Payment Equality: Fifty Years Long Overdue

I’m just going to dive right in here and say what gives people the right to think that men should be paid more for doing the same job a woman does? If a man and a woman are pulling staples out of papers, should either one of them get paid more for doing it better than the other? (Like it could be possible)! all I’m saying is that if a man and woman are doing the same job at the same pace then they should be paid the same and I don’t care if they’re two men, two women or a man and a woman. Equal pay should mean exactly that: EQUAL PAY!! I don’t have the experience of going through this situation myself, but I’m not that far behind and I would hope to get the same dollar value as a man, not 76% of a dollar.
By now I would hope that things are better for woman the way they were almost fifty years ago…but I guess that is just too much to ask for. I’m guessing it might take us another fifty years for women to catch up with men as far and being equal financially.
I don’t want to say that all men are the enemy because I don’t believe that; I just want to say that women have a more difficult time earning money to take care of themselves and be self sufficient than a man would. With women there are so many barriers to overcome and sometimes the list is never-ending with the example of single mothers there can be so many things in the way of earning enough money to take care of your family. There is only so much one person can do but if people start to realize the inequality there might be a better chance that change for equality will come soon.

Bread Winners

If there was ever a woman to know the essential truth about wage discrimination, it would be my mother. Yes, my mother, the woman who's uterus has given birth to eight boys (either it's ground-zero down there, or she is the face behind wonder woman). Ok, lets do the math here, she has given birth to eight boys, average pregnancy= roughly nine months, 8x9=72, 72 months divided by 12 (12 months in on year)=6. Six years!! For God's sake, the woman has been pregnant for an unbearable six years of her life. Now I'm not saying my mother is a living personification of a rabbit, but let's be moderately honest here, she has carried extra baggage for quite some time. Whatever it was that inspired my mother to have 8 kids (assuming that most of us were planned), she has had some life experiences, battling for jobs to raise her kids. I do recall times when my mother would get home after giving birth and finding out that she was laid-off from her job. Growing up, countless times I could remember my mother struggling to find a job, with no college education, and very little high school completion, ideally, I can understand why it would be a prolonged level of difficulty for her to find a job. On the other hand, her first five pregnancies, my father would not allow my mother to work. Like Valenti explains in Material World, my father was "one of those guys," who would forbid a woman to work (that is, not counting that he was a controlling, jealous, impractical bastard, who swore on the Holy Bible, that my mother was f****** every guy that came across her sight, and yes, for the record that included her peripherals). My father deeply believed that a woman should have a meal ready when he got home from work. Having no experience, after the divorce, you can imagine how demanding jobs seemed to be for my mother, but I turned out alright, so that must say something about the woman my mother is. Although I do believe my mother, gets paid a salary that is drastically less than that of an average working mommy, she has done the best with what God has blessed her with.

more than just a job....

After reading “Material World” I put a lot of thought and consideration to how this world functions. Men used to be the sole providers of the household and after many years they have still not come accustomed to women helping out. Women are still having a harder time getting at the top of the ladder. For a woman to succeed is harder because many people find her weak and not smart enough to be able to do the job. For example a job like a truck driver, that job was thought to be only for men. Now women do those jobs too and when I see that I can not help but smile because it comes to show that women are succeeding. That might not be the easiest job but they are getting there.
But, even if women are getting there they are still not earning the same as a man earns. I know that recently on the news there was a lady from the government who spoke about how women are still earning less in pay than men. She was speaking up because she knows that women need to be paid the same as males. So, women might have to wait a while for them to get paid the same as males. However even with being paid fewer women still have to work. Whether it is at a factory or at home the women will still work. So when the female is doing double or triple the job that a male does women are the ones with the short end of the stick.

Don’t Touch Me!

The two readings on sexual harassment really interested me because I have personally seen and experienced this in my work place. Both Baker and Valenti pointed out that the civil rights and labor movements provoked the sexual harassment movement. Being sexually harassed comes in many different forms and is not by any means just physical contact. A mere gesture or look can send a woman the wrong message. In my work place, there are a couple guys who definitely do not know when to draw the line. For example, they will grab towels and whip us girls in the butt with it. At first it was funny, but after a while it gets annoying and offensive because. However one girl actually enjoys the attention and urges the boys to do it some more. I think that not all sexual harassment is caused or provoked by the men, but by the women. Women often send the wrong message to men and open that passageway for a man to harass them, especially physically. She comes to work with a low cut shirt and short shorts, and every single night the boys are drawn to whip her with the towels more than others. I think she does this on purpose. However if it is a guy who she thinks is unattractive, then she complains and tells him to stop. If women want to stop being harassed, then they need to not be so vulnerable. Yes, a lot of harassment is provoked by men and is uncalled for, but neither of the readings focused on how women portray themselves. I believe that is women were to have more pride and respect for themselves, and then they would be able to stand up and take a stronger stand against harassment.

