It
was a kind of shocking article to me. No matter how high economic growth
become, the wage gap between men and women doesn’t shrink. This topic was dealt
with in the class, but there are some specific reasons why women don’t earn as much
as men in this article, so I chose this one as this week’s material for my
blog.
The first reason might be obvious; discrimination against women. It might
be because of history people had in the United States, and because of the
social system that puts men at the center of everything. We have no way to
change the long, long history that has continued to subordinate women to some extent.
Women themselves distinguish themselves from men unconsciously and naturally.
Also,
knowing the fact that women sometimes less qualified than men is shocking. It seems that
the society itself kills the opportunity for women to get better job and higher
earning. Some people say that there is the way that women themselves don’t earn
so much money and instead ask their male partner help economically, which some
cohabitated couples actually do. But in that way, women cannot become
independent as well as men do. If they cannot be independent, they cannot earn
as much credibility as men do in the workplace, in my opinion.
This problem
seems to have no bounds. There is no fault if women cannot control their time
because of doing both housework and outside job. It would be the same if men
were in the same situation with their partners are in. Still it is considered
that housework and childcare is the task for women. It is not totally wrong. It
is said that women tend to be better at such a job like caregiving, cleaning,
and cooking. But men CAN do!
If the wage gap between men and women is concerned
as a serious problem, we should change the society.
http://www.economist.com/node/21530159
Wow, what a powerful post. Something else I’ve heard that happens in lieu with discrimination against women is the fact that with capitalism, an individual who owns their own business gets to pick and choose who they want to hire. Seems reasonable, right? HOWEVER, wait until it becomes a matter of invading someone’s personal life. Hypothetical situation: a worker smokes cigarettes, but nonetheless is a good worker. The boss decrees that in order to comply with the new health-care plan for the company, everyone must quit smoking. Why should it matter to him whether or not someone is smoking? Or if they have a vagina or a penis? Do any of these things matter in terms of how well someone can do their job?
ReplyDeleteThis does take a good deal of thought. After all, it is said that women are better at housework but it makes you wonder if this is just part of the cycle of oppression. After all, when we are little girls we are taught to do things that our mothers do. The play vacuums and the toy grocery sets are all apart of this. We are playing our gender roles and teaching our children how to do so. It is true that we can't help liking what we like. After all, some of us do like vacuuming, but maybe some guys do too. These are things we have to think about. We all, as individuals, have the right to dislike and like things at our will. At the same time we need to realize that just because you are a man doesn't mean that the only thing you like is yard work. Likewise, if I am a woman it does not mean that I want to cook.We should be respectful of each other. This could be the key to equality.
ReplyDelete-Rachael Belcher