Prompt #3

Although women are typically paid less than men and are often discriminated against in the workplace in other ways, the issues mentioned in the article are perhaps not the most effective means of communicating this frustration and demanding action.

The author of the article uses a fact-finding mission posed as significant “research” to support a predetermined hypothesis. Instead of looking at all the facts and developing an argument accordingly, the author found specific facts to suit theories and came and tried to show it off as scientific research. Any opinion can be supported with evidence if one knows where to look, how to find it, and how to mold it to fit a given model of what the author wants to convey.

The author used raw percentages of corporate men and women to depict a level of success that she deems desirable for everyone. These percentages are probably indeed true facts, but the numbers fail to show the areas in which highly educated women choose to enter into non-corporate jobs in a non-business field because their interests do not align with the money-making enterprise. As a humanitarian and not a capitalist, I was personally offended by the notion that I must desire a corporate job or one with power and prestige, and unless I fight for that position, I am somehow aiding the system that discriminates against women in the workplace.

Women that pursue options outside of capitalistic gain and employment that seeks power and advancement are not taken into account in the research done for this article. Additionally, low-level corporate employees can be satisfied with their positions and choose not to seek advancement, but this article assumes that everyone has the same goals, and the direct amount of pay and prestige that accompany a high-power position is the absolute, most desirable attainment for American women.

However, that is not to say that the fact that women do make less than men in the same positions, and adequately qualified women are passed over in favor of lesser- qualified men on a regular basis. This does happen often and is a reprehensible issue in today’s society, for the women that seek these promotions and elevated salaries. That said, attacking specific governmental institutions currently in place is not going to solve anything. The issue is not caused by the current administration, and it cannot be as easily solved as the author of this article suggests.

Instead of attacking a small group of people that the author deems responsible for a generational problem, promoters for equal pay and opportunities for women need to really examine the root of these issues. It is not really the way the current administration operates, and it is not even in the way that the government is designed. The issue is the opinions of the masses, the people in charge of various career paths, and the opinions of the people that put them in power. These basic fundamental ideals of the people at the top of several different agencies, governmental and corporate enterprise alike, differ in America than they do overseas. What works for the people currently in charge of every aspect of “success” desired by “everyone,” according to the author of this article, is the current system, which does discriminate against women. They fail to see the issue, and the people that keep them in power share the same opinions, and they also have no desire to seek change.

America is fundamentally different in values in the current corporations than countries that value men and women equally. Until everyone in desired corporate and government positions, not only Obama, see women and men as equals, nothing can change. Rather than focusing on the government, focusing on the beliefs of the masses that support the current patriarchal system is the only way to change anything on a large scale. It would also help to acknowledge that not all women, or men for that matter, value the same things in employment, and to assume that high-paying prestigious positions are the things that everyone most desires is an unfair generalization.