While it has been a long set tradition to think of women as lesser workers and not able to handle as much pressure and highly ranked jobs, society is in need of change as women are acquiring higher or equal qualifications as men, but are still being payed less. This concept, although mostly focused on with more privileged women, can also be widened to take in women from developing countries, where there is an important pay gap, which doesn’t help to entice families to let girls get a proper education as they know this will not be as beneficial in later life to support their family. Women should have equal pay rates as men, and all people should be paid based on qualifications rather than on gender. Reasons to support this are that women should have equal opportunities to follow their dreams and should also be able to be the breadwinners of the family, which means that we need to change the mindset of men and communities so that it is both men and women who are in charge of the household and raising the children.
First of all, men usually expect women to handle less work to take care of their children, or simply because of the stereotype of being too emotional and unable to handle pressure, and company owners want the hardest workers and the ones they can count on, so they usually see men as fittest. According to Trina Liang Lin, president of the Singapore Committee for UN Women, “Some women are still not equally paid as their male counterparts for the same job. In the 2014 Labour Force Statistics, women earn less than men in all occupational categories except clerical and support. In most categories, this differential is more than 10 per cent.” (Lin, 2015). This shows that there is a considerable pay difference for men and women even in privileged circles, and this is proven to be because women are expected to take care of household matters and raise the children, and have to balance career simultaneously. In some cases, this makes for having to compromise one thing or the other, and as a result, women are generally not trusted with highly-ranked and important roles in a company, which could affect their family.
Furthermore, for women to reach equal pay and esteem in their work environment, there seems to be a crucial need for a mindset shift for men, CEOs of companies, government officials, and especially in the family environment, all need to see that if they claim to give women equal opportunities and esteem, why are they still paid less and in most cases are expected to take care of the children and household, and if they work, have to balance career on top of this. Under some conditions, women may be faced with having to decide between these two, and they cannot drop their family, so they stop working to take care of the lather. In this case, families could start dividing house chores more proportionately so both parents can work as well as managing their homes. There are many cultural and societal reasons why women are not being paid as much, as said before, and having communities supporting this cause will help them use the education they receive and not be held back more than men when they attempt to achieve goals as independent women who are not forced to depend on men or their family as adults.
Lastly, a reason to show that setting women on an equal level to men in a work environment is beneficial, is that it will help to push society into a more socially accepting and advanced global community which will empower women to be a more influential part of society. If communities are able to implement the family balance of house and work, more women would be capable of handling a greater workload and pressure and society would be more open to women being in control and in turn they would feel more encouraged to pursue ambitious goals and a fuller career. This will enable society to move forward in the current goal to include women in entrepreneurship business and to have a figure in the government, which still faces controversy. This controversy, although mainly widely seen in government issues, are seen in workplaces of any size, and affect communities as a whole because of how we see a woman’s place in society, and these prejudices stay with people throughout their lives and later affect individuals’ pay rates.
In conclusion, both women and men should have equal pay rates and not be deprived of the opportunity to follow a career they want and have the appropriate reward for it. Women are often underrepresented in businesses even if they are the ones behind the work or have more qualified diplomas. These reasons prove that this is a widespread societal issue that we need to deal with on all levels, from families balancing work and house together, to teaching children about equality, all the way to enforcing a law of pay rates based on qualifications, not gender.
