The “Gender Wage Gap”

According to the Census taken, when examining the issue of the gender wage gap it showed that for every dollar a man earned every woman earned between 77 and 79 cent. While these numbers are only slightly uneven, they do a terrible job in showing the actual Gender Wage Gap. These numbers just show every U.S. working citizen as well as how much they get paid but it does not compare men and women that work the same job within work place. In other words this number does not compare a man who works as a doctor with a woman who works as a doctor, instead it represents the general population.

This Gender Wage Gap has yet to be properly addressed or dealt with…in 2014, President Barak Obama aimed to address the Gender Wage Gap with the Paycheck Fairness Act.

While it appears that woman are choosing to pursue less competitive jobs and jobs that pay less we have to evaluate why they chose these jobs. Just think if you knew… that if you are a woman and you worked just as hard as a man maybe even ten times harder to get that job as a doctor and you are getting paid less than someone else…would you even go through all the hard work of getting this dream job? If we do pursue these jobs as a woman we chose to settle, woman deserve equality. More and more women are speaking up demanding equal rights, oppression takes place in many different shapes and forms and this happens to be a way that we deal with modern day oppression.

With the many movements that took place towards fighting for equal pay, we have developed the Equal Pay Day in support of the Equal Rights Movement, equal pay day is April 2, 2019. The date is significant because it represents how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. This day was established in 1996 and it can change depending on when we see changes in the gender wage gap.

I haven’t allowed this gender wage gap to effect my goals of becoming a doctor because I believe the United States does a well job in promoting equality, so I hope that this oppression will be exposed and they will change the pay system.

#BlackLivesMatterMovement

The Black Lives Matter Global Network is a chapter-based, member-led organization whose mission is to build local power and to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.

They are expansive. They are a collective of liberators who believe in an inclusive and spacious movement. They also believe that in order to win and bring as many people with them along the way, they must move beyond the narrow nationalism that is all too prevalent in Black communities. They must ensure we are building a movement that brings all of us to the front.

They affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. Their network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements.

They are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise.

They affirm their humanity, their contributions to this society, and their resilience in the face of deadly oppression.

The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation.

What is there mission? What do they believe?

Four years ago, what is now known as the Black Lives Matter Global Network began to organize, they started from scratch with no funding. It started out as a chapter-based, member-led organization whose mission was to build local power…..(LOCAL HAHA YEAH RIGHT)…..and to intervene when violence was inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.

In the years since, they have committed to struggling together, through protest and non violent activism and simple speaking up about what they believe is fair, they have also imagined creating a world free of anti-Blackness, where every Black person has the social, economic, and political power to thrive.

Black Lives Matter began as a call to action in response to state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism. Their intention from the very beginning was to connect Black people from all over the world who have a shared desire for justice, equality and fair treatment to act together in their communities, it started in just within the community then it began to spread all over the world. The impetus for that commitment was, and continues to be, the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted on them by the state.

Enraged by the death of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent acquittal of his killer, George Zimmerman. Trayvon Martin, a teenager who went to 7-Elevan just to pick up skittles and Arizona Iced tea was murdered because a police felt just that because of his “appearance” he was a criminal. In other terms, because he was a black Male with a hoodie he was automatically assessed as a criminal.

The Black Lives Matter Movement initiators were also inspired by the 31-day takeover of the Florida State Capitol by POWER U and the Dream Defenders, they took to the streets. A year later, they set out together on the Black Lives Matter Freedom Ride to Ferguson, in search of justice for Mike Brown and all of those who have been torn apart by state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism. On Saturday, August 30, three weeks after a white police officer named Darren Wilson shot and killed an unarmed, black 18-year-old named Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. A group of about 400 women, men and children–lots of children–are marching down West Florissant Road toward where it meets Canfield Drive, the street where Brown died.

When they arrive at the police station, they join about 150 black, brown, white and Asian people yelling slogans. There’s “Hey hey, ho ho, these racist cops have got to go,” “No justice, no peace,”“Who am I? Mike Brown!” and the occasional “black power!” As they protest, a row of about five white police officers wearing sunglasses and everyday uniforms stand before them with their hands on their hips or their arms crossed. Unlike the militarized response of previous weeks, this display is ceremonial. Their strategy seems to be to stare at them while they tire ourselves out.

Forever changed, they returned home and began building the infrastructure for the Black Lives Matter Global Network, which, even in its infancy, has become a political home for many.

They have accomplished a lot in four short years, because the amount of black violence has only increased….or maybe it has just now been brought to life. Ferguson helped to catalyze a movement to which they have all helped give life to the future generation to decrease the amount of violence and inequalities against black people. Organizers who call this network home have ousted anti-Black politicians, won critical legislation to benefit Black lives, and changed the terms of the debate on Blackness around the world. Through movement and relationship building, they have also helped catalyze other movements and shifted culture with an eye toward the dangerous impacts of anti-Blackness.

POCKETS = an injustice

Throughout society, the standards of women’s clothing has always been tedