STAFF EDITORIAL: Societal change would aid fight for equal pay

STAFF+EDITORIAL%3A+Societal+change+would+aid+fight+for+equal+pay

Staff

The staff selects a topic and votes to determine the direction the editorial will take. The majority rules and the editorial is written by one staff member. Staff editorials are the personal opinions of Lotus Leaf members. They do not reflect the views of the administration or student body. Unsigned articles are the opinions of the majority of the staff after discussion. We encourage feedback and letters to the editors.

On average, women earn 79 cents for every dollar a man makes. In 2020, that is unacceptable. Our modern society has designed a system where women are viewed as inferior to men in terms of the workforce. The way that society views women in general, contributes to this growing issue of pay inequality. Changing societal norms towards women is the first step towards equal wages.  

Women all over the world experience wage inequality. Women of color, Hispanic women, and women in the LBGTQIA+ community get paid less, even less than 79 cents on the dollar. There is no place for racism, sexism, and prejudice towards people anywhere, including the workplace. The way society views these groups of people is the reason why the wage gap is bigger for them. Employers stereotype these groups of people and view them as inferior to men. We are all people, and people of any nationality, culture, sex, or sexuality deserves equal pay, because we are all human and not one of us is more important than the other.    

The main argument sexist employers use to support paying women unfair wages is “women are less experienced than men,” which is not always true. Women are held to a double standard and have to outperform men to be taken seriously for a job. Employers are more likely to hire an overqualified man than they are an overqualified woman. Mothers on average are 35.9 percent less likely to be hired for a job than fathers are of similar experience. This is in part due to society shaping mothers to be soft, incompetent, and uncommitted. Being prejudiced towards women is completely unacceptable. People can’t just assume that women are inexperienced and uncommitted. That is the whole problem with society. We as a society have to be the ones to fix this, because it’s unacceptable. 

For hundreds of years, women have been viewed by society as weak individuals who can’t do a “man’s job.” Women are not always less experienced than men. Women are not incompetent. Women are not always uncommitted. But one thing is for certain, women are humans, too. Women have been treated unfairly for too long because of the way that society views them. Thinking that women are inferior to men is old fashioned and completely prejudice. Our society has sadly normalized sexist behaviors. If we as a society look at and change how women are viewed, we can be the start to a gender-equal society.