Thursday, May 18, 2017
Feminism and the controversies surrounding it
I have done a little bit of research on both sides of the argument on feminism and I will admit it is a complicated issue. The most obvious argument for feminism is the pay gap, which makes sense, but on the other side, I have read studies that the pay gap does not exist between single people in the same job, and the pay gap only exists once women have children and spend less time at work(which makes sense?). Other research I have read says that the pay gap also exists when looking at the average woman salary and the average mans salary because men tend to have jobs that are more focused on the acquisition of monetary wealth whereas women seek more fulfilling jobs that might pay less. I am not saying that this is how it is, or that it is right, I am just saying that it is clearly a complicated issue with no clear answer.
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Another layer to the controversy is the unequal distribution in the work force. Men tend to dominate professional jobs, such as business or law and this proposes a few questions: why is there such an unequal distribution, how can we remedy this, how does this skew the data.
ReplyDeleteI think that Ben is right that this is a complicated issue. But I don't understand why it has to be a complicated issue. It seems pretty straight forward, the same job should be paid the same. Now Ben brought up the point that the wage gap starts once women have children. This brings up a question in my mind. I wonder if women who spend less time at work still get the same amount of work done. If the amount of work that they get done starts to decline then it would make sense to me why there is a gap in salary. However I know plenty of women and men alike that work from home and are very productive.
ReplyDeletemen mostly make more in professional jobs because society has created the belief that men are better at those jobs so its harder for women to move up and get higher jobs. Women don't necessarily seek more Fulfilling jobs and men don't always seek monetary jobs as any jobs could be both of those. As for the wage gap its not that women make less for lower jobs but if you compare a man to a woman for the same job women make less money which is against the law and it doesn't necessarily start when they have children and having children doesn't decrease their work value. Women should be paid the same amount as any other person with the same job and saying that having children is decreasing a women work value is whats adding to peoples beliefs that there is not wage gap and that is fine to pay women less money.
ReplyDeleteI think 3rd wave feminism especially is definitely more complicated than previous movements because it focuses a lot on social inequality, so feminism manifests itself in literally every other social movement as well (if that makes sense). The idea of modern feminism (from what I know), is that it is intersectional and includes fighting for equality for lgbtq+ women, immigrant women, women of different races and socioeconomic backgrounds, etc. Feminism is definitely a complicated movement, but I think it is a super important one in terms of social progress.
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