Rising Wealth Inequality: Should We Care?
Why do Americans seem unperturbed about the growing gap between the rich and the poor?The Gender Complication
March 21, 2011
Frances McCall Rosenbluth is a political science professor at Yale University.
One of America’s most troubling trends over the past several decades is that the rich have gotten richer, earning a larger percentage of total income than any time since the roaring ‘20s. Divided by a wide income gap, American women agree on few economic initiatives.
But the picture for gender equality is more complicated. The median female income has risen faster than the male median, growing from about two-fifths in 1960 to three-fifths in 2008. Still, women remain over-represented among low income earners and under-represented among the super rich. Wage dispersion, or the difference between bottom and top income earners, has grown among women almost as much as it has among men.In many European countries, by contrast, class equality is protected at the cost of gender inequality. Long-term labor contracts in Europe, promoted by potent labor unions and the parties that represent them, protect workers’ jobs and wages.
But these labor protections have the unintended side effect of giving employers a disincentive to hire or promote women whose greater likelihood of interrupting their careers for childrearing and other family work make females a poorer long-term human-capital investment for a company. However illegal, firms in Europe have ways of engaging in “statistical discrimination” to avoid investing in workers who, actuarially speaking, are less likely to stick around in the job long enough to reach top productivity.
How ironic that, as a result of labor protections, female labor force participation rates are systematically lower in Europe. An exception to this low participation rate of women can be found in Scandinavian countries, which have large public sectors. While women are underrepresented in the Scandinavian private sector as they are elsewhere in Europe, their greater representation in the public sector allows the government to pass along the cost of lower female productivity to the tax payer.
The glass ceiling in the U.S. is somewhat higher than in Europe because it is relatively easy to fire unproductive workers in America, making female workers a less risky bet in the event that they slow down or are less effective networkers on account of motherhood. But here as elsewhere, unless and until the costs of childrearing are equally shared across the sexes, real gender equality in the workplace will remain out of reach.
Why are women not more outraged by the persistent inequalities in gender roles that limit their economic opportunities? For one thing, women have conflicting interests: they may feel attachments to their husbands, to their children, to their class, or to other aspects of their identities that limit their solidarity with other women. A woman who chooses not to work outside the home is more likely to vote for policies that protect her husband’s disposable income than to mandate paternity leave or to raise taxes to subsidize someone else’s childcare. An economically successful woman who can afford a nanny for her own children may also oppose public subsidies for childcare.
Divided by a wide gap in income, women agree on little, let alone on public policies powerful enough to change existing social norms.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/03/21/rising-wealth-inequality-should-we-care/the-gender-complication-in-wealth-distribution
While the world improves in many areas, the gap in income remains constant. In some areas, it has even increased with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. However, the gender inequality in income still remains a problem. "Women remain over-represented among low income earners and under-represented among the super rich" (Rosenbluth). This is an example of how equality of outcome is not present in the real world. However, to some people, this is not important. Some women have roles that do not allow them the time to have a demanding job. They are happy with a lower paying job. The point is that there must be equality of opportunity; it must be fair. Income earned must be based on responsibilities and performance and not on gender.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lexie's comments regarding gender and income. Sometimes individuals fail to mention or report the inequality of women in the work force and solely focus on the major gaps between the rich and poor, which should also be a focus. This point shows that women have problems having demanding jobs because of the finances that go along with having children. "But here as elsewhere, unless and until the costs of childrearing are equally shared across the sexes, real gender equality in the workplace will remain out of reach." The United States need to start working more on judging people for their competence and performance instead of gender or economic background.
ReplyDeleteEven though as the article said, women agree on little, almost all women would agree on gender equality. America prides its self on "all men are created equal" but should that even be said? If an outsider came to America would they look around and think, wow everyone here is treated fairly! Absolutely not, if America wants to endorse equality maybe they should start in the work place with equal opportunity. Both men and women of all ages should be able to work for the same common goal, to get ahead by working hard.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Christina, in no way should a job or opportunity be given because of gender. Job opportunities should be given to the person who most deserves it, not only regardless of gender, but also of race, religious affiliation, sexual preference, etc.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Shannon and Christina regarding opportunities of women. Women should be offered the same opportunities as men, because they deserve it just as much. I thought it was interesting how female votes tend to be completely different, and it tends to be unfair. There are very few women who are extremely rich, and some women just side with their husbands' views politically. This is not counting the individual, and is therefore unfair.
