able to pick whether they want to play a sport, or do theater, or be an artist and have their parent's guide them along the way. Giving children the freedom to do what they want creates a healthy parent and child bond.

Whether children have an artistic side or athletic side they need to explore their options with feeling pressure from their parents. It’s healthy to have them discover their interests and what they excel at. If children want to be the next Tom Brady or strive to be like Adele, they need to figure it out for themselves to create a healthy development in their childhood.

"Angry mom yelling at an official during a soccer game"

"Getting stressed about competition"

Works Cited

Metz, Elle. "Stress and the Athlete's Body." Outside Online. N.p., 29 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <http://www.outsideonline.com/1923966/stress-and-athletes-body>.

"Negative Effects of Parents That Push Their Children Into Playing Sports." LIVESTRONG.COM. LIVESTRONG.COM, 16 May 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <http://www.livestrong.com/article/523031-negative-effects-of-parents-that-push-their-children-into-playing-sports/>.

(TNS), Danielle Braff Chicago Tribune. "Experts: When Parents Push Sports, Kids Often Lose." Detroit Free Press. N.p., 17 Nov. 2014. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <http://www.freep.com/story/life/family/2014/11/17/kids-sports-parents-pressure-stress/19188675/>.

@usafootball. "How Hard Should You Push Your Child in Sports." Youth Football. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <http://usafootball.com/blogs/football-parents/post/11603/how-hard-should-you-push-your-child-in-sports>.

Wek, Nate. "Sportsmanship and High School Parents: Ten Tips To Remember When Attending Games." Sportsmanship and High School Parents: Ten Tips To Remember When Attending Games. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <http://www.sdpb.org/blogs/sports-and-leisure/2015/12/10/sportsmanship-and-high-school-parents-ten-tips-to-remember-when-attending-games/>.

The Dangers of Cloning

The Dangers of Cloning

Beverly Banks

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a clone of yourself or a cherished pet?  Does the idea seem interesting and “fun” to consider? If your answer is yes, then you haven’t been informed of all the medical and ethical issues involved with reproductive cloning. Cloning is a process where scientists genetically produce an identical copy of an organism through DNA transfer. Human cloning is illegal in several countries; it is a difficult and dangerous process because it goes against the natural process of human reproduction.  Cloning can also be problematic for clones where they may develop severe problems with their health. There are multiple reasons why the idea of human cloning exists, and a major reason is to cure health problems. Another reason is so people can have a child genetically related to them. There are justified reasons for these practices, however the child would be born unethically. Clones may obtain health issues too when the parents could have attempted alternate fertility methods or adopted.  Although human cloning is used for medical research, there are numerous other procedures that are safe for the patient. Cloning involves high failure rates which result in loss of embryos, and clones are susceptible to extreme health issues and inferiority complexes.

Advocates for cloning claim that it can help end suffering for people with different diseases. For example, if they have damaged organs, they can get their embryonic stem cells cloned to produce healthy cell tissues and replace their diseased ones. However, the rate of failure among cloning projects usually ends up causing more grief for those involved. In most cases, the patient suffers for nothing as the product is not successful. The amount of failed projects in cloning result in loss and waste of limited supplies, for instance, embryos. Therefore, cloning is extremely inefficient and often money and genetic materials used for the projects are wasted. A common process for cloning is where an adult cell nucleus is placed in an egg without a nucleus; this usually results in failure. This is because there are specialized proteins in the cytoplasm of the egg that aid the procedure for reprogramming. It is difficult for the proteins to reprogram correctly because it is not their natural process. As a result, the egg goes to waste. Therapeutic cloning is a process where a nucleus is removed from a person’s egg cell and from a somatic cell. Then, the nucleus from the somatic cell is inserted into the egg. The purpose of this procedure is so the patient’s damaged organs can be healed from the new healthy cells. Also, the rejection of the new cells is unlikely because they contain the person’s genetic material versus foreign DNA. Although therapeutic cloning has more practical purposes than reproductive cloning, if it is used enough, it is only a matter of time until this process evolves into human cloning. This is because both processes involve the same fundamental steps which are making a copy of the donor cell’s DNA and replicating a person’s genes.

