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.
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