“The Gender Pay Gap”

I. Introduction
Over the years the world has gone through many changes, from the
general thought that men should be working and providing for their families while
women are supposed to stay at home and care for the children and do the
housework. As of today, that kind of thinking is still common, yet it would be
regarded as misogyny if you strongly hold on to that sentiment. With numerous
Feminist movements conducted, the world became closer to equality between
genders more than before. In previous times women were considered to be
lesser than men and thought to be weaker than men, therefore they were not
considered as capable to handle jobs that men normally do. In previous years,
women were not considered to be hired in jobs that require physical work, such
as in factory assembly lines, and engineering departments in certain
organizations or companies such as NASA. Although now that women are now
considered equal to men, there are companies that are still holding on to the
sentiment that men are better than women, which results in an unethical wage
gap between genders. This research aims to show the facts around this issue,
the different companies accused of it, and the different companies who were able
to overcome it.

II. Discussion
Despite the numerous feminist movements occurring within society
concurrently, women are still being discriminated against within the workplace. A
reason for this is that there are more men in a senior position of a company than
women, this is due to the initial thought that being in a senior position requires to
work for longer hours, and the sentiment of men being better than still influencing
the higher-ups to disregard female aspirants for senior positions in certain
companies (Timewise n.d.).

One of the biggest companies that were accused of pay discrimination

is Disney, according to an article written by Sonnemaker (2021), Disney was
accused of paying women less than men as ten female employees sued Disney
recently, due to being paid less than the male employees. The matter of pay
discrimination within Disney started way back in April 2019, as two employees,
 LaRonda Rasmussen and Karen Moore, filed a lawsuit claiming pay
discrimination between men and women workers is happening within Disney.

Disney is not the only large company that has been accused of having
pay discrimination between genders. Another large company accused of
discrimination of pay between genders is Google. According to an article written
by Paul (2020), the women working for Google miss out on a significant amount
of money each year compare to men due to the discriminatory pay happening
within the company, additionally, this case has been going on since 2017, and
currently, new evidence seems to have arisen, but due to the company’s
influence, the case keeps getting pushed back.

III. Stand
In light of all these situations, I stand against the gender pay gap.
Clearly, it would benefit the company more to pay employees without
discrimination of any kind. The employee’s morale helps the company therefore I
see no reason to discriminate pay among employees because of their gender. By
doing so, may accelerate progress in eliminating gender pay gaps in large
companies, creating a flagship that ensures equal pay between genders may
inspire many companies to do the same therefore eliminating the gender pay gap
(O’Donnell et al., 2020). Another advantage of equal pay is a much better
economy, comprised of the contributions of all the citizens.

IV. Insights
At first, my knowledge about discrimination was very limited as all I
knew about it was people treating other people horribly, I did not think about
discrimination and its other forms deeply. Through the GED109 course, I was
able to be enlightened to what discrimination is, the different forms it takes, and
the different factors that initiate it.

Though the issue of gender pay discrimination runs deeper than just
ordinary discrimination caused by race, status, and other factors. Not only does it
affect people it also affects the economy as well as the image of a company.
Clearly, people would want to work for a company that pays its employees
equally regardless of gender. That company would certainly be appealing to
aspiring employees.
 Additionally, by using the learnings I have gained in Module 2 of our
GED109 course. I have learned of the different ways to prevent discrimination as
well as identify the form of discrimination whether it is subtle or explicitly
expressed.

V. Photos

A Visual Representation
of The Gender Pay Gap
(Davey, 2019).

The gender pay gap in

developed nations, a
visual representation
(Statista, 2016).
VI. References
Davey, M. (2019). Employer Secrecy Around Staff Pay is Fuelling The Gender Pay
Gap, Says An Expert. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/11/employer-secrecy-around-
staff-pay-is-fuelling-gender-pay-gap-says-expert
O'Donnell, M., Nwankwo, U., & Strickland C. (2020). Closing Gender Pay Gaps
Identifying Roles for Government and The Private Sector. Center for Global
Development. https://www.cgdev.org/publication/closing-gender-pay-gaps
Paul, K. (2020). Women at Google Miss Out on Thousands of Dollars as A Result of
Pay Discrimination. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jul/22/google-gender-pay-di
scrimination-lawsuit
Sonnemaker, T. (2021). 2020 Brought A Wave of Discrimination and Harassment
Allegations Against Major Companies like Amazon, McDonald's, and
Pinterest. Insider.
https://www.businessinsider.com/every-company-that-was-sued-discriminati
on-and-harassment-lawsuits-2020-2021-1
Statista. (2016). The Gender Pay Gap In Developed Nations Visualised. Statista.
https://www.statista.com/chart/4279/the-gender-pay-gap-in-developed-natio
ns-visualised/
Timewise. (n.d.). The Real Reasons Behind The Gender Pay Gap. Timewise.
https://timewise.co.uk/article/article-real-reasons-behind-gender-pay-gap/