The gender pay gap is the unequal pay gap between men and women. According to the Pew Research Center, “The gender pay gap – the difference between the earnings of men and women – has barely closed in the United States in the past two decades. In 2022, American women typically earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. That was about the same as in 2002, when they earned 80 cents to the dollar. The slow pace at which the gender pay gap has narrowed this century contrasts sharply with the progress in the preceding two decades: In 1982, women earned just 65 cents to each dollar earned by men.” This shows that even after many years of women protesting, significant changes still haven't been made. What is the cause, and which groups of women does this significantly affect? As we talked about earlier, the cause is that people think that women simply cannot do as much work as men. However, the pay varies between different groups of women. The article from AAUW says that “The gender pay gap is the result of many factors, including race and ethnicity, disability, access to education and age. As a result, different groups of women experience very different pay …show more content…
My hope is that one day people will get over this mindset, and understand that women can do just as much as men. There are many misconceptions about the gender pay gap. Many people aren’t aware of the gender pay gap. One very common misconception is that it’s illegal for women to get paid less than men when doing the same job. As said in the article made by ELMO, “A recent survey of 8,566 U.S. adults showed that an alarming 46% of men and 30% of women did not believe the gender pay gap existed.” The article also says that “In the study, men were more likely than women to attribute the gender pay gap to reasons such as, “women are generally in careers that don’t pay as much” and “women work fewer hours than men”. Even though awareness has been raised, not a lot of people are aware of what is happening. Once again, gender pay gaps are a thing because women are undervalued. This issue still affects many women around the world to this day. Even though there has been some progress, women are still earning less than men even while putting in the same effort, maybe even