"Real" Women

Who can really define what a real woman is? Well, nobody can! The “real” woman concept is just a whole bunch of bolony. As for us woman, we have to have babies if not we’re not considered a good enough women for men. Between women’s relationships we always find ourselves judging each other about deciding if we want to be a mother. We as women are looked upon if we have children but do not raise them the right way so either way we are not good enough!!! A real woman is not defined by the fact of being a mommy or not being a mommy. In my opinion, a real women looks at the choices she has and then acts upon making the right choice. That’s the true definition of what a real woman is in my eyes. We woman aren’t exposed to our choices therefore it limits our decision making. Just going back to the birth control/emergency contraception issue, there’s the problem! Birth control is not a choice we have, it is kept from us because of the power structure men set upon us women. We don’t have our choice laid out on the table so that’s what is wrong with woman’s choices. The expectation of woman and babies is all over but the message of continuing our education is not right??? Why is it that we have to be good enough mothers but we can’t be successful as career women?? Why do men aim towards making babies instead of thinking of the successful careers of their wives? It’s simple, the power structure hierarchy must be met by them at all times. If we don’t find out the choices we have then we’re maintaining the power men have over women. So enough is enough! Step up and making your own choice without the manipulation of the men.

Study of Restaurant Power Structure

After reading Burk's article on women in the corporate world, I decided to apply some of the ideas addressed to the power structure at the restaurant I work at. All of the positions up until the managers were very ethnically diverse, with people from all backgrounds.
The server, host and take out positions are composed by 2/3 women. All of these positions require the employees to provide a service to the guest, and with many guests, multi-tasking is a necessity, and this can be mentally straining to many.
Then the cooks and the service assistants are are roughly 2/3 occupied by men. These positions require the employees to do more physical labor and it comes with a certain repetition of certain tasks.
Then the manager and other supervisor positions are half men and half women.
These positions are also referred to as the "Quality Coordinator's", and their job is to keep the guests happy and the other employees motivated and doing their job correctly.
On top of all of these employees is the one general manager, or GM. The GM at the store I work at is a woman. She makes all the final decisions regarding just about everything from schedules, pay raises and termination. Past this point in power we see a dramatic shift in the amount of diversity, as it plunges towards practically zero. All the positions past the GM are dominated by white men. All of the Regional Managers, Head Chefs and other top seat holders I have seen have all been white men
After knowing this, it is important to analyze the relationship between the general manager, her employees, and her peers. Our GM is always under extreme pressure to perform being in her position of power. One of Burk's principles can also be seen at work here.
The first one shown is the idea that power recreates itself in its own image. Our GM is constantly surrounded by her higher up peers and their values are shown through her actions. Fortunately, I have experienced her as a manager before she became a GM and she was much different. As a manager she made relationships with her employees and other managers and upon being promoted to a GM she has gradually become much more individualistic. Consequently many relationships with employees and other managers became neglected and worsened.
Either way I thought this would be some more evidence of Burk's claim.

TO BABY OR NOT TO BABY

  
After reading Valenti’s reading on “Real” Women Have Babies, I was somewhat perplexed with how often I will condemn those that wish not to have children. I too have found myself saying to other women who have expressed they do not want children that they will soon want one. I started questioning however how much women really want one or how many times they have children because of the immense pressure to have one. I have found myself thinking about my own desire to have children. Do I really love babies and how fuzzy and cute they are or could I realistically overlook the fact that I have not patience for toddlers and their insane need to explore their surroundings? Mind you that is just the beginning. I have not given it much effort or thought, even though after I get married this year, the when will you have children question will start to be the main topic of friends and loved ones. It is such a societal effort to push the baby notion on women. They have pushed the get married notion thus far but why don’t they push they be Happy notion.There is hardly any talk about how they will take up all your time, how you will become second, how your needs will now take a back seat. However, if you even utter the words of disliking motherhood, or think about yourself you are selfish and as Valenti points out not a fit or good mother. Why don’t they push women to get an education, why don’t they push them to go for the next step in their career? My answer is that is it is simply to keep women back from their true potential, just like it has been done for ages.