The New Face of the Workforce

The issue I’ve decided to tackle for my You and the World project was women’s rights within the workforce, as seen in my first post, Women make up almost 50% of the working population worldwide, and even still aren’t being given adequate pay or benefits. There’s no excuse for this injustice in the 21st century, considering that less than 100 years ago we were fighting for voting rights. What is the reason for this? Why are women still on the lesser playing field than men?

The first reason I think is the lack of education on this topic. Some women don’t realize their difference in pay between men until entering the workforce, and that discovery continues once they get pregnant and require maternity leave. I feel that education is one the biggest ways to combat this issue because women are still blinded by the fact that there is still imbalance amongst the sexes.

The second reason this issue is still prevalent in society is the ambiguity of women entering the workforce and not tapping into their full potential, which I covered a bit in my first post.  I recently interviewed reporter and journalist Ema O’connor of the popular media website Buzzfeed , and she responded to this question with: “It is not all men's responsibility to pay women more, a huge part of it is women being timid in pursuing their career, not feeling their self-worth and therefore not trying. This is a deeply ingrained societal problem that parents (future and current), schools, and employers need to work together to change for the next generation.” Gender stereotypes grow from the absence of education and also lack of female confidence, but also the ignorance of those who therefore buy into gender stereotypes.

The third reason for this problem is cultural and religious views. Like I mentioned in my previous post, women are only seen as providers for the household which in some cultures is a huge part of a woman’s life. In the survey I conducted over the course of last week, I found that out of the twenty-one girls that answered, two said that women are not seen with importance in their households and cultures.

Though the number is quite small, this is a sad reality that many face, which leads to the mindset that girls adapt which holds them back from pursuing their dreams which may involve work. We need to place the image of the modern working world of women into the minds of our young girls, thus creating a generation of fearless and powerful individuals who can undertake any career they wish to pursue. I also spoke with Buzzfeed video producer Ashly Perez who spoke a bit about how women are seen in her family and culture. “My parents are both from very male-dominated cultures (Cuban / Filipino) but my family is full of strong women, particularly on the Cuban side. Men might be in charge, but women are feared and respected.” This is the mindset we must enforce into our future generations because even though people may come from societies where women aren’t valued, girls can still believe in their potential and be brave enough to take on whatever they choose.

The fourth and final contributor to this topic is the beliefs that have stained our society for generations. There are still large amounts of men who believe that women have no place in the workforce, which weakens the populations of female workers. I feel as if this generation is doing a good job eliminating the issues we encountered with sexism in the past, but we have a long way to go. Both men and women need to collaborate to end this issue, so that our future workforce can be fully integrated and equally diverse. Some further questions I have about this issue are how long has equal pay affected women and what kind of sexism and gender stereotypes are still experienced in the workplace amongst women today? Below are some charts that show the participation and pay in the workplace between race and gender in the last year.

charts

Annotated Bibliography