Blog #60

Like Blog #30 I went to my online friends for topic ideas and I decided this go around I am only going to do a Big Blog like this on one topic.

Gender Inequality

I decided to do a big blog on this because one friend of mine suggested doing a blog from a female employee perspective and I was going to allow her to write it and I was going to post it and give her author credit, but after much thought I am going to do it because I think it is important topic.

Women have made great strides in the workplace, but inequality persists. On average in 2010, women only made 77 cents to every dollar a man earned. There’s still a gender gap that needs to be rectified.Women have caught up with men in terms of education. In fact, in the United States and a number of other countries, women now actually surpass men in educational achievement.

So there is not a problem with female achievement. The problem enters in when young adults try to balance work and family, and women end up carrying nearly all of the caregiving responsibilities.The gender wage gap in the United States is lower than in many other countries. But what is troubling is that the gap has barely narrowed since the mid-1990s.

Also, the contribution of men to housework and childcare has grown significantly over the past 25 years, but is still far below women’s contribution.

So many working women continue to have two jobs—one in the workplace and one at home. Childcare is very expensive in the United States. And we are way behind most European countries and many Asian countries in terms of offering affordable, high-quality care. Gender stereotypes are hard to break, and like it or not, we are all prone to engaging in stereotyping at one time or another. As a society, we need to continue to encourage people to go beyond stereotypes and recognize the contributions that each individual, male or female, can make to the workplace and to relationships.

The necessity in many prestigious jobs is to put in very long work hours and then leave the more mundane aspects of daily life—like cooking, grocery shopping, and picking up the kids—to other people.

This generally means that women put many more hours into these household activities than men. This greatly disadvantages women in the workplace. It is unrealistic to expect gender equality if workplaces demand that women be available all the time.

As one female economist wrote some years ago, “Who’s minding the kids”?

As many history books still mention during World War 2 women came out of their homes and had to take up many of the available jobs due to most of the men of the time being gone to war. When the men came back from war the women were returned to managing the homes. Alot of women enjoyed the chance of doing something more for their husbands besides managing the home.

Things have changed since those days. More women are having to work at least two jobs to take care of themselves and their children for many reasons. Most women today will tell you that they are doing it to help their husbands out and others will tell you it is because they are divorced or had to work due to their spouse being unemployed.

In some settings a women is paid less than a man and it shows when you look up many corporate ladders in America today.

In a survey published recently there seems to be a power struggle between men and women in the workplace. In short, both sexes agree that women are still discriminated against when it comes to salary, but differ in their view of how much progress has been made.

On speaking up:
It takes time to find your voice. More than half of men (58%) and women (51%) said they speak "all the time" or "frequently" during meetings. The more work experience they have, the more comfortable they are at speaking. While only one-third of entry-level workers said they speak up, three-quarters of higher-ups said they do.

On asking for a raise:
Astonishingly, 53% of women have never asked for a raise compared to 40% of men. Fortunately, the survey found that both genders became gutsier with experience and were more willing to ask for a raise later in their careers. Fear not: Among those who asked for more money when starting a new job, 89% were successful.

On salary:
Both sexes believe that men have an advantage when it comes to pay (and women even more so): 31% of women think they'd be paid more if they were male, and 20% of men said they'd be paid less if they were female.

On maternity leave:
A high percentage of both men (80%) and women (87%) support maternity leave. Companies with more than 50 employees are federally required to offer three months of maternity leave, but the Family and Medical Leave Act doesn't require that the time be paid.

On flextime:
Flextime is attractive for both men and women: 52% said they would take flextime if it were offered, and among those given the chance, 86% have accepted it.

On the perception of women:
According to the study, half of men and two-thirds of women think that "women are scrutinized more harshly than men" in the workplace.

On equal rights:
Although 81% of men agreed that public policy should address challenges such as "equal pay, paid sick leave, and paid maternity leave," the majority of them also think that the "country has made most of the changes needed to give women equal rights."

On the other hand, only 29% of women agreed that the government has done all that it can.

On why there are so few women business leaders:
Both men (46%) and women (51%) think that family is the main reason why there aren't more women business leaders. Fifty-five percent of women said that they are discriminated against, whereas only 33% of men think this is the case. The survey found that 28% of women admitted to experiencing discrimination in the workplace.

A similar percentage of men (35%) and women (34%) said that women aren't "tough enough" to be in those top positions.

On work-life balance:
The same percentage (61%) of men and women said that employers don't make it easy to balance work and family life.

Nearly half of mothers and fathers (48% and 45%, respectively) said they would prefer to work at home, if possible.

Unsurprisingly, the survey found that men (56%) are more likely than women (39%) to put work ahead of family to climb the career ladder.

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