Today is equal pay day and yet again we are still talking about the future and when men and woman will be paid the same. This topic of conversation is one that always surprised my students. They had learnt in Sociology, Business Studies and maybe even General Studies that we had equality in pay. My students could cite the year that the equal pay act came in effect and they truly believed that all was equal now. They would confidently tell me that it must be equal now because there is a minimum wage that is not set by gender and that it is against the law to discriminate on gender. Yet that discrimination does still exist and woman are still earning less than men – it is just more hidden.
Equal pay day and why we still need feminism
Today marks the day that from now until the end of the year woman are essentially working for free. Both vertical and horizontal discrimination is in existence, women often work in different sectors to men where the work is low paid, think caring, think retail. Women often work part time to juggle the demands of childcare and family responsibility. Again this work is often lower paid than the full time equivalent. Part time work gives little opportunity for promotion and bonuses in the workplace. Again there is a motherhood disadvantage where mothers lose out on promotions and further training opportunities because of family and caring commitments.
It would take my optimistic students are while to understand this indirect discrimination. It doesn’t become apparent before you work in the real world. We are blinded by legislation that we think tackles discrimination head on.
I took my teen daughter to watch Suffragette. We were both moved by it, especially at the end as the credits rolled and it becomes apparent that the right to vote is still only now happening in some parts of the world. It is easy to believe that feminism is not needed anymore and that the battles have been won. If only that were true.
Men and women are still needed to speak out and acknowledge that we don’t live in a fair society, that women are still disadvantaged. I want my daughter and her friends to earn the same as her male friends. They work just as hard as the boys, they have ambition and they are determined. I don’t want my daughter to effectively work for free for seven weeks a year, according to the Official Statistics the average male earns £16.77 per hour for a full time job compared with the average for women being £14.39
Too many people know this and yet this gender gap still exists with no signs of closing. We need to tell our girls they are worth more, we need to teach our girls that seeking promotions, challenging the status quo and taking jobs in the traditionally male dominated areas will be good for them. In Britain we are going to have a real shortage in the STEM subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. We need to do more to get girls involved and challenge the stereotypes that still exist.
I am incredibly proud of my teen who is strong willed, determined and proving that girls can be whatever they want to be. We now have advertisers for brands such as Barbie telling girls they can be whatever they want, Dove are championing girls in their no likes needed campaign. This all demonstrates that feminism is still very much needed in 2015.
17 Responses
Just keep encouraging our daughters to study what they want, to work hard, to do whatever hobbies they want and keep proving that they are just as good as the boys!
On the whole, this post makes such depressing reading. I remember being the teenager who believed I could have it all – a responsible, well-paid job AND a family. It’s only really when you have a family that you realise that in 95% of cases it just isn’t possible. Having a family stops you from reaching your career goals. I know so many women working part-time who have been made redundant – it’s discrimination by the back door. It just doesn’t happen to men working in the same lines of work because they’re working full-time and climbing the career ladder.
Exactly all of the Sarah. As a mother it is very difficult to climb the career ladder despite ambition and qualifications.
A real bone of contention you’ve brought up here and rightly so, it’s good to talk about it and make it known to the wider world that we are not happy.
In my recent new role I was surprised on a few different levels, firstly I am in a heavily female predominated team and I am really enjoying this, I love that both my manager and the top manager are strong women, it makes me feel as if I am in the right place.
Secondly, I was worried I wouldn’t be offered a job as I approach 50 next year and that always used to be a nightmare age to get back into the ‘system’.
Thirdly, they were perfectly ok to work my hours around my childcare, asking to leave the office early on a Weds to take the girls to ballet class has not become an issue, I catch those hours up on a different day, job done, girls happy and mum happy too.
This is an ideal case that needs to be copied up and down the country. I do feel very lucky.
That is fab to read Mari and shows that it can be done. Hurrah for good bosses that understand what mothers need.
Wow that is quite depressing in this day and age. I probably should be surprised but I’m not. I think things are so much better in western countries than in others which is something and things have improved but I agree that we should raise our daughters to have the strength to stand up for equal pay.
yes we are obviously better off here than in many other countries, Shame we still have so far to go though.
Quite disturbing that these issues still exist, yet I know the pay gap keeps coming up on the news so it must be true, as for the subject gap, that is up to girls to choose those subjects that are more science based. My own daughter is growing up to believe she is every bit as capable as her brothers, if not more so as she is more academic than them, I hope this doesn’t change and that no one bursts her bubble.
whilst I agree that it is up to girls to choose the STEM subjects they need to be packaged for girls to take them. That is down to how they are presented, the content, how they are taught and how society expects girls to behave.
Having worked in HR for years I have seen so much evidence of this and it is not that easy to bring an equal pay claim but when one does suceed it is a fabulous thing. Mich x
It astonishes and saddens me that the situation still exists – to think of working for free for the rest of the year, simply because of my gender?! But I hope your students’ optimism is actually cause for optimism too. If they think and believe that men and women should be equal and paid equally, by the time they are making the decisions, perhaps that will finally become the case. Although sooner would be a lot better!
Unfortantely I have seen this first hand. The industry in which I work doesn’t cope well with working mothers. It’s getting better and I am trying to change one opinion at a time. It’s hard work but it’s improving!! I will break through that glass ceiling 🙂 xx
I really want to watch Suffragette. I have 2 boys but I will be teaching them about the inequality and to stand up and believe in equality for the genders. It’s crazy that all this time as past and we still haven’t got equality in our society
Nice post, it’s hard to believe in this day and age we women are still so behind, I think until the workplace comes to accept that women can do a good job and have babies, it’s still the biggest stumbling block in the world the way I see it.
We need to close the gap between men and women and although feminism is given a bad name in media I am proud to call myself a feminist. A feminist varies according to our perception of what feminism entails and that is ok, to me I want to see equality between all sexes and promote a sense of well-being in each community no matter how much of an outcast they may be seen in other lens.
Hi, good post. It is really difficult to combat the causes of gender discrimination in the workplace because they are often implicit and subtle. I am a member of the women’s network at work and this is something we grapple with a lot. It is also difficult because feminism has a ad name. Thanks for your post.
Compared to my husband, I am more qualified to do what I do, yet he is paid more. For example. I have A Levels, Foundation Degree, and a BA Hons Degree, yet I was stuck under 20k even though I had been working for so long. I went on maternity leave and was told “you don’t need a pay rise as you’re leaving”. Totally illegal I know. My husband trained to be a printer and was paid double what I was. Shocking how education doesn’t actually seem to have an affect on salary these days. When my children grow up I will be encouraging them to go into a field that is well paid, enjoyable and long lasting. It’s a shame these sorts of jobs are aimed more at men than women though. x
I remember when I was young and at school the girls did knitting and the boys did woodwork! Until a new principal came on board and he purposely switched it! There was uproar at the time from the boys parents! How ridiculous! Hard to believe that in this day and age it still is commonplace, thanks for your post, a great way to raise awareness of these existing archaic issues!xx