What is Gender Pay Gap?
The gender pay gap is the average difference between the pay drawn by working men and working women. Conventionally, women had been paid less than men throughout history and this is how this term originated. Even though viewed as discriminatory in the contemporary scenario, the gap arose due to several factors, prominent amongst which was the occupational segregation of men and women, with the former working mostly in more laborious and demanding industrial work positions, and the latter working mostly in physically and mentally less demanding and lower paid positions. Overtime, the discriminatory undertones became more prominent, with many other legal, social and economic factors, like women’s paid working hours (lesser than that of men), women’s education, motherhood and higher rates of being a single parent, adding up to reinforce and reflect the pay disparity.
Despite best efforts by women’s rights groups the world over, the gap is showing no signs of closing in, and is not only prevalent but notoriously conspicuous in many of the world’s leading commercial, business and technological organizations. For instance, 78% of UK’s biggest organizations show a gender pay gap. In the US, the national average of women’s pay to men’s pay is 80%.
