Maximo Martinez
2/19/2019
Ms. Shamecca
Writing for the Humanities
This was one of my favorite essays to make, our task was to make an opinion editorial about a specific issue, and in addition have another pitch Op Ed, which you are going to assimilate to. The other Op Ed I picked was “Nevertheless, the gender wage gap myth persisted” by Louis Sarkozy. So I made this first essay about the gender pay gap and how is a myth. we also had to explain why are we doing that specific topic and not any other. we had to explain how did that particular topic relates to you, and why is it so important to you for you to write about it.
People Still Believe in The The Gender Pay Gap Myth?
Back on my freshman year on 2017, I had to do a podcast for a project in my ELA class. In my group I had the “jocks” of the class, and wanted to do something related to sports, but I didn’t watched any sports (still dont).
So I wanted a topic were at least I wasn’t the only one that didn’t knew what to talk about. Something like politics
So we mixed it a little bit and we talked about sports and the “gender pay gap”. We choose 2 famous tennis players Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal, and how “unfair” was the fact that one got paid more than the other.
I was new to the country, I came from a misogynist society country, and I didn’t knew much about the US. So I thought that what my project patterns were saying about the US having a gender pay gap was true.
I made a whole 3 minutes podcast project (which was presented to the class) about lies. I conducted interviews to teachers and students in which not a single one disagreed with the statement “gender pay gap”.
We even got to a point were people said they were ashamed of how sexist people are since they rather watch a male playing sports than a female playing sports.
Others took it to the point of shaming man for “oppressing women” on having to be paid less than man, and started to talk about men privilege.
That’s why I am doing this Op Ed right now. Because now that I know better I wanna correct myself from what I did. From telling my fellow classmates incorrect information and giving the wrong message.
That and also to inform all others who don’t better, and actually think there IS a gender pay gap, like I used to do.
So for some of you liberals out there
Since in the United States of America is totally 100% legal for women to be paid 20 percent less than man (while working the same conditions).
Companies started to hire more women since they could reduce their cost on paying for the workers 20 percent, all men got fired from their previous jobs, and been replaced by women. And men now only work on hard labor jobs like farms and constructions.
Oh wait
That is not true?
Is actually illegal for jobs to discriminate wages for their workers on the United States?
There is actually no “gender pay gap” on the US?
Correct, there is actually no actual gender pay gap that people claim to be there is. Then how come people always say that “women make 70 (sometimes 80) cents per dollar that men make”?
Where is that information coming from? And if is true, then how come does America does not have a gender pay gap?
The answers to those questions are very simple actually, the number 70 cents to a dollar comes from a study done on 2013, the AAUW, or American Association of University Women from the census of the USA.
In that research they said that “a woman working full time, year-round still typically takes home 77 cents for every dollar a man takes home(1)”. Not so fast though, from this you might be thinking, “so there IS a gender earning gap in America?”, which I would respond with, Yes, Yes there is.
You might be confuse but let me explain. There IS a gender earning gap in America, but there IS NOT a gender pay gap. This means that women across the country do earn less than men, but that does not meant they are getting paid less than men.
Still confused? Let me break it down to you.
The study even though showed that women earn less than man, by taking the average of all men and women who work full time. This study does not take into consideration the different careers and job that each gender have, and it does not take into account the individual choices of each gender.
By not taking into consideration the different jobs and careers, you are leaving out the fact that men tend to go after more high paying jobs and career such as STEM.
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, not only “Ninety-three out of 100 STEM occupations had wages above the national average(2)”, but also according to college factual “The breakdown of STEM graduates in 2016 was 37% female and 63% male(3)”.
Showing how men obviously are going to make more than women as a whole. But as mentioned before, another fact they (AAUW) do not take into consideration is the decision making between men and women.
This is important because men not only tend to work more hours, but also women tend to take more hours and days off work, mostly because of having to take care of their children, or just work at home period.
But in case you are not aware of the facts of the different choices between male and female in regards to working. You can come to the conclusion of why the gender pay gap is a myth by using common sense
Think about it, if business were able to pay all their female employees less than their male employees, do you really think they wouldn’t just hire female workers?
That would make their wage cost drop by 20%
Do you really think that businesses care more about being sexist than just making profit?
Wallace, Rachel. “New Wage Gap Numbers Aren’t So New” AAUW, Sep 17, 2013
https://www.aauw.org/2013/09/17/new-wage-gap-numbers/
“Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics STEM Occupations Past Present and Future” Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2017
Stockwell, Carly. “Women vs. Men in STEM Degrees: Do we Have a Problem?” College Factual, Oct 27, 2017
https://inside.collegefactual.com/stories/women-vs-men-in-stem-degrees
