Over the last decades, major economic, social, and demographic shifts have brought about a significant transformation in the lives of both women and men. These changes have led to problem of income gap in gender. One of the most important changes that have occurred in the past years is the huge influx of women into the labor force. However, despite women influx in workforce research reveals that women still earn lower incomes than men do even when they are in the same job. Men have higher participation rate in paid jobs than women. According to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), gender pay gap refers to the difference between male and female income expressed as a percentage of males earnings. This paper will provide an explanation on this gender gap in earnings from a sociological perspective.
In sociological perspect
...ive, gender pay gap can be explained using different sociological theories. The first theory that explains gender pay gap is the conflict theory. This theory provides an excellent explanation on the reason why gender pay gap exists globally. The conflict theory suggests that men are the dominant gender while women are the subordinate gender in order to uphold power and privilege in the society.
According to this theory, the society is mainly defined by struggle for dominance among different social groups competing for scarce resources like income. In the context of gender, this theory claims that gender is well understood as men trying to maintain power and privilege over the women. This is the best definition for gender whereby men are considered powerful in everything and women are forced to adhere to everything directed by men. Conflict theor
does not care about the detrimental effect of this definition to the women. From this definition, it is clear that men are the dominant group while women are the subordinate group.
The dominant group, which is men, works on maintaining their power and status instead of creating balance. As a result, the struggle to maintain power and privilege creates social problems because the dominant group exploits the subordinate group. This explanation from the conflict theory is well suited to elaborate on the differences in gender pay gap. The gender pay gap exists because men are struggling to maintain their power over the women. In order to maintain their status as the dominant group, they have to earn more than the women do. This provides them with enough resources to exert control over the women. In addition, most cultures have historically maintained that men are the ones who should control world’s resources like wealth. From the above explanation, it is clear that women are paid less than men are in order to maintain men’s power and control in the society.
The other explanation on gender pay gap is based on the functionalist perspective. In this perspective, the society is usually seen as a complex system with different parts working together to ensure solidarity and stability. In this approach, the society is considered as a macro-level orientation. This means that the society focuses on social structures that work on shaping the whole community. According to this theory, gender inequalities act as efficient ways of creating division of labor. It argues that certain segments should work on specific tasks in the work force.
The division of labor is usually created to
maximize resources and ensure efficiency in the labor force. A structural functionalist view argues gender inequalities in labor force are important in defining gender roles. Therefore, women are required to take care of the home whereas men are required to provide for the family. This means the responsibility of men is to provide basic needs for the family while women responsibility is to execute home chores like cooking. In sociological basic need are food, shelter, clothing, and money. From the functionalist perspective, it is clear than men have bigger responsibility than women do. Since men have to provide for the family, they should earn more than women should. Therefore, gender pay gap exist even in the same jobs because men are viewed to have more responsibility compared to women. Women are considered to have lesser family responsibilities than men do. As a result, paying men more wages than women gives them enough resources to fulfill family basic needs.
Another explanation on gender pay gap can be extracted from the Marxist perspective on power in the society. According to Karl Marx, the amount of power in the society is limited and only one person or group can hold it at a time. A German sociologist by the name Engels conducted further research on the Marxist’s argument on family structure and gender roles and found out that women are more dependent on men wages. In this case, gender pay gap exist because women tend to depend more on men. As a result, men are earning more to cater for both their needs and for needs of those women depending on their wages. The Marxist perspective means that men
are still the powerful group in the society and their thirsty to maintain power should be quenched by higher income compared to women. Marxism approach emphasizes on men as the ruling class in the society therefore granting them the means to control production. Since they are the ruling group, they should have control of the wages.
The other factor that causes gender pay gap is stereotypical beliefs guided by the notion that men are simply better and well equipped to perform more valuable work than the women are. One of the beliefs in the society is that men have better skills compared to women even in the same occupation. Therefore, many employers believe men will always outperform women in the same job. In addition, women have lower earnings because they take more time off especially when they have children. Others choose to work for fewer hours to because of family responsibilities. Since men work for many hours, they are paid more compared to women. This pay gap in gender exists because of stereotypical beliefs from individuals who hire and set salaries for employees.
Conclusion
From the above explanation, it is clear that several factors have led to gender pay come in the United States as well as other countries. In some cases, women working in the same occupations with men tend to earn less than men do. In sociological perspective, these pay differences have been demonstrated through the conflict theory, the functionalist perspective and, the Marxist perspective. These theories have provided a clear explanation on the ways men are viewed as superior over the women. Men are the dominant gender while women are the subordinate gender in order to
uphold power and privilege in the society. In addition, gender pay gap has been caused by stereotypical beliefs whereby men are viewed as the most productive people.
Bibliography
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- England, Paula. 2015. "Gender inequality in labor markets: The role of motherhood and segregation." Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 12, no. 2 :264-288.
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- Smelser, Neil J., and Richard Swedberg, eds. 2010. The handbook of economic sociology. Princeton university press.
- Fuwa, Makiko.2014. "Macro-level gender inequality and the division of household labor in 22 countries." American Sociological Review 69, no. 6: 751-767.
- Clarke, Simon. 2007. "Marxism, sociology and Poulantzas’ theory of the state." Capital and Class 2, no. 1978: 32-77.
- Clarke, Simon. 2007. "Marxism, sociology and Poulantzas’ theory of the state." Capital and Class 2, no. 1978: 32-77.
- Van den Berghe, Pierre L. 2013. "Dialectic and functionalism: Toward a theoretical synthesis." American Sociological Review: 695-705.
- England, Paula. 2015. "Gender inequality in labor markets: The role of motherhood and segregation." Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 12, no. : 264-288
