The gender pay gap is defined as the difference between median earnings of men and women relative to median earning of men. It can be measured in three different ways: by how much they earn an hour, by how much they earn in a week and by how much they earn on a yearly basis. The gender pay gap is a social issue since it affects women, who make up approximately 50% of our population. Women of minority groups are affected more strongly by the gender pay gap since they earn even less than Caucasian women. Those women can even earn ,on average, 0.50$ for every dollar a man would make. Conflict theory holds that power lies at the core of all social relationships and is unequally divided and that the powerful maintain their control through the …show more content…
30). The wage gap is relevant to this theory seeing as it is the competition between men and women over limited resources, in this case, money and holds the social order maintained by male domination, rather than a consensual agreement between the two parties involved. Conflict theory sees the gender pay gap in a negative light. They perceive this as a financial benefit that men have due to living in a male-dominated society. Through time, men have always been in power. Men of higher-power (e.g. CEOs, bosses) were the ones to establish annual income of their employees. Obviously, men would not give themselves a lesser salary than women, as that would be undermining themselves and women have always been subordinate to men in different parts of society (e.g. the household and the workplace). This is due to the belief that women are to be dependent on men for wages. This belief comes from the fact that women, a few centuries ago, used to be housewives and did not earn a salary and were financially dependent on men to survive. …show more content…
They mention discrimination in the article by mentioning that “the pay gap is even larger for women who are minorities, Aboriginal, newcomers, or women living with disabilities”. Functionalists would be against the argument made by conflict theorists. They are a part of this social hierarchy and paying them more would definitely disturb the social order. In addition, the wage gap can also be seen as unfair since “10 to 15 percent of the wage gap is due to discrimination”, which is something that a conflict theorist would say. In the entirety of the article, there is only one fact that supports a functionalist’s perspective since they explain that “many reports have attributed the gap between men’s and women’s salaries to mothers taking time off for childcare in their career-building years”. However, it is rebutted since women who have specialized themselves in university still have a 6.6 percent gap between themselves and what their male colleagues earn. The solutions encourage a conflict theorist’s perspective. They are “encouraging diversity from the youngest age possible” so that young girls know have an idea that math, business or science are an option they have. Promoting diversification goes against functionalism seeing that they want to keep the social order and leave people where they are in the social hierarchy (Zamon, “The Gender Pay Gap In Canada Is Twice The Global
The Gender Wage Gap The gender wage gap is a highly debated and controversial topic in the modern day United States society. Women have been treated very poorly in the past, and advancements in gender equality are still flourishing today. Although are making great strides as a society, there is still the popular belief in the wage gap. However, the wage gap that was once very prominent in our society is not nearly as much of a disparity as people have been lead to believe.
According to Merriam -Webster (2012), the wage gap is defined as “a statistical indicator often used as an index of the status of women’s earnings to men’s.” Often expressed as a percentage or divided into median annual earnings, the wage gap seeks to define and distinguish men and women’s salaries.
Both the functionalist theory and the conflict theory could shed light on the problem by looking at it with a macro view rather than a micro view. A functionalist would look at gender inequalities as a helpful way to divide labor that in turn maximizes resources and efficiency. The conflict theory is structural and can help us to better understand the power struggle between men and women which advocates for the situation. When there is conflict between a subordinate group and a dominant one things happen that create social change.
