Women from Pots to Plots........(revised)

“Equality is vital, not only for individuals, but for the society as a whole.” – Equality Minister Hariet Harman.s

“Woman” – A woman (irregular plural: women) is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent. However, the term woman is also sometimes used to identify a female human, regardless of age, as in phrases such as "Women's rights (Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia).

A woman is someone’s daughter, wife/partner, mother, daughter- in law, aunty; She is addressed with so many names and relations, that sometimes she forgets her real name. The social, and so-called “civilised” society governs women, to such an extent that they disregard their own existence. Most of the time, they are dominated in such a manner that they are bound to live their life at others convenience.

It is true that women’s social status at present is much better than it was in last ten years. People are more educated and aware now, however, the term “gender discrimination “ still exists. Women today, are given opportunity but are chained with social and cultural responsibilities as well. Because of which she is bound to choose her personal /family life over her career. It does not matter, how talented women are, their competence are still considered to be mediocre to men. Clare Boothe Luce says, “Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes.” This kind of detrimental beliefs of people is the reason why, After 40 years of implementation of equal pay rights, women still today earns 87 pence for the every £1 men earn. The “Gender pay” gap still exists.


Men are still perceived as the “bread winner” for the family. Thus, they command a higher pay. It is a fact that, women in industries, is a new history as those who used to work in past, worked in traditional sectors like nursing, caring, cleaning etc. Men still dominate the upper tiers of the business world, which is where the money is. Men dominate the power structure of most of the world, thus develop the policy.

The figures provided by the ONS suggests, the gender gap does increase with age and begins to stretch once women take time off to have children. According to the survey done by US bureau of Statistics (2006), 8,25,000 women were sacked or had missed out on pay rise because of their pregnancy leave. It’s logical that, the more you give out, the more you bring in. However, how fair is it to sack a woman for taking a maternity leave?

The three main complex reasons for gender pay gap are:
i) Caring responsibilities
ii) Part time working
iii) Sectoral and occupation segregation.
.
Due to the family responsibilities and motherhood, women are compelled to take time off from their career and focus on their children and family. Therefore, picking up children from the school or taking them to the hospitals for check ups wins the battle between career and personal life. Most of the women are bound to work as per the circumstances at home, which in due course lead them to drop their interested career and work for few shillings.

In private sector, the gender pay gap is elevated at the high levels; higher the post higher the difference. However, at public sectors, there is usually a standard rate (minimum rate) wage. The average numbers of women employed in higher level were only 5% among the 600 companies surveyed. (BBC News- World Economic Forum, 8th March 2010). It is also understood that disparity in educational qualifications is not very important characteristics in gender pay gap. It is because no matter how educated women are their capabilities are overlapped by the prejudicial thoughts of people.

Therefore, all the reasons for differences in wages are interlinked with the social and cultural factors as well as the awareness among people. It is true that the situation of women in the society or workplace is much better than it used to be, however, there are still some gaps and it is high time we underline the factors and work on it.

What do you think???


Sources: US Bureau of Statistics, Government Equality Office, UK, Office of National Statistics, World Economic Forum.