They say “good things come to those who wait,” but it’s been a century.
To this day, women are not paid as much as men, which is a fact. Women get paid 83 cents for every dollar a man makes, creating a 17% gap. What’s not a proven fact is that women are incapable of working as hard as men. There is no genetic reason why women should be paid less than men. There is no evidence that women are not as smart or hardworking as men.
There is also no evidence that women don’t deserve the same treatment as men.
So why is this happening? Why does the government refuse to pay women as much as men? There are many opinions on the gender wage gap, and I can practically hear men rolling their eyes at the mere topic of this financial gap.
I believe that women and men should be paid the same amount for working the same job. No matter the job, there is a gap; even if women put in twice the work, they are paid less. Say what you want, but you cannot deny the existence of this gap, let alone that this is an issue.
Why should I be paid less than a man while doing the same work simply because I’m a woman?
I shouldn’t.
This isn’t only a sexism issue; it is also an issue of discrimination for all women.
The gender wage gap is not only about gender; it also changes based on the race of the women. Hispanic women get paid 57.8 cents to the dollar compared to white men, Black women 66.5 cents, white women 79.6 cents, and Asian women 94.2 cents.
Older women, ages 37 to 46, get paid less than younger women working the same job. The older women get, the less they get paid despite having the same qualifications.
This is discrimination in all ways: gender, race, and age.
It is 2025, and this should not be this big of an issue. This wage gap creates financial inequality for everyone who is affected by it.
To fix this issue, there are many options. If money is the problem, why not lower men’s wages to equal women’s? Or reevaluate and redistribute the money to those who work more dangerous jobs?
The issue isn’t with money and how much certain jobs are willing to pay their employees. The real issue comes from higher up than each individual job.
Obviously, those who have more education and experience will be considered first for a job and will be paid more than those without that experience. Though a man with a degree in a specific field and a woman with a degree in the same field should get paid the same for a job because they are both qualified to work it.
The fact that people in positions of power can see this unfair gap and not take any action against it shows how deeply rooted sexism is in our society and that the fight for women’s rights of all races and ages is very much not over.
