So Why Do Women Get Paid Less?

 
On the surface, the women in Australia are seen as succeeding in their effort to break the glass ceiling as it can be seen on the political scene (Kee 2006, p.409). The deputy prime Minister is a woman, Julia Gillard, and one of the state premiers is Anna Bligh these are only tow of the many other examples. According t a research by NATSEM, women in Australia still earn less that men. On average, it has been estimated that men earn about 17% more that the female counterparts.

This is about $224 in one week alone (Australia, 2006, p.69). On the whole, the research sought to find out the reason behind the outcomes and it was revealed that the major facto contributing to the difference was that one was either a man or a woman (Eagly & Carli 2003, p.806).. It was estimated that this accounted for over 60% of this gap in the pay for men and women. Removing the effects of being a woman, it’s shown that the earning would go up by at an hourly rate of at least $ 1.87 which is equal to $ 65 in one week.

When the whole world is on the verge of taking out any form of discrimination, it has very had to understand how the gap in Australia seems to be persistent. The Public service Association official, Kennelly said that it was only until the late 1960s that women started getting equal pay for relatively similar amount of work (Canberra Bulletin of Public Administration 1994, p.7). In the past, some jobs were considered to be women’s while others were regarded to be men’s jobs. This meant that it was permissible for women to get lesser pay than male counterparts for doing similar work (Eagly & Carli 2003, p. 806). This assumption does not take into consideration the critical thing about work which is the skills behind it.

The major aspect to be blamed is the way structure in Australia. This has evolved towards an unjust direction creating a lot of inequalities that now need fixing. The system seems to have been build around the evolutionary impulses of the men. These impulses have affected the workplaces even up to date making industrial or occupational favouritism major factors that contribute to the gap between men and women (Wellington et al 2003, p.18).