Discrimination Against Women and the Gender Wage Gap

From the beginning, women have always been discriminated against and viewed as the weaker gender. In some discriminatory views, women are often thought of as mothers and homemakers. In years past, women have had to fight for their rights, while men had theirs handed to them. Discrimination against women in the workplace has caused laws to be placed on discriminating against women based on gender. It has taken many years for women to be viewed as equal to men in the workforce. Although many people believe men and women are treated fairly, many studies show that women and men are paid unequally for doing the same work. According to the New York Times, Catherine Rampell’s article “The Gender Pay Gap, by State” states that in Louisiana, women earn sixty-five percent of men’s salaries. Today, Louisiana has the largest gender wage gap, causing women to wonder what can be done to eliminate or close the gap between men’s and women’s salaries.

First, Louisiana has always had one of the highest gender pay gaps in the United States. According to an article in the NJBIZ from 2007, Louisiana ranked 51st among the “Pay Gap Leaders and Losers” with women earning only sixty-four percent of what men earn. In the article, Catherine Hill, “a research director for the Washington-based group that promotes education equity,” stated that “the gender gap will persist until more women pursue careers in science and engineering, women become tougher negotiators and employers do more to accommodate the needs of mothers and their children” (“The Salary Gap” 2). Living in a state with the largest gender wage gap makes it hard for women to be successful on their own. States are not the only thing that plays a role in the pay gap.

Another thing to look at is the gender wage gap between men and women in different occupations. “Explaining Trends in the Gender Wage Gap”, written by The Council of Economic Advisers, states “it is difficult to determine precisely how much of the difference in female/male pay is due to discrimination and how much is due to differential choices and preferences by female workers.” Studies looking into the pay differences between men and women with similar jobs have found evidence of “ongoing discrimination in the labor market and support the conclusion that women still face differential treatment on the job.” The New York Times released an article on the gender pay gap, with a graph showing the percentage of money women earned, compared to men in a wide array of industries. The graph shows that women working in construction, although not many occupy that field, “earn 92.2 cents on the dollar of what men earn,” while women working in financial activities suffer the largest gender wage gap (Rampell). The gap between men and women’s salaries in different occupations keeps many women from venturing into certain career fields. As women begin to decide the occupation they want to go into, the pay