Adekunle David Daodu, Annotated Bibliography Source

Adekunle Daodu

11/11/2021

ENG1121

Word Count: 2299

U2 Annotated Bibliography

Introduction

Research Question: How does gender equality affect Women’s income in the United States?

          The reason why I decide to choose this question is that there is always a second thought before giving prominent positions or appointments to women, and given the payment, the expectation will be lower than that a man would be given. I got interested in this question because I have seen women treated unfairly especially in Africa while growing up and now that I migrated to the United States and have a female child makes this topic more personal. Many women have to travel to more civilized countries before they can be well respected or taken seriously when they speak and even at that still have to compete to get paid equally among their fellow male colleagues.

In this research, I will be discussing and finding statistics and facts that back up how women in the economic sector of the United State have been treated regarding income, payment allowance, and allocation of the important positions that could possibly increase their income rate. For some weird reason, women are not always honored as much as men are when it comes to being appreciated for all the work they had put in to bring about progress or growth to a company, organization, or even a nation. It is quite unfortunate that this type of thing still happens in today’s world despite all the laws and act that has been presented by civil activists.

Hence, I will be discussing the solution to how this problem can be solved. This will be done by researching action that could be implemented to bring an end to this social injustice issue against women such as income in the United States. This solution won’t just be mere law without implementation. There will be repercussions for failure to obey this solution. Only that way women would be taken seriously, and all their hard work will be well appreciated in the community in which they serve.

          LaRonda Rasmussen, a plaintiff in the case, alleges that she has been paid tens of thousands of dollars less than her male co-workers, despite the fact that she performs the same work. Ms. Rasmussen’s lawsuit seeks to close the egregious gender pay gap that appears to be engrained in Disney’s culture.

“As Disney nears its 100^th year in existence, it needs to catch up with the times,” said pay gap attorney Lori E. Andrus. “The gender pay gap addressed by this lawsuit is all too familiar, and women are fed up with being treated as cheap labor. We hope that this lawsuit will shed some light on the pay discrimination that Disney is subjecting its hard-working female employees to. It is only fair to demand equal pay for equal work.”

Ms. Rasmussen is an exemplary employee who has worked for Disney for more than 11 years. Her lawsuit alleges that until 2017 she earned at least $24,000 less than the average male holding the same title of “Manager, Product Development.” When Ms. Rasmussen brought the issue to Disney’s attention, she received a long-overdue raise but is still earning $5,000 less than the average man holding the same title. Her experience is not isolated: multiple other women at Disney report earning far less than their male counterparts, including Karen Moore, another plaintiff in the case.

The lawsuit, Rasmussen v. The Walt Disney Company, et al., Case No. 19STCV10974 (Los Angeles County Superior Court), is brought as a putative class action on behalf of all women employed in California at Disney’s “Studio Entertainment” business segment. The suit alleges that Disney, the largest media company in the world, engages in systemic gender discrimination against its female employees through unequal pay in violation of California’s Equal Pay Act, Labor Code section 1197.5.

Attorneys Lori Andrus and Jennie Lee Anderson of Andrus Anderson LLP represent the plaintiff and the proposed class. Andrus Anderson has a long history of advocating to close the gender pay gap for women. In 2016, the firm successfully settled a $4 million pay discrimination lawsuit against Farmers Insurance, which required the company to distribute backpay for nearly 300 female employees and forced the company to change its policies regarding pay transparency.

Citation #1:

Andrus Anderson. April 3, 2019. “A Suit Against Disney Claims Unequal Pay for Women.” Andrus LLP. https://andrusanderson.com/andrus-anderson-files-gender-pay-gap-lawsuit-against-the-walt-disney-company/?gclid=CjwKCAjwoP6LBhBlEiwAvCcthDvjtu9_JWe3i5AoeCtv0Xtr2JPGzWQUBnctqR2hJj4ayqVmgTseqBoCxhoQAvD_BwE

Summary: Over the years Disney has been discriminating against the female gender in regards to equal pay with males. One of its employers Ms. Rasmussen launched a lawsuit of $4 million to close the gap of gender discrimination regarding the pay for women.

Reflection:  I strongly agree with the text because the fact that women and men in the company of Disney are doing the same job with the same qualification, they should be paid the same rate. However, suing Disney for the sake of this injustice won’t effectively change the ways of the company.

Quotation:  “The gender pay gap addressed by this lawsuit is all too familiar, and women are fed up with being treated as cheap labor. We hope that this lawsuit will shed some light on the pay discrimination that Disney is subjecting its hard-working female employees to. It is only fair to demand equal pay for equal work.” (Paragraph 4)

Hannah Riley Bowles, In a YouTube presentation titled “3 Things you should know about the gender pay gap” published by Harvard Kennedy School, in the year January 30, 2020. Stated that In the United States, full-time women workers earn, on average, 20 percent less than men. Or about 80 cents on the dollar, so what happened to the 20 cents? When we think about the worker or what aspects of the worker might explain why women earn less than men on average we want to think about things like demographics, such as an instance the age of the worker, or other aspects of their background. The gender wage gap tends to be smaller for younger workers than for older workers. Female workers are more likely to take on more caregiving responsibility as they progress through adulthood than men do. They are more likely to have interrupted careers or accumulated fewer years of full-time labor at the same age. Hannah Riley Bowles, In a YouTube presentation titled “3 Things you should know about the gender pay gap” published by Harvard Kennedy School, in the year January 30, 2020. Stated that In the United States, full-time women workers earn, on average, 20 percent less than men. Or about 80 cents on the dollar, so what happened to the 20 cents? When we think about the worker or what aspects of the worker might explain why women earn less than men on average we want to think about things like demographics, so for instance the age of the worker or other aspects of their background. The gender wage gap tends to be smaller for younger workers than for older workers. Female workers are more likely to take on more caregiving responsibility as they progress through adulthood than men do. They are more likely to have interrupted careers or accumulated fewer years of full-time labor at the same age. Nowadays actually, women and girls rival men and boys. In terms of their investment in education and their achievements. Hence, education is a less factor in today’s world as to why women should be earning less than men. The dominancy in an occupational career makes another difference as to why women get paid less, example is engineering professions that pays more is mostly dominated by the male worker. While adult home care professions that pays less are relatively dominated by women, hence explaining the concept behind the statistic ratio of between the two gender dominancy. The statistic shows that in the profession of law, the average annual incomes for male law partners at top firms are roughly $959,000 while the average annual income for female law partners at top firms is $627,000.  Discrimination as an element is something that has always played a factor towards less income of women. A story of lily Ledbetter, who was a plant manager for Goodyear tire in the 1990s, and in 1996 she won the best employee award. But later found out that she was only paid 80 cents on the dollar as compared to the lowest-paid man doing her same work.

