Gender and Wage

In class we talked about the wage gap between men and women and I came across a video that I thought was interesting, funny, and true. I attached the link for the video below but if you are unable to watch it, it’s by the comedian Sarah Silverman. In this video, Sarah discusses the wage gap issue. She states that women make up almost half of the working population but only earn 78 cents to every dollar a man makes in almost every profession. This includes doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc. Every year the average woman loses around 11,000 dollars to the wage gap. She states that over the course of her working years that’s almost 500,000 dollars. She continues to say that this is a “500,000 dollar vagina tax.” Her conclusion (which is just a joke) is to get surgery to become a man because she says that this is way less expensive than the money she will lose having a vagina. I thought that all of this information was a so true. Why is it fair for women to go to school, get the same education, and put in the same amount of hours into studying and work just to get paid less than them?

In the article "The Penny Pinch" by Christine Larson, she talks about how more women than men actually finish both high school and college but that more education did not do much to narrow the wage gap. The problem with this is that although women are getting more education, it is in fields that do not lead to higher incomes. She continues to state though that even when women do major in male dominated areas, that they are still earning less than males. Society is pushing females to pursue lower paying jobs. For example, it is much more common for women to be hair stylists and daycare providers, both of which pay a lot less money than typical male jobs such as engineers, and electricians. This article states that "girls represent just 6-8 percent of students in electrician, plumbing, and carpentry vocational classes, but 86-96 percent of students in cosmetology, childcare, and health assistant classes."  Society is pushing women to pursue lower paying jobs almost as if it is because society thinks that they are incapable of succeeding in these jobs but then once they do succeed, they are rewarded less than men. "To continue closing the wage gap, young women need more encouragement and financial aid in majors like science, math, and engineering, and more help at succeeding in these professions.  They need better, less biased counseling at the high school level and more career counseling that helps them understand the wage implications of their career choices." I remember in high school I was always encouraged to do those "what career is right for me" aptitude tests and it's more likely that a majority of women will get a career that is lower paid based on their interests because women and men are interested in different things but what those tests should tell you are the wage implications for those careers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3khtAdwXo&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DJz3khtAdwXo&has_verified=1