Many people do not see cloning as an extreme risk that should not be practiced because they have not considered the many physical problems for clones. There was a sheep named Dolly born about twenty years ago that lived for about six years, which is half the life expectancy for most sheep. This is because she was a clone. Dolly developed premature arthritis, possibly due to early aging because she was cloned from a six year old adult cell. Dolly was born with health complications, proving that these problems are very possible with humans. She did not have a chance for a healthy life. The creation of Dolly the sheep was morally wrong. George W. Bush once gave his opinion on cloning in a radio address in 2001, saying “In recent weeks... scientists have created human embryos in test tubes solely to experiment on them. This is deeply troubling, and a warning sign that should prompt all of us to think through these issues very carefully. We recoil at the idea of growing human beings for spare body parts or creating life for our convenience. I strongly oppose cloning. And while we must devote enormous energy to conquering disease, it is equally important that we pay attention to the moral concerns… of human embryo stem cell research.”  Although there have not been proved reported cases of this situation happening to humans, it’s still important to recognize the issues cloning could bring to humans. Then, society can avoid this dangerous situation ever happening or being considered in the future.

Cloning includes many physical dangers, but the psychological and mental issues involved in cloning are not discussed enough. The clones may suffer and that is an important effect that people are not informed on. Clones have a high risk of feeling inferior to the original individuals they were created from. Clones may feel insignificant because they are copies of another person. They are not original and never will be because they are derived by artificial means. Leon Kass is a physician, scientist, educator, and public intellectual. He wrote an article giving his opinion on cloning called The Wisdom of Repugnance and said "the pro-grammed reproduction of man will, in fact, dehumanize him.” (Kass p.17) This is true for clones because feeling like they’re a copy for their whole life is depriving them of one of the basic human rights everyone should have; which is a sense of individualism. Some people can also argue that since clones are being artificially made by humans, they are born without souls. This theory is very controversial but it is recognized as one of the countless of problems cloning can cause.

Cloning is a dangerous method of reproduction with many potential solutions. People who need healthy cells can get a bone marrow transplant. Cloning is illegal in many places throughout the world because of all the dangers it poses on humans and other subjects. It is important to consider all of the people who expect to receive medical help from cloning, or a couple who feels cloning is their last resort to having a child biologically related to them. These people usually end up being filled with disappointment because of the high rates of failure among cloning projects. Therefore, all of the effort put into forming a clone is in vain and inefficient. There are many other methods of helping people become pregnant medically that are safer and easier to achieve such as surrogacy, cell transfers and donors. Those methods of pregnancy are much more reliable than reproductive cloning and known for a higher success rate. If scientific researchers want to research further about cloning, they can also ask for twin volunteers to partake in safe methods of research. This will avoid the risk of causing any physical and mental damage to a clone and the people hopeful for its success. All of the issues cloning may pose on humanity are too treacherous to risk enduring.  In the case of cloning, it is a much better idea to commit to safer and more effective processes of medical treatment.

Cited Sources:

Brant, By Elliot. "BBQ4b Is Cloning Endangered/extinct Species a Plausible Solution to Bringing Them Back, and What Problems on the Cellular Level Might We Encounter Using This Solution? FINAL." BEAUTIFUL BIOLOGICAL QUESTIONS. WordPress, 2016. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.

"CGS : Reproductive Cloning Arguments Pro and Con." CGS : Reproductive Cloning Arguments Pro and Con. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2016.

"Cloning Fact Sheet." National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.

"Cloning Quotes." Cloning Quotes. Notable Quotes, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2016.

"Human Cloning Foundation Home Page." Human Cloning Foundation Home Page. Human Cloning Foundation, 2012. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.

Kass, Leon R. "The Wisdom of Repugnance." Stanford Edu. New Republic, n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.

