Striving Toward Gender Equity in the Business World
By Alexis DeVries
A subject I am passionate about is gender equity. With my education in Business Management, I will be well-equipped to supervise employees someday and be responsible for ensuring all workers are treated equitably. Because of this, I have researched multiple related articles and studies outside of class and joined the Women Business Leaders Association. According to Cornell Law, “Employment Discrimination laws seek to prevent discrimination based on race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, physical disability, and age by employers. Discriminatory practices include bias in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, compensation, retaliation, and harassment.” For women, the most significant discrimination factors are unequal pay and sexism.
According to the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, women earn eighty cents compared to every dollar men make. However, the pay gap can be further broken down if we examine the intersectionality of women and race. Compared to the one-dollar men get paid, White women earn eighty-one cents, Asian women earn ninety cents, Black women earn sixty-five cents, Indigenous women earn sixty cents, and Latina women earn fifty-eight cents. Although they are doing the same jobs and completing the same schooling, society still undervalues women’s work. Women are more likely to be in low-wage industries, like home-health work. Indeed, women hold 47 percent of jobs overall, but 58 percent of jobs in occupations that typically pay less than $11 an hour, a study by the National Women’s Law Center found. By this logic, the wage gap is due to female-dominated jobs not being valued as much as male-dominated jobs. Because household labor and care work occur in the home, people who don’t complete the tasks themselves often underestimate it.
Minimum wage jobs and tipped wage jobs are held predominantly by women, so raising the minimum wage would decrease the overall wage gap, according to AmericanProgress.org. Another method of fixing this is pay transparency. Because women don’t compare their salaries to their male colleagues, it is easier for employers to take advantage of them. Many consider it rude to discuss wages with their coworkers, but it is the best way to band together and demand better conditions (As You Sow). Part of the pay gap can be attributed to the money women lose when they have to take time off for pregnancy. We can solve this problem with guaranteed paid maternity leave or more affordable childcare options. Sexism is a complicated issue, but we can also solve it with more female role models. If women don’t have role models, they will be less confident in their abilities. Alongside good representation, we must also call out sexism when we see it.
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