Question

How does gendered job segregation and the gender wage gap violate assumptions about the economic system in the US and the values associated with it?

• First, define and explain both: gendered job segregation and the gender wage gap.

• Then, discuss and evaluate policy approaches, providing strategies that would be successful in minimizing gendered job segregation and the wage gap.

Answer 1

One of the most important things about the societies is that they are highly stratified into different elements such as race, religion, culture, ethnicity, gender etc. Gender is one of the most important stratification because women were discriminated and dominated in almost all the societies. Women were expected to take care of the children, household activities and their husbands while men were expected to provide and protect the family. All these gendered characteristics were based on the physical strength and child bearing ability. However, women fought for their rights and gained their access to education, employment, housing, healthcare, property, political participation etc. Although women gained their rights, they were not able gain equality in terms of wages, promotion and access to all types of jobs. Women are still stereotyped because of their physical strength thus, they are not treated equally to men.

One of the most important policy strategies should be to introduce gender blind employment opportunities that would prevent companies asking for the gender in the application forms. Any job vacancy should be filled not on the basis of gender but on the merit of the candidate applying for the job. Secondly, there should be same pay for same type of job which would mean that all those who work on the same job or same cadre should be treated equally. Finally, when women are eligible for promotion, they shouldn’t be denied if they go on maternity leave. Most of the women lose their entire career’s benefits when they become mothers because it’s considered as employment break and their previous contributions are not counted.

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