Matson

Katie Matson
Mr. Rogers
US Government 3
2 November 2015
Mock Congress Research Paper: Womens Issues
President Barack Obama once said, We must carry forward the work of the women who
came before us to ensure our daughters have no limits on their dreams, no obstacles on their
achievements, and no remaining ceilings to shatter. Women in the United States have long been
subject to discrimination and stereotypes in both society and the work field. Courageous women
such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Sanger and many more have fought
long and hard for womens rights. In the early 20 century, women were often only called upon to
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go to work in times of war. As the century progressed, more and more women began to join the
workforce, despite the cult of domesticity society had placed them in. The Equal Pay Act of 1963
was passed by the Kennedy administration in an effort to provide an equal wage for men and
women. However, the act has been ineffective because employers have found several loopholes
within it allowing them to pay women significantly lower salaries than men. The Equal Pay Act
of 2015 should be passed because white women are paid less than men, women of color are paid
less than white women, and the pay gap affects families.
Men and women who perform identical tasks in the workforce are continuously paid
completely different salaries. Even though the Equal Pay Act was instituted in 1963 to prevent
this, women in the workforce still find themselves making less money compared to their male
counterparts. In the United States, On average, full-time working women earn just 78 cents for
every dollar a man earns (Did You Know). If a man and a woman who are co-workers are

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working on a project together and both of them are putting in equal amounts of work, the male
will be paid more simply due to the fact that he is a man. This means that women lose thousands
of dollars, According to one analysis by the Department of Labors Chief Economist, a typical
25-year-old woman working full time would have already earned $5,000 less over the course of
her working career than a typical 25-year old man (Coukos). In contrast, men make more than
women for doing the same job. Men have always been superior to women, and the pay inequity
keeps them in that superior position. If a woman were not working at the same level as a man,
then the pay inequity would be reasonable. However, that is not always the case and as a result
capable and achieving women are losing thousands of dollars because of their gender. The wage
gap between men and women is due to two reasons, Economists generally attribute about 40%
of the pay gap to discrimination making about 60% explained by differences between workers
or their jobs. However, even the explained differences between men and women might be
more complicated (Coukos). Discrimination still remains an issue in the United States, which is
a large part of pay inequity. But the written differences between jobs consist of the slightest
details. For example, the classes a woman takes in high school might affect her pay wage.
Basically, if a woman wants to be considered to have a salary similar to her male counterpart, she
has to make the right decision all the time, and even that will not help her because there is
nothing she can do about her gender. Equal pay for women has been an issue in America for
centuries, but for women of color or Latino descent, the pay inequity is even greater.
Female salaries are low to begin with, but for women of color and Latina descent, they
are even lower. Discrimination between gender is present in the issue of equal pay as a whole,
but discrimination between the races is present as well. African American and Latina women are
paid even less than their white-female counterparts. In the United States, The pay gap is even

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greater for African-American and Latina women, with African-American women earning 64
cents and Latina women earning 56 cents for every dollar earned by a white non-Hispanic man
(Understand the Basics). This is more than 10 cents for African American, and more than 20
cents for Latina women less than what an average white women makes compared to a mans
dollar. It is the same for women of other races as well. For example, Asian-American women
must work 15 months to make as much as white, non-hispanic men do in a year (Equal Pay for
Asian Women). It is absurd that women have to work an extra three or so months just to make
the same amount of money as men, when they are working the same jobs. In 2009, data was
taken to compare earnings of women of different ethnicities, Women's-to-men's earnings ratios
were higher among blacks (89 percent) and Hispanics (90 percent) than among whites (79
percent) and Asians (78 percent) (Womens Earnings). Discrimination is very evident here.
Though Asian and White women make more, all four groups of women are paid significantly
less than their male counterparts. Non-white women suffer from discrimination in society and in
the workforce as well, and have for centuries, but the negative effect of this is that the lower the
salary, the more harm it causes to the woman's family.
The pay inequity between men and women is not only an issue of discrimination, but an issue
that affects their families. In the United States, women have always been expected to keep the
household running and take care of the children. Today, women make up half of the workforce,
but because of the pay inequity, they struggle to support the family. According to the Womens
Bureau of US Department of Labor, Over the course of her lifetime, this pay gap will cost a
woman and her family lost wages, reduced pensions, and diminished social security benefits (A
Guide). This means that a single mother would struggle to provide for her family because she
would not have the extra support of a second salary coming from her husband. In a two-parent

