Paying It Forward

by Angela Lee, staff reporter

Not long ago, women were not allowed to work.

In early America, they were often seen doing chores around the house and “working” alongside their husband, but the idea of women beginning to join the workforce then was still relatively new, and still is to this day.

In the past, women took jobs as apothecaries, barbers, blacksmiths, sextons, printers, tavern keepers and midwives. However, in the early and mid-1800s, when the Industrial Revolution began to change everything that was ‘normal’ to everyday life and men were sent off to fight the war, the remaining women had to step up and take the jobs their husbands left in order to help her family and herself survive.

Since women started taking jobs and working beside men, putting in just as much effort and patience, they haven’t been getting paid as much as men. For every one dollar a man earns, a woman gets stuck with 78 cents– no matter how much work she put into the job she did, this has always been how things were.

If it is true that women put in just as much work as men do to complete their jobs successfully, and keep food on their family’s plates, and a roof over her family’s heads, then why don’t they get paid the same amount? Why should gender determine how much one gets paid?

Most importantly, is this fair?

“We have been so accustomed to men being the “higher ups” or the “better people” in society that it’s hard to picture a world where both men and women are equal. Since we have lived in a civilization where men are dominant for as long as anyone can remember, it’s hard to break that way of thinking. That’s why I believe a lot of people think it’s okay for men to be paid more than women for doing the same job. It’s the norm. It’s what we, as a people, are used to,” junior Kailey Bosyk said.

Although the number of women earning college degrees has now passed that of men, the gender inequality between the two forces big corporations to continue paying women with equal education levels and job experience to a man, less than him.

By suppressing working women’s wages, corporate America maximizes their profits and pay less to the government in taxes, and pay less in employer contributions to pension plans for all women, which undoubtedly is the most profit-increasing welfare plan and the best-kept secret in Washington.

In a world that is still very man-dominated, women are seen as lesser. Even if one were to teach both a man and a woman the same kind of things to do a certain job, the man would get paid more simply because he is a man, and the woman is a woman.

“I think women should be paid equal to men, because if the woman is equally qualified and if they work just as hard as the men, then there is no logical reason for them not to get paid the same amount. It’s wrong for corporations to assume that they can cut the pay of their female employees that work just as hard as their male counterparts. It’s not fair to them,” junior Amanda Leon said.

Women deserve to be paid equally to that of the pay of men.

There is no reason why a woman should “deserve” less pay for the same education and job experience applied in a job alongside a man, simply because it is a man’s world.

The modern economy being as it is, with its vast production and distribution network, is a male epic, in which women have found a productive role — but women were not, and never were, its author. Forced to work in an environment where they are surrounded by men, they deserve equal pay for the equal amount of effort they put into their job.

Paying women equally would not suddenly rob men of their power, for they have been in power for years, but it’s a start to a change in the world that we need and that will be for the overall greater good of everyone.

Giving everyone fair pay no matter their gender should not be as shocking or as drastic of a change as people make it out to be. It will not bring men out of power, and it will not make women suddenly somebody to fear, it will simply help a woman feed her family if there is no man in the picture, or bring in more money for a family of two loving parents.

Women deserve equal pay, and there is no reason why they don’t deserve it. If they put in the same time and energy as a man, they should be rewarded with the same amount… in the end, it’ll help not only the woman herself, but her family, her confidence, and this world that fears change, even and especially if it makes the world a better place.