Murnaghan, Ian. "Explorestemcells.co.uk." -Understanding Stem Cell Research and Treatments. N.p., 10 Oct. 2016. Web. 15 Oct. 2016.

Rivard, Laura. "Cloning - Genetics Generation." Genetics Generation. Biology Department at the University of San Diego, 2015. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.

"Why Clone?" Why Clone? Genetic Science Learning Center, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.

Muckraking Essay - Maeve Kilbride

Are Women Fighting Alone?

Since the 19th century, women have been attempting to gain the same rights as the men around them. One of the first main gender inequality fights was women’s suffrage. The first women’s suffrage convention was held in 1864 in Seneca Falls, New York. Women fought for the right to vote until the 19th amendment was passed in 1919, granting women's suffrage. Other battles fought include property rights, sex and rape, as well as many others. Currently, the main battle is equal pay and defining feminism. Although gender equality has made a great deal of progress throughout the years, women and men are still not paid equally, nor are people of color, and feminism has a negative outlook for no good reason.

The Wage Gap

Females in the modern day do not receive the same pay as their male counterparts in the workforce. Even when a male and women have the exact same job, they are not paid equally. Statistically, white women receive about 77 cents per each male’s dollar. This is wrong and unjust. Women work equally as hard as men, so it is not fair that they do not receive equal pay. What should be happening is equal pay for equal work, this is the most logical way to solve this problem. However, some people cannot accept this and women still are paid less. The ratio of cents to dollar from man to women varies throughout the work fields as well. Seventy-seven is the average, but it runs the gamut from 74% to 92%. Statistics have shown that women dentists earn 74 cents to each dollar their male co-workers earn. Pharmacists are on the other end of the spectrum; a female pharmacist earns about 92 cents for each dollar their male coworkers do.

People of Color (P.O.C)

    Women of color are paid less than other women, who are paid less than men. The last time data was taken for the wage gap was in 2010. In that year, African American women were paid roughly 89.8% compared to black men, Hispanic women were paid 91.3%compared to Hispanic men, and Asian women earned 79.7% compared to Asian men. Compared to whites, African Americans were paid 58.7% and Hispanics were paid a mere 69.1% compared to whites.

Simple Solutions

The solution to this issue is simple, and to me (as well as many others) a no - brainer. It should not be a big ordeal for women to receive the same pay as men. Individual companies need to adjust pay and make it equal for all genders. Individual franchises and companies having the ability to do this themselves is a less aggressive approach to the problem. Having equal pay for all genders will reduce the chance of unhappy women and will allow a company to have more options of who works for them. For instance, no woman is going to work for a company knowing that she might not achieve equal pay. Having equal pay increases the variety and diversity of employees in a company, which will please many people.

Femininity vs. Feminism

Yet another issue involving gender equality is the newly found negative outlook on feminism. Being a feminist does not mean that you have a hatred for men, although that is how many people perceive it. Simply put, feminism means that you want equal rights for men and women.   great deal of people in the world believe that only women can be feminists. In reality, anyone can be a feminist. Recently, there have been many speeches speaking about feminism and gender equality in various parts of the world. Actress Emma Watson, best known for her role as Hermione Granger in Harry Potter, made a moving speech at the UN about the HeForShe campaign. HeForShe is an is a gender equality movement founded to bring awareness to the fact that gender equality is an issue that should be fought by everyone. Watson also discusses what feminism really is, compared to what people believe it is. In the speech, she says that “feminism has become an unpopular word. Apparently I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men and, unattractive.” A solution to the ignorance of the purpose of feminism could be a long, but purposeful, process. Everyone would need to be properly educated on what feminism is and, more importantly, what it is not. There could be feminist conventions held in cities, like there were Women’s Suffrage conventions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It would be nearly impossible to properly educate the entirety of the human race on feminism. If people were willing to publicly speak about it more often, like Emma Watson demonstrated, more people would begin to become educated on the term.        

http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/2014/09/emma-watson-un-speech-feminism

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303873604579493850089699972

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/news/2012/04/16/11391/the-top-10-facts-about-the-wage-gap/