Current Event Analysis

Gender discrimination still exists today. Women are especially discriminated against in the work place. As always, people will take a stance on any major societal issue. Some believe the wage-gap is due to men treating women unfairly, while others believe the women are not discriminated against at all. In the article, "Women Face Discrimination in the Workplace," it is revealed that, "Based on past rates of wage growth, women's wages will not reach parity with men's until at least 2051." The Women's Research Policy found that women only make 70% of what men make in the work place. According to the writer of, "Women Face Discrimination in the Workplace," Julie Lowell the reasoned that the wage-gap is due to the difference between men and women's work skills that have been acquired. She claims, "This argument claims that men's higher levels of education, job force training, and/or work experience account for them holding higher paying jobs in comparison to women." Women are still being unrepresented in higher paying jobs. The Dukes vs. Wal-Mart Case taking place in 2007, was an example of women who were under-paid and discriminated against. Betty Dukes, an employee at Wal-Mart super center, was given a merit pay raise and a full time job. Two years after that she was promoted to a position of customer service manager. She began to undergo hard discrimination from her superiors. She was ultimately denied to training that was needed in order to advance further while male employees were receiving the same training at the same time. She was also denied to opportunity to work in "male" departments like hardware. Seven women from California took their stories to case and fought against Wal-Mart industries. The case went to court several times. The Dukes vs. Wal-Mart case could be considered the largest civil rights class-action suit in history because of its affect on more than 700,000 women. Although thousands of women believe they are discriminated against on a daily basis, other individuals believe that these complaints of "unfair treatments towards women," are over exaggerated. Denise Venable analyzed the wage gap between men and women. She ultimately concludes that the differences between men and women are due to personal lifestyle choices, not because of gender discrimination. Venable claims that when women behave in the workplace as men do, the wage gap between them is very small. Venable claims that women tend to stress factors in their lives such as family and children before they stress about work. With that, they are more likely to make choices based on their work. Part-time working is something women are more likely to partake in. In 2000, one quarter of all women employees worked part-time. Nearly 85% of those women work part time due to family not due to economic standards. Married women women prefer to work part-time at a rate of 5 to 1 over married men. Venable believes Women choose to base their schedules off of their family. The article continues to stress that only 28% of women work work in fields that pay $40,000 or more a year. Fewer women have chosen to enter such technical fields as computer sciences, math and science teaching, medicine, law and engineering. Overall, Venable's perspective demonstrates that women are not discriminated against, they merely choose to have lower paying jobs. The core aspect of the issue that Venable does not preach about, is the women and men who work the same job where women are paid less. Another article, presented in the New York Times, relates to the women-men wage gap. For the first time in the Nation's history, women have a higher payroll than men. Due to America's economic recession, more men have been laid off than women. Casey B. Mulligan who is an professor at the University of Chicago quotes, "Important milestones remain to be achieved, but women surpassing 50 percent of employment is something that historians will note for years to come." Since the recession that began in December of 2007. Women have lost 3.9 million jobs where men have lost 7.4 million. The main reason for this is due to the jobs that men hold. Men tend to work in manufacturing industries, which pay more annually. When the economy is down, the companies that pay the most need to cut back. Women who hold careers in fields such as education, health care or government, are not paid as much and are able to hold their jobs. Unfortunately, as the women continue to have the upper hand in the Nation's Payroll, once the economy starts to improve, men will gradually make their way back on top of the payroll. The questions still remain. Are women discriminated against in the work place and why?