It doesn’t pay to be a woman

Now that we have entered 2017 it’s hard to think back to a time where women were a minority. We couldn’t vote. We couldn’t work in professional industries. All of our life purposes were completely male orientated. Luckily for us, we fought for our right to vote. We fought for our right to work in professional industries. And somewhere along the way we realised that our lives should not be controlled by men because we are just as capable as they are. But how much has life really changed? Are women equal to men now? Or are we just simply silenced by the fact that small steps to equality have been made?

After reading an article on The Tab about the gender pay gap in post grad industries I thought it would be fun to do some research of my own. I went on to The Office for National Statistics website and used their calculator to see what the gender pay gap was in the journalism industry- I was not impressed. In a full time position female journalists will be paid 7.8% less than men who are, on average, paid £17.61 an hour, compared to women who only get £16.24. Don’t worry though ladies because if we work part time we will on average be paid 4.1% more than men. Let’s hope we can all learn to survive on a part time wage (insert thumbs up emoji).

After my revelation, and several glasses of wine that helped me forget my now depressing future wage, I began thinking about why there is the gender pay gap. When I’ve worked in part time positions in retail and waitressing my wage has always been equal to the men I worked with. So why is it that in professional industries women are being penalised for not having a penis? When I asked my fellow journalism student Alice Heather about her thoughts on this she said exactly what I was thinking, “the gender pay gap seems totally illogical”.

If we look at our 21st century society today who can even determine what gender is? As Alice so beautifully said to me, “in today’s day and age where even the term ‘gender’ is so socially fluid why are women still being victimised for who they are”? An excellent question that needs to be answered. With the rise of gender fluidity where men are free to be as feminine as they want and females as masculine, why is there still such a battle between penis and vagina. Is it not becoming clearer in our society that we are all humans? No matter what gender you are, we are all equally capable of performing the same jobs.

My fellow feminist and social media marketer Kayleigh Russell perfectly summarised why there is still a gender pay gap in the 21st century, “a lot of people feel like the gender pay gap doesn’t exist anymore because women have come a little way in terms of work, and even women assume that they are now equal. But it’s important to keep fighting for equality as a united force or change won’t happen”.

Women have come a long way since the days of being denied the vote and dedicating their lives to men. We have shown our strength by detaching ourselves from male stigmas and showing that we can stand alone and work just as hard as any man in any industry we strive for. But even though progress has been made we shouldn’t be lying down yet. There is still a great way to go before men and women are equal and if we lie down now than that change will never happen.

To calculate your own depressing future click here, but remember- we are the only people who can change our futures as long as we stand together.

#Gender #equality #paygap