The wage gap is a major issue that is constantly brought up in the work place. Numerous people use the term “wage gap” to state how gender can affect somebody 's income. There has always been an understanding that men typically made more money than women. For a long time, women were not allowed to work; therefore men were in charge of “bringing home the bacon”. However, times have changed and there are various situations where a household is centered off a women’s’ income. Females can become single mothers who have a responsibility to care for a child(s). Responsibilities can include monthly payments of water and electric bills and even weekly payments towards groceries. Women have to acquire enough money so that they are able
An example of conflict theory is gay marriage. Homosexual couples are struggling for the right to marry their significant others. However, they face opposition from heterosexual couples and traditionalists who want to keep marriage strictly between a man and a woman. Homosexual couples want to redefine the meaning of marriage while heterosexual couples desire to keep the traditional definition of marriage. I did not choose conflict theory because I dislike conflict. While I acknowledge that there will always be a power struggle between two parties, I do not see the world in a way which acknowledges a
There is a pay gap between men and women in the U.S. The pay gap affects women of all educations levels, and backgrounds. But white men are the largest demographic in labor forces so they possibly favor each other as opposed to women. The graph didn’t specify the type of jobs, or whether they were working parts time or fulltime. But in 2016, women working full time in the U.S. were paid 80% of what men were getting paid. There are some occupations that have not reached the equity but some have like retail, banking and real
This social justice issue is important in the community because it impacts women by disrespecting them, it makes women feel like they are not valued. Our central question is does pay equal respect? If pay equals respect then women are definitely not being respected. Society believes that men have that higher power so they should get paid more, this is a . It impairs the ability of women and families to buy homes and pay for college education, it limits their total lifetime earnings, savings, and benefits, which makes women much more vulnerable to poverty in retirement.This issue expands even into nonprofits as of nonprofits with budgets
Women have faced gender wage discrimination for decades. The gender pay gap is the difference between what a male and a female earns. It happens when a man and a woman standing next to each other doing the same job for the same number of hours get paid different salaries. On average, full-time working- women earn just “77 cents for every dollar a man earn.” When you compare a woman and a man doing the same job, “the pay gap narrows to 81 percent (81%)” (Rosin). Fifty-one years ago, in order to stop the gender gap discrimination, Congress enacted the Equal Pay Act of 1963. The act states that all women should receive “equal pay for equal work”. Unfortunately, even in 2014 the gender pay gap persists and even at the highest echelons of the corporate; therefore, the equal pay act is a failure.
The wage gap not only represents gender discrimination in the workplace, it also reflects the ongoing issue of racial discrimination. While white women do typically earn less than white men, they out earn the majority of female colored workers in America. The average African American female makes only 64 cents for the white man’s dollar. Additionally, Hispanic women receive only 54 cents to their white male coworker’s dollar (Hegewisch para. 9).
The gender pay gap has existed ever since women entered the workforce. Right now in the United States, the average female worker earns 78 percent of what the average male worker earns (“Gender Pay Gap: Recent Trends”). Also, according to the
Gender Pay Gap also referred to as Gender wage gap, gender income difference or male-female income difference refers to the difference between the earning of men and women (Victoria, 2006). The European Union defines the Gender Pay gap as the difference between men and women’s hourly earnings (OECD, 2012). The difference may be measured on hourly, weekly, monthly, or yearly earning. The difference is expressed as a percentage of the men’s earning. However, the difference varies from one industry to another, from one country to another and from one age group to another. On average, men earn higher than women do across different sectors and nations.
Due to various countries initiatives to shrink the wage inequality between men and women wages in the work force, the gap has narrowed, respectively, which may have helped form such opinion. However, stating that the gender pay gap does not exist in today’s society, anywhere, is completely unlikely. Seeing that the gap has loosened its grasp in the working world, in other countries, the gap between pay has widened or remained stagnant. One cannot help but wonder why the gap remains consistent, even with such substantial progress made in countries where the gap has decreased. Reasons as to why gender wage gap exist so heavily, slightly differs from country to country, but the overall effect from the wage disparity is wholly evident.
Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddess, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken Books. 1975.
Conflict theory are perspective in sociology psychology that accentuate the social, political, or material inequality of a social group, that analysis the broad socio-political system, or that weaken from structural functionalism and ideological conservatism. With conflict theory, you will see tensions, status, and power are unevenly distributed between groups in society, which these conflicts become the purpose of social change. Conflict theory usually arise due to competition and limited resource that is feed by domination and power, rather than consensus and conformity. This is seen a lot on macro level. As a social worker, you will see and use conflict theory throughout your professional.
Conflict Theory is a framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates