WOMEN WANT EQUAL PAY!

By: Illiana Curiel

Yes I am referring to the Gender wage Gap that has been ignored time after time. Women
need to stand up once and for all, If women can do anything men can do than women
should earn equal pay. The excuses keep flowing with the example of women choosing
lower paid jobs like teaching, or social work. If we simply stopped focusing in on those
specific female occupations and looked at the fields of medicine, Doctors and surgeons
studies show that Women in these fields earn 71% of what men make doing the EXACT
same job. Wait there are more, Women who are Financial Specialist earn 66% of what
men in that profession make.
Actress Patricia Arquette raised the issue when she accepted her Academy Award for best
supporting actress at the 2015 Oscars in her speech she stated, We have fought for
everyone elses equal rights, its our time to have wage equality once and for all, and
equal rights for women in the United States of America. As well as other Female
Actresses stepping up to the plate, like Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams who were
paid less than their male co-stars Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale in American Hustle.
This issue isnt just rising up in Hollywood but it has been an unsolved and ignored
problem in every job and in every occupation.

American women need to realize we need a change and we need to focus on The 2016
Presidential Election. If youre a women Between the ages of 18- 60 vote for a candidate
who stands for womens equality and Equal pay. Upcoming Democratic Presidential
candidate Bernie Sanders said, When it comes to the rights of women, we cannot go
backwards. We have got to go forward. Women are more than half of the population so

imagine if we came together as a gender and stood up for our rights, I mean it has been
done before. Sweat, Blood and tears, I want to be able to say my future daughters and the
future women of America will have Equal Pay to men.
According to Census 2000, 281.4 million people were counted in the United States 143.4 million of whom were female and 138.1 million male. We need to stop letting Male
leaders tell us that earning less doing the same job as men is okay. We need to stop letting
men tell us what to do in general.
Women make up 14% of the US Military making that 1.4 million active serving Females
in the military. In 1994 the United stated banned women from serving in combat on the
front lines. In 2013 the Ban was lifted and Soldiers of every gender are able to fight all
combat roles. In an article from TheGuardian.com it states,
At a press conference in the Pentagon Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and General
Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that women had already
proved themselves in action on America's battlefields and the move was simply a way of
catching up with reality.
As women we need to be able to fight for our rights and catch up with reality in every
work force not just the military. How can the American Defense Attorney Leon Secretary
make equal roles for women and men in the Military but ignore the bigger picture. We
need equal rights in EVERY PROFESSION. Not until every women stands up for this
policy change that needs to be changed for good. Go out and Vote for the Presidential
Candidate that is going to personally serve you as a female and women suffering to
compete in a male dominated work force, do not vote based off of morals, Women need
to begin to think for the future and what we need is change for our future generations of
women and for Equality of Women and Womens rights.

Citations,

Miller, C. (2014, April 23). Pay Gap Is Because of Gender, Not Jobs. Retrieved
December 11, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/upshot/the-pay-gap-isbecause-of-gender-not-jobs.html?_r=0
Gender Wage Gap in Eight Charts. (n.d.). Retrieved December 11, 2015, from
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/04/14/the-gender-wage-gap-in-eight-charts/
Fighting for Women's Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved December 11, 2015, from
https://berniesanders.com/issues/fighting-for-womens-rights/
Harris, Paul. (2014, January 24). Women in combat: US military officially lifts ban on
female soldiers. (n.d.). Retrieved December 11, 2015, from
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/24/us-military-lifts-ban-women-combat