The world is an unfair, cruel, degrading place, and that is just the harsh reality we live in and it always will be. No matter how hard we try to fix all these problems of inequality regarding race, class, and sexuality, we will just never find a solution. In class we have been discussing the topic of “sexism”, which is the degradation of a sex by the opposite sex, but it can only be classified as sexism if it is a systematic action otherwise it would just be considered bigotry.
One of the biggest acts of sexism would be considered the gender pay gap, where women get paid less than men for doing the exact same amount of work. Women, for years, have been fighting for equal rights and for the gender wage gap to still exist shows how far we’ve gotten.
“The gender gap in pay has narrowed since 1980, but it has remained relatively stable over the past 15 years or so. In 2017, women earned 82% of what men earned” (“The narrowing, but persistent, gender gap in pay”) You would think that after so many years of the existence of the gender pay gap women would finally get the equal pay they want, but no.
“The pay gap isn’t the same as equal pay. Equal pay – that men and women doing the same job should be paid the same – has been a legal requirement for 47 years” so why is it still happening? (“What is the gender pay gap?”) It’s a legal requirement for men and women to get paid equally, so why hasn’t there been any change? This just shows that he pay gap is never going to change and even if in the future men do end up getting taxed, it will not fix anything it will actually create more problems.
“Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on a person’s sex or gender” so sexism doesn’t just target women, but can also be targeted towards men as well (“Sexism”) Once we start taxing men, they will start to disagree and call it sexism, so basically the tables will have been turned and the whole point was to “make everyone equal”, but that is not at all what will happen.
What should happen to actually bring everyone the equality they want is just pay and tax everyone the same, no matter their gender, sex or sexuality. People should get paid for the work they do, not who they are. Paying everyone by the work they do will honestly, in my opinion, help our society tremendously. It will not completely get rid of sexism or bigotry, but it will get rid of one big issue that contributed to sexism.
Works Cited
- Graf, Nikki, et al. “Gender Pay Gap Has Narrowed, but Changed Little in Past Decade.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 9 Apr. 2018, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/09/gender-pay-gap-facts/.
- Jones, Lora. “What Is the Gender Pay Gap?” BBC News, BBC, 5 Feb. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/business-42918951.
- “Sexism.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Sept. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexism.
