Do you think that it's fair to get paid 20% less than someone for the same amount of work? Well that is the case which many working women in the United States have to deal with everyday. They are being denied the 23rd act in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the rights that they have from the Equal Pay Act of 1963 which states that everyone has the right to choose their occupation, work under safe conditions, and without discrimination the right to equal pay for equal work. Based on the rate the gender wage gap decreased from 1960 to 2015, women and men are predicted to receive equal pay by the year 2059 but that is not looking too promising due to the fact that progressive has stalled in recent years and if it continues at this rate, they will not have equal pay between women and men until around the year 2152. According to the AAUW, on average within the United States, women are paid about 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. Since the year 2014, there has been a slight increase in the wage gap which shows that we are not fixing the problem, but only making it worse.
There are many groups within the United States helping to raise awareness about the topic and trying to encourage others to get involved to help make a change, one of the groups is the US women's soccer team. The US women's soccer team came together to fight against and raise awareness about the gender pay gap within the United States by filing a wage discrimination complaint against the owners of the well known organization. The women claimed they were earning approximately four times less than the men's US soccer team was earning. According to CBS News, even though the women's team won the World Cup, they earned 7 million dollars less than their male counterparts who lost in the second round out of sixteen rounds! Because many of these women are well known role models and heroes within the soccer community, people listened to what they had to say because of this. People had more of a reason to listen to someone they looked up to and respected. That is in large part why these women successfully brought major national awareness to this inequality and discrimination. Now that their is attention in this situation within US soccer the expectation is that future contracts will be more equitable between men and women. According to ESPN, although these women did a lot for the cause, unfortunately, the league filed a lawsuit against the women's team union. And are fighting against the women's US soccer team because they don't agree with what the woman are trying to negotiate.
In the long run, there should be more laws about the gender pay gap and how it is unfair for a woman to get paid 20% less than a man for the same amount of work. There should be more marches and speeches about this topic because they are very powerful and can raise awareness about a topic like this quickly and make more people care and want to help this cause. Some roadblocks that might not allow gender equality to become a thing are the governments by not taking an issue like this seriously and protesters who don't think it is right for a woman and a man to be treated equally. Also, people who feel that they are being deprived of money they rightfully earned need to speak up so that people can see that the gender pay gap is a real thing that is effective in people's daily lives and how it is very unfair.
"The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap (Fall 2016)." AAUW: Empowering Women Since 1881. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.
News, CBS. "U.S. Women's Soccer Team's Fight for Equality Goes beyond Wages." CBS News. CBS Interactive, 01 Apr. 2016. Web. 22 Jan. 2017
"Women's National Team Files Wage-discrimination Action vs. US Soccer Federation." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.