Gender Inequality: Reasons for Its Existence
Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender.(Wikipedia) It seems quite often that women are unlikely to have top jobs (glass celling),and they are paid less in spite of doing the same workforce with men. Moreover, it is women who accept most part-time works and fill in those special areas like cashing (horizontal segregation). So, some experts suggest that in twenty-first century, women can be regarded as a ‘reserve army of labour’, prepared to get into the market when it is required. This essay will critically examine this idea by inducing several theories on women and work like Marxist views, and evaluate them afterwards.
It is true that women are at an inferior status in the labour market, and there are some facts proving that. According to ONS, in 2011, the pay gap was 10.5% in terms of full-time men’s and women’s median earnings. When looking at the overall gap, the differentiation derived by gender turned to 20.2%. To some extent, the pay gap could be explained by formal education levels,if any. However, in the light of the reality, there is just a very small amount, which is actually 5% only, is due to education- that is to say, discrimination may still be alive today.
In UK, the Queen of England represents the nation, suggesting a women might achieve the top jobs. Is it real that women are fairly treated in senior occupations? FTSE, which is an established company ranked within 100 boards, has 87.5% of its employees male and the rest female. For top 200 for Civil Service, 26.7% are women. In the parliament, women occupy 22.2% of its members and there are 14.3% senior police officers who are identified women. Obviously, the position of men in top jobs are unmatched.
The majority of nurses are women, so are the primary school teachers. It seems they would have limitation when hunting for jobs, which might be traditionally filled by women like what mentioned before: nurses and primary teachers.
It is true that women are at an inferior status in the labour market, and there are some facts proving that. According to ONS, in 2011, the pay gap was 10.5% in terms of full-time men’s and women’s median earnings. When looking at the overall gap, the differentiation derived by gender turned to 20.2%. To some extent, the pay gap could be explained by formal education levels,if any. However, in the light of the reality, there is just a very small amount, which is actually 5% only, is due to education- that is to say, discrimination may still be alive today.
In UK, the Queen of England represents the nation, suggesting a women might achieve the top jobs. Is it real that women are fairly treated in senior occupations? FTSE, which is an established company ranked within 100 boards, has 87.5% of its employees male and the rest female. For top 200 for Civil Service, 26.7% are women. In the parliament, women occupy 22.2% of its members and there are 14.3% senior police officers who are identified women. Obviously, the position of men in top jobs are unmatched.
The majority of nurses are women, so are the primary school teachers. It seems they would have limitation when hunting for jobs, which might be traditionally filled by women like what mentioned before: nurses and primary teachers.