America the beautiful. With its spacious skies and amber waves of grain. From one shining sea to another lies this relatively adolescent country. An “unestablished” land until very recently, the United States of America was adopted and cultured like one of Brangelina’s children. In crept the “American Dream”, laced with its fierce politics and even fiercer religious perspectives, simultaneously providing its citizens the fire and passion that drives all, if not many cultures. And, with such a rapid development of diversity in such a short amount of time, there arose a particular cohesiveness amongst families that surpassed all its rivals. Memories of sporting events, movie dates, and trips to Disneyland released charges of dopamine into the world, spreading happiness like a cure. Before claiming to be the hub of joy, however, a responsible citizen of America must first concede to the internet for the “facts”. Upon further review (I Googled “what is the happiest country”) I could have been more disappointed, but not by much. To my anguished surprise, of all the countries in the world, Denmark was listed first in a Huffington Post article in November of 2013. Geographically connected to northern Germany and extending northeastward to western Sweden, Denmark also holds title to five other island states: Fyn, Lolland, Faister, Bornholm, and Sjaelland (of which the capital, Copenhagen is landmarked). The country is wedged between the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the east, hosting a sea of channels, straights, lakes and rivers. But beyond what can be said geographically about Denmark, it is the people contained within its borders that peaks interest. What is it that makes their people the “happiest”? What doe... ... middle of paper ... ...led with disillusion and ignorance. If the United States is ever to reach the exulting status that Denmark has so successfully achieved through its members, then it must reevaluate and elevate all of its citizens no matter the age, gender or ethnic background. Works Cited Bassett, Laura. "Women Still Earned 77 Cents On Men's Dollar In 2012: Report." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. Crum, Maddie. "The U.S. Illiteracy Rate Hasn't Changed In 10 Years." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 06 Sept. 2013. Web. 02 Mar. 2014. "Happiest in the World." Happiest in the World. Denmark.dk, 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. Geert-Hofstede. "Gender Roles." Denmark. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. Liepmann, Erica. "U.S. Falls In World Education Rankings, Rated 'Average'" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 07 Dec. 2010. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
The United States has proven to be a world leader with their powerful military, democratic government, and stringent foreign policies. There is one category however, the United States struggles to be number one in, education. As shocking as this may sound, the public school system in America is not superior to other developing countries. I have witnessed this scandalous phenomena firsthand, engrossed in the public school system from kindergarten to freshman year of high school. The student body and the school administration is morphing into a nonproductive system with a zombie-like attitude. American students lack academic drive and curiosity compared to European and Asian countries because the standard for academic success is constantly lowered. Americans must reform the school system and change their perspective on how important an education is to the rest of the world.
In addition, women are paid less than men for the same type of work. According to Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg mentions that women were paid fifty-nine cents for every dollar men were paid in 1996, but women protested to raise the compensation to seventy-seven cents (6). This means that even though a woman and a man perform the same work such as an engineer does, both do the same assignments and have the same responsibilities in the technology place, men are paid twenty three cents more than women. Moreover, women suffer from “gender discount” which means women have to pay for being part of the workplace or society ...
“Best Education In The World: Finland, South Korea Top Country Rankings, U.S. Rated Average.” Huffington Post. 27 Nov. 2012. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
The United States of America has placed low on the educational ladder throughout the years. The cause of such a low ranking is due to such heavy emphasis on standardized testing and not individual student achievement. Although the United States uses standardized testing as a crutch, it is not an effective measure of a student’s ability, a teacher’s competency, or a school’s proficiency.
Why do women still earn less than men? : Monthly Labor Review. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2017, from
In The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way, Amanda Ripley investigates the education systems of three of the world’s highest performing countries offering insight into the components necessary to raise education in the United States from its current mediocre place on the world stage. By involving three teenage American exchange students, Ripley gained access to firsthand experience of the familiar US system as compared to the highly competitive systems in Finland, South Korea and Poland. The author proposes that, although the systems vary greatly, commonalities in cultural valuation of education, rigor and teacher quality have made students from these three countries the “smartest kids in the world.”
National Review. “Women in America, said President Obama in his State of the Union address, 'still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. 24 Feb. 2014: 4. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 16 Mar. 2
The United States has persistently been ranked at the bottom when it comes to education among developed countries. They have tried to come up with strategic ways to change their ranking, like standardized tests. This is an administered test over certain subjects like Math, English, History, and Science, and the form is the same for all test takers. They were not the first country to develop this method; in fact, this method was inspired from other countries that appeared to be doing better than them and still remain ranked at the bottom.
When President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963 into law, he hoped that it would allow working women to finally earn the same amount of money as men; however, more than half a century later, men continue to out earn women in almost every field of work (Lipman para. 4). Male dominated fields tend to pay more than female dominated fields at similar skill levels. In 2012, women earned an average of $691 per week while men earned an average of $854 per week. Furthermore, the majority of women remain unaware that they are earning less than their male colleagues (Hegewisch para. 1).
We may just not be being told any information. In Lenny Liebmann's article, "Mending the Gender Gap," he reveals that women earn an average of $18,000 less annually than men. He further reports that the US Census Bureau states the male/female pay differential ranges between 15-50%, depending on the industry and the job title. Not to mention that within the Fortune 1000, 95% of all executive positions were held by men in 1997. (62-63)
• Education. Although the number of women attaining baccalaureate and advanced degrees now surpasses the number of men, in 1999 the median wages of female college graduates were $14,665 less than those of male graduates. College-educated African American women earn only $1,500 more than white male high school graduates.
Another large sexist factor in the workforce, is that women get paid less than men do for the same exact job. “Women get paid 77 cents on the dollar for every dollar a man makes, according to a recent study from the Institute for Women's Policy Research. That's a difference of more than $10,000 per year on average,”(Berman). Why is this? Some people believe that it is because women gravitate towards low...
It is very important to be concerned about the issue because it is constantly increasing throughout the United States. It upsets me that women are paid less than men because women have the same ability and work ethic as men do, but they are looked at differently. According to AAUW, women make 77 percent of what men make. This rate hasn’t changed since 2002 (Hill, 2013). Statistics show that women will never make as much as men due to the thought of never being comparable to men (Williams, 2013).
For many decades, women have faced inequalities in the workforce. At one point, they were not allowed to work at all. Although women's rights have improved and are now able to work alongside men, they are still treated unfairly. According to the 2012 U.S. Census, women’s earnings were “76.5 percent of men’s” (1). In 2012, men, on average, earned $47,398 and women earned only $35,791.
Despite government regulations to promote equality within the workplace, women’s salaries continue to lag behind males in similar career with similar experiences. According to research performed by Blau & Kahn (2007) “women salaries averaged about 60% of men’s until the 1970s and rose to nearly 80% by the 1990s” (as cited in Bendick, Jr. & Nunes, 2012, p.244). Today, women on average earn approximately $.81 for every dollar that men earn in the United States (Guy and Fenley P.41 2014).