Caroline Herriman
Prof. Raymond Smith
POLS W3245
3/3/2016
Issue Brief: African Americans and Gender Issues
Key Words: Gender-based wage gap, women of color, inequality, socioeconomic status, African Americans
Description: Racial discrimination issues have resulted in African American women being even more significantly impacted by the gender-based wage gap, creating and sustaining a myriad of other issues for the group.
Key Points:
- While the average non-Hispanic white woman suffers from the persistence of the gender-based wage gap, making $0.77 to a non-Hispanic white man’s dollar, an African American woman makes just $0.64 to the same dollar.
- The gender-based wage gap greatly reduces the opportunity for African-American women to move into the middle class since their economic mobility is limited.
- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that African-American women compose the largest percentage of any other racial group holding full-time, minimum wage positions.
- Of the 4.1 million family households in the United States headed by African-American women, 37% of them live below the poverty line.
Brief:
A lot has been said about the gender-based wage gap in recent political discourse, however, the prevailing statistic, that a woman makes just $0.77 to a non-Hispanic white man’s dollar, fails to address the even larger discrepancy in wage inequality that exists for African-American women. Quantitatively, this discrepancy has African-American women making just $0.64 to the non-Hispanic white man’s dollar, or $0.83 to the non-Hispanic white women’s already unequal dollar. This suggests that the wage gap issue is one that is beyond gender, and, indeed, specific to race. The effects of the issue are also part of what has made, and continues to make it difficult for African-American women to be part of, or the head of, an economically stable household with potential to progress into the middle class.
Part of the persistence of the gender-based wage gap stems from the fact that many believe it is a myth, and to some extent, that belief is true. However, the belief is only true in the sense that women are “choosing different jobs and losing ground later in their careers,” thereby having disproportionate representation in low-paying jobs compared to male counterparts who dominate many of the highest paying jobs (Atlantic). For example, African-American females, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, represent the largest percentage of any other racial group holding full-time minimum wage positions (AAUW). Suggesting that these differences, between men and women’s wage gap and their career paths, cannot solely be attributed to women’s choices, but instead reflect the “significant structural and economic realities that limit women’s abilities to compete with men in the labor force, resulting in lower pay;” (American Progress).
Under-representation of women in high paying jobs only intensifies when race is distinguished because, in addition to the factors that play into a white woman’s wage inequality, there are substantially more for African American ones. Included in these additional factors is the continued existence of old-fashioned, systematic racism and fewer educational opportunities. The systematization of these factors has led to a high percentage of African-American women working full-time, minimum wage jobs. And since minimum wage no longer represents a living wage, in most, and arguably, all of the United States, African-American women working these jobs can find themselves in severe financial trouble despite their employment status. This financial instability can result in food insecurity, as was demonstrated by a survey following the Great Recession, wherein “31 percent of African-American women…reported having either a ‘somewhat difficult’ or ‘very difficult’ time buying food for their families,” and decreased opportunities for socioeconomic mobility (thegrio.com). Of course, these women represent just one portion of women suffering from the effects of the demonstrated wage-gap. Many suffer even worse consequences, while others are largely unaffected by the gender-based, racially impacted wage gap.
To attempt to correct this gender-based, racially impacted wage gap, little political action has been taken because of the convoluted nature of the causes of it. Indeed, in addition to the quantitatively recorded causes of it, there are many unexplainable ones. That being said, increased graduation rates for African-American women and societal acknowledgement of the gender-based wage gap represent promising changes being made at a societal level to the issue.
Works Cited:
National Partnership for Women and Families. African American Women and the Wage
Gap. N.p.: National Partnership for Women and Families, 2015. National
Partnership for Women and Families. Dec. 2015. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.
Fisher, Milia. "Women of Color and the Gender Wage Gap." Center for American
Progress. N.p., 14 Apr. 2015. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.
Thompson, Derek. "Biggest Myth About the Gender Wage Gap." The Atlantic. Atlantic
Media Company, 30 May 2013. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.
Relevant Websites:
http://www.aauw.org/
http://www.nationalpartnership.org/
https://www.americanprogress.org/