Citation #2:  

Hannah Riley Bowles. January 30, 2020.  “3 things you should know about the gender pay gap.” Harvard Kennedy School. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzRa0xUI7xs

Summary:  It appears though that the nature of the job that the majority of female does is the reason why they get low pay vs the complicated nature of work their male counterpart does is the reason why the statistic of income pay is high for male and low for female. However, this does not explain why females doing the same job as males still get paid the same low.

Reflection: I find this disturbing because it appears as if despite all the commitments and sacrifices women display out there, none of their hard work is taken seriously which explains why they never get better pay or roles at work. Women hardly get recognized for their hard work and when they are recognized it goes with sympathy and specialty like they don’t really worth it. This is very wrong in all ways and needs to be corrected. Quotation:  “The dominancy in an occupational career makes another difference as to why women get paid less, example is engineering professions

          Majorities of Americans see men and women as equally capable when it comes to some of the key qualities and behaviors that are essential for top leaders in politics and business. Yet women still make up a small share of top leadership jobs in both of these realms. Our 2018 report explores Americans’ views about women leaders, the barriers they face, and prospects for the future. Below, we’ve charted the most up-to-date data on the share of women in top U.S. political and business roles over time.

At the start of the 117th Congress in 2021, there were 26 women serving in the U.S. Senate, a historic high. However, this number dropped to 24 on Jan. 20, soon after the start of the congressional term, as Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) became vice president and was replaced by a male appointee and Raphael Warnock, the winner of the Georgia runoff election, replaced Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.). Of the 24 female senators, 16 are Democrats and eight are Republicans. Twenty-one of these women is White, while one is Hispanic and two are Asian American. There are no Black women currently serving in the Senate. The first woman in the Senate was Rebecca Felton (D-Ga.), who was appointed to the seat as a political maneuver in 1922 and served just one day. Nancy Kassebaum (R-Kan.), who served in the Senate from 1978 to 1997, was the first female senator who was not initially elected to fill an unexpired Congressional term.

In 2016, 30.1% of university presidents were women, triple the share in 1986. Frances Elizabeth Willard became the first female college president in 1871, heading the Evanston College for Ladies in Illinois, which later merged with Northwestern University. In 1975, Lorene L. Rogers was the first woman to lead a major research university (University of Texas), and Judith Rodin in 1994 became the first permanent female president of an Ivy League institution (University of Pennsylvania).

Citation #3:

Center for American Women and politics. September 2018. “The data on Women Leaders.” Pew Research Center.  https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/fact-sheet/the-data-on-women-leaders/

Summary:

According to Pew researchers, women make up 28.1% of the senate seats and 31.8% of the statehouse or assembly seats. Seventeen women serve in one of the top leadership posts in state senates, and an additional seven are speakers of state

houses. In 2019, Nevada became the first state with a majority-women state legislature and women hold a 58.7% majority of the Nevada state legislature in 2021. West Virginia has the smallest share, at 11.9%. The first women to serve in a state legislature were three Republicans elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 1894. To date, 44 women have served as governors in 30 states. In 2021, six Democratic and three Republican women are serving as governors. Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming, a Democrat, was the first female governor; she was elected in a special election in 1924 to succeed her deceased husband. Ella Grasso, a Connecticut Democrat, was the first female governor elected in her own right, in 1975.

Reflection:

I agree with the text because long before this appointment of females in the office, it has always been the male gender’s world. Women can’t say or do anything meaningful to society. They were left for home duty and caring for home as a full-time house duty and nothing more.

Quotation:

“ Majorities of Americans see men and women as equally capable when it comes to some of the key qualities and behaviors that are essential for top leaders in politics and business. Yet women still make up a small share of top leadership jobs

in both of these realms. At the start of the 117^th Congress in 2021, there were 26 women serving in the U.S. Senate, a historic high number. However, this number dropped to 24 on January 20, soon after the start of the congressional term.” (Paragraph 1)

Conclusion:

         Throughout this research, I have discovered that women have been through so many unfair treatments in the past and continue to face these issues in the present. Despite all the legal implementation of a law that has been passed into law, the employer still finds it difficult to offer equal pay to women who has all the efficiency to perform these tasks.

I was really surprised when I stumbled into an article in my research that in some countries such as Sweden that women get paid higher wages. But letter got discouraged that the higher wages come with traditional roles. Meaning that the females are not still honored in the community they serve.

It is quite important to know this major problem about women’s income so that proper awareness could channel out in the united states so that everyone could individually step out and create a successful protest which can bring about effective changes in the manner to which females are being treated at the workplace.

I think there should be some sort of punishment for companies that fail to honor the gender equality pay gap. This way everywhere around the world there will be constant reminders that it is a crime to discriminate against women’s wages.