Salaries! Men vs. Women

As I sit in front of my MacBook Pro computer and write a blog that has the potential to be seen by millions of people simultaneously through the World Wide Web, I can’t help but wonder why does segregation still exist?  Not the segregation between the races or religious groups but the segregation of the sexes.  In 2012, the age of wireless computer based phones and Internet television; we continue to have the mentality that men are somehow superior to women.  Of course this is not articulated out loud (at least in the ear shot of any woman) but it is more than prevalent in the amount of their paychecks.

An article written by Schiffel, Schroeder, and Smith, lays out the 2011 salaries of women compared to men.  Not only were women already paid significantly less, but also their annual increases were not to be compared to their male counterparts.  The writers show in great detail that the salary information from more than 5,000 employers has shown a 30% to 32% gap between the salary received by men and women.  Why? 

According to Peter Coy and Elizabeth Dwoskin of Business Week, it’s mainly because discussing pay is frowned upon in most Corporations and in some looked at as dismissible.  Women can’t complain about what they aren’t aware of.  Business Week describes this type of discrimination as a “Silent Offense.”  Yet, I’m still not satisfied.  This article helps me to understand why women aren’t standing up for themselves but my question is where did it originate and why hasn’t it changed, especially in the 21^st Century.  Answering this question may prove more difficult than getting equal pay for women.  So, having said that I pose another question, what are we doing about it now?

The “Paycheck Fairness Act” of 2012, although blocked by the Senate Republicans is a step in the right direction.  It’s a direct hit on the Republican party to let them know that women have a right to paid fairly and treated equally when doing the same job and having the same responsibility as their male counterparts.  No one seems to notice that if things don’t go well the repercussions for men and women “seem” to be the same, in theory anyway. 

As a woman, I’m not holding any grudges because life is definitely too short for that.  But, as a woman, let me be the first to stand up and say, we have ways of getting what we want.  Whether it is through kind hearted gestures or downright deviousness.  The point is, a woman is a force to be reckoned with and the day of reckoning is here.