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household, with the wage gap and the loss of jobs traditionally held by men in this economy,
reliance on a womans income in their families budget is even greater (Fact Sheet). If a man lost
his job and the womans salary was the familys only source of income, the family would suffer
tremendously because the womans salary is much less than that of her husbands, especially if
they had the same job. Instead of making half as much, they would be making even less. Close to
1.5 million families rely primarily on the mothers income at one point. (Families). These
families have financial trouble often because of the low salaries women make. Despite the fact
that the pay gap between men and women affects the family, people continue to develop opinions
against equal pay.
Some people believe that if women want to earn more money then they should seek higher
paying jobs, and that pay equity is not beneficial to men. Even though women have the freedom
to work in any job they would like, women are still more likely to work in lower-paying
occupations and industries (Stevenson). However, part of this is because women feel that they
are not qualified to work in higher paying jobs and are afraid to compete with their male
counterparts. Men feel that they will not benefit from pay equity mainly because it will even out
the playing field and they will be forced to compete more against women for jobs. Women who
do hold high paying jobs are still not paid salaries as high as men, A man with a doctoral degree
can expect to make $3.8 million over a lifetime of work while women with the same level degree
can expect to make $2.5 million (Brady). A doctoral degree almost guarantees a good, high
paying job, yet women still make a million dollars less than men over a lifetime of work. So even
though women tend to work in lower paying jobs, it does not mean that's the reason they do not
make as much as men. High paying job or not, the pay gap remains. In states that do have pay
equity laws, Men receive benefits through increased job security because employers are

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discouraged from replacing them with lower-paid women (Equal Pay for Equal Work). Equal
pay actually gives men more job security. Men could ask for a raise without being fired and
replaced with a woman who can be paid less. Overall, equal pay would benefit both men and
woman in a variety of ways.
In conclusion, the Equal Pay Act of 2015 should be passed in an effort to help families,
prevent discrimination, and close the wage gap. Women have fought hard for their rights and will
persevere until full equality is reached. The next step in the battle for equality is achieving equal
pay for equal work. If the Equal Pay Act of 2015 is passed, then America will be one step closer
to becoming the land of the free that it is supposed to be. So remember the womens rights
activists and the impact they have had on this country. They have achieved suffrage rights, the
right for women to have control over their bodies, they have made the world what it is today.
Now it is up to the women and men of the 21st century to continue their battle for womens
rights. Vote for the Equal Pay Act of 2015 so that the womens rights will continue to improve
and give women the chance to reach their full potential in the United States.

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Works Cited
Brady, Dorothy S. "Equal Pay for Women Workers." Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science 251.Women's Opportunities and Responsibilities (1947): 5360. JSTOR. Web. 01 Nov. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/1024879?ref=searchgateway:d880218a31ba49cdd0ef862769d55c1f>.
Coukos, Pamela. "Myth Busting the Pay Gap." US Department of Labor Blog. N.p., 07 June
2012. Web. 01 Nov. 2015. <http://blog.dol.gov/2012/06/07/myth-busting-the-pay-gap/>.
"Did You Know That Women Are Still Paid Less Than Men?" The White House. The White
House, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2015. <http://www.whitehouse.gov/equal-pay/career>.
"Equal Pay for Asian American Women." National Women's Law Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 01
Nov. 2015. <http://www.nwlc.org/resource/equal-pay-asian-american-women>.
"Equal Pay for Equal Work." Marriage and Family Living 18.2 (1956): 153. JSTOR. Web. 01
Nov. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/348642?ref=searchgateway:f75f83880247207f68f217ec83119118>.
Fact Sheet: Closing the Gender Wage Gap (n.d.): n. pag. US Department of Labor. Web. 1 Nov.
2015. <https://www.dol.gov/wb/equal-pay/WH-Equal-Pay-fact-sheet.pdf>.
"Families and Living Arrangements." Family Groups (FG Table Series). N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Nov.
2015. <http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2014FG.html>.
"A Guide to Women's Equal Pay Rights." A Guide to Womens Equal Pay Rights (n.d.): n. pag.
US Department of Labor. Web. 1 Nov. 2015. <http://www.dol.gov/equalpay/>.
Stevenson, Betsey. "Five Facts About the Gender Pay Gap." The White House. N.p., 14 Apr.
2015. Web. 1 Nov. 2015. <https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/04/14/five-facts-aboutgender-pay-gap>.

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"Understand the Basics." The White House. The White House, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2015.
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/equal-pay>.
"Womens Earnings as a Percentage of Mens, 2008 : The Economics Daily : U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, n.d.
Web. 02 Nov. 2015. <http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2009/ted_20091014.htm>.