ReplyDeleteI am in full agreement with Lexie; there must be government polices to provide equal opportunity in the work place for women. In America today the workforce is a site of reproduction and reinforcement of gender inequality in the work place for women.
ReplyDeleteThe gender inequality is in part because of the societal role of women in familial structures. Because women are expected to still keep up with housework and childcare if they work, they have to have more flexible jobs than their husband counterparts. Even though there has been a greater movement towards more equal parenting duties, there is still a majority of mothers who are the primary care parent as opposed to fathers. Because of familial obligations, many women simply cannot have the time-consuming but also higher-paying jobs that men can. Although the familial restraints put on women do not encompass the entire gender financial issue, they do play a large role and until the roles of women have changed, their statuses can't change either.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Christina. Like she said American prides itself on that fact that "everyone is equal". However women are still being discriminated against in the work force. There are stories on the news about incidents where women are not given a job because of their gender or they recieve a lower income. This needs to be changed before America can consider itself the "land of equal opportunity".
ReplyDeleteI agree with Susu. Women are expected to fall into a predetermined role of what is expected of a woman in a family setting, which reflects on her employment. Many women are expected to be the caretakers of their family, yet also feel the need to have jobs as well. Because of this familial duty it is much more difficult for women to have equally time consuming and high paying jobs as men. Women have conflicting interests such as loyalty to their husbands, to their children, to their class, or to other aspects of their identities that limit their solidarity with other women. A woman's personal life greatly influences the way she feels about certain bills and jobs.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting what the article said at the beginning, about how women are still not matching men's seperation of wealth. Gender distribution is rarely talked about because it seems to America that women are equal in all aspects and therefore are represented the same as men, yet this isn't true except in the regard that the poor are getting poorer and the rich richer just like the men. The only difference is that not many women are rich, certainly not as many women as there are men. There are, however, are a great many women in poverty if not just the lower-middle class. I liked that this article brought up that untalked about aspect of the economy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Christina - In this day and age it is hard to believe that all women would not agree on gender equality in the business world. Let’s face it, in today’s world the majority of women are no longer stay at home moms. Most women today face the overwhelming task of provider and caregiver. As if that is not hard enough they have to fight twice as hard to get the pay and job they deserve. Whether someone is hired or not should be based solely on their qualifications, not their gender, color, race or and any other factor.
ReplyDeleteSusu is too right. Women are productive members of society that are under serious role strain. They should be getting paid overtime all the time. Also considering their paychecks are what is going toward the family budget, and therefore paying for more people, it should be a bigger number on their pay check that.
ReplyDeleteEven genders are divided between classes. It is unfortunate that woman are believed to be ineffective workers due to possible family leave. The differing opinions between women who work at home and women who are corporately successful keep the class divide intact.Working women are more supportive of policies that would effect their jobs as opposed to home women who focus on policies effecting their family. This increases the income of the working woman while the home woman has to rely on the income of her husband. The individual income gap between the two women becomes substantial.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lexie and the gender complications. People fail realize that women do get discriminated against in the work force. Everyone believes that every one gets paid the same one due to their position; wrong. Sometimes people get paid based on their gender, women usually get paid a lot less than men, even if they have been there longer. Gender discrimination isn't always seen as an issue but it is a very present issue.
ReplyDeleteWomen are constantly looked down upon in the workplace, as their household roles are carried over to their workplace. For years, women have been looked upon as second-tier to men, and have always been paid so. In our rapidly advancing society,it seems primitive to continue to have gender inequality in the workplace. It is ridiculous that things such as pregnancy and maintaining a family keep women from equal pay.
ReplyDeleteThe world is changing all around us everyday, but one thing that remains apparent is the gap in income among the two genders. Although the article says that the median female income has "risen faster than the male median, growing about two-fifths in 160 to three-fifths in 2008," this fact can almost be dismissed, because women are continuously being overrepresented in low-wage jobs and underrepresented in higher-wage jobs. This is a problem, because that means women are not the ones who are in control of the wealth in the country, especially because women are the gender typically more attached to their families than men. Perhaps if women held the purse-strings, the redistribution of wealth would actually happen.
ReplyDeleteClaire, you said it perfectly. It is completely unfair that women have been oppressed and undervalued for so many years. Pregnancy and family life are important parts of basic human life, and necessary to the maintenance of a healthy population. It is very sad that women are still being penalized for this, and that this inequality is not being addressed more openly. As Emma said above, maybe there would be more equality if women were the dominant race.
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