Women's Wages

Women’s Wages
Today, women have more job opportunities available to them than at any other point in history. Nearly any job available to men is also available to women. As said by Virginia Woolf, “there is nothing to prevent a woman from being a doctor, a lawyer, a civil servant” (Woolf 105). Truly, it is a good time for a business minded woman to live in. That being said, however, there is something not quite right about how women are treated in the workforce – specifically, the amount that they are paid. While it is true that women can hold just as many job titles as men, it is also true that women are still paid a percentage of what a man is earning in the same field, even in the same job. Why is this? One might argue that many explanations could exist for this salary difference; however, the fact of the matter is that when it comes to wages, gender discrimination still exists in North America. Differences in education, industries, et cetera may account for some discrepancies, but all in all, the wage gap remains unexplained by reasonable excuses.
When looking at the educations of men and women, all fields of school are available to both genders. So, if women are taking the same classes, earning the same degrees, and have the same set of skills that men do after having completed a school career, why is it that according to Time Magazine, the most recent census in 2010 showed women as earning only 77% of what men were earning (Fitzpatrick)? Perhaps it is because of the industries that women are going into. One can see how a woman might earn less than a man in a career in which strength is applied, such as construction. In this case, a woman might be earning less than a man because she is not able to physically work as hard as a man, such as lifting materials, or other such jobs in which men naturally have an advantage. This does not explain, however, why women who hold traditionally female jobs also earn less than their male counterparts. Time Magazine also...