By Sam Mauzy
Before World War II, the number of women working outside the home held mostly industrial jobs that were light in nature. This continued when the war first started. Women were assigned jobs in sewing and detailed assembly, where women’s nimble fingers could do the job better. The Manpower commission for War labor even suggested that employers train women, using programs that compared war industry jobs to tasks in the home. As more and more men, left to fight in the war women were famously needed as riveters in the aircraft, ordnance and shipbuilding industries. In these traditionally male work positions, women’s competence was dramatically demonstrated.
If there was a lower rate of pay for women in industrial jobs during the war, there was not much complaint about it. Everyone pitched in and did their part to help win the war. The problem is the lower pay rates started during the war carried over after the war was finished. The government had instructed industry to pay women at the same rates for jobs that had been done by men, if the same production quota level was met. In general, industry never complied with these instructions. Furthermore, as men returned from the war, most women were sent back home to be homemakers.
From the end of the war until the mid 1960’s ads in newspapers for job-listings had positions for men and women separated. This was the case even if the type of job was the same. The difference was the pay scale, with women significantly lower. That is why it is said the from 1950 until 1960 separate meant not equal, with women’s pay only 64 percent of a man’s pay for the same job or position.
On 10 June, 1963 the Equal Pay Act became law, to be effective one year later, making it illegal to pay a woman a lower rate for the same job if sex was the only basis for the difference. Thus, gender was no longer a cause for job refusal at the time of hiring. During the next ten years several amendments to the law were passed, resulting in more than $25 million paid to women who made claims for back pay.
Several important cases involving discrimination in hiring were decided in favor of women, but unfortunately, not much gain has been made in reducing the difference in pay. At the end of 1963, women’s pay gap had improved to the point that women were making almost 60 percent of a man’s pay, in the same job. But even at the end of 2011, women were only making slightly less than 80 percent of men in similar jobs.
Many excuses, or reasons, for the continuing wage gap are made by social scientists. The latest theory is the large number of boomer women working, even after retirement, in jobs where the pay gap has remained too big. Assuming this reasoning is correct, the gap should be reducing quite quickly as more and more of these women stop working entirely.
In 2009, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed, allowing victims of pay discrimination to file a claim for back wages, if their claim proves to be true. In conclusion, it can be said the women have made good progress in eliminating the job discrimination and wage gap problem, but much needs to be done. In the four decades, since the Equal Pay Act became law there is still a lot of work to be done to fulfill the promise of that law.
Sam is a blogger who is interested in financial matters and women’s rights. He is also a contributing blogger for TheCollegeCity.com.
Sources:
http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/CAS/HISTORY/AmericaLevel2/Women/women.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male%E2%80%93female_income_disparity_in_the_United_States
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/breaking-news/index.ssf/2012/05/us_sen_bob_casey_says_congress.html
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