Cindy Hu

Gender Inequality in the Workplace

It is no secret that women are still not 100% equal to men. This fact is especially
prevalent in the workplace. Women are not receiving equal pay, more men are in high level
positions then women, and women are discouraged from entering the STEM field. According to
the Institute for Womens Policy Research (IWPR) in 2014, female full-time workers made only
79 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 21 percent. The gender wage
gap is lowering, but there is still a lot of progress that needs to be made. There is no reason that
women should not be paid equal to men for doing the same job. This is assuming that women
are even able to get the same jobs as men. According to the American College of Healthcare
Executives [when] using sampling methods to allow women and men a similar amount of time
to obtain experience in healthcare management, about 12 percent of women, compared to 19
percent of men had achieved CEO positions. A working women not only has to work hard at
their job, but also have to overcome the fact that she is women to be treated equally if she wants
to be promoted. According to the Economics and Statistics Administration although women fill
close to half of all jobs in the U.S. economy, they hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs.
Women could help the STEM field, but the field is so dominated by men that it discourages
women from trying to join.
One really important thing to do in order to help equalize workplaces is to create a bill,
that will become a law, ensuring that women be paid equal to men when in the same level work
position. Of course it would take a long time to become a law, and would be hard to oversee that
this is actually being implemented. However, even if this bill just goes into congress for a vote it
will completely change the way people see gender equality. It will officially become an issue
that the United States government cares about, and that in itself will fuel people to take a stance
and stand up for gender equality. In order for this to happen it takes applying Paul Farmers
values of innovation, partnership and thinking fractally. Innovation involves new methods, new
products, or new ideas. This relates to creating this bill because currently there isnt a law for
gender equality in the workplace. A bill like this is one of a kind, and is a new change for the
government, but would be a big step forward for equality. In order for something like this to
happen gender equality and women rights interest groups have to go to congress to lobby their
cause to congress. From there it is up to congress to create the bill, and from there the different
political parties have to agree on a suitable bill to become a law. Obviously there are lot of
people involved with this process, and that is certainly not everyone involved in the process.
Thinking fractally means incorporating lots of disciplines to make informed decisions. All those
partnerships also resemble different disciplines that have to work together in order for this bill to
happen.
In order for gender equality in the workplace to change the culture needs to change as
well. People need to stop treating women like they are inferior and weak. If this changes
women will feel better about themselves, and be willing to fight for their right for equal pay,
better jobs, and the ability to thrive in male dominated fields. I think this relates to the last two
values of compassion and imagination. In order to change the culture everyone needs to have
compassion for one another, and understand that there is no need for there to be such a gap
between men and women. In order to change the culture it will take imagination because it isnt
easy to change peoples ways of thinking. It will take some imagination in order to reach people
set in their ways. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to promote equality in the
workplace and these are only a few ways to help this.

Bibliography
"Research & Resources." A Comparison of the Career Attainments of Men and Women Healthcare
Executives. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.
"Pay Equity & Discrimination." IWPR. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.
Beede, David N., Tiffany A. Julian, David Langdon, George Mckittrick, Beethika Khan, and Mark E.
Doms. "Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation." SSRN Electronic Journal SSRN
Journal (n.d.): n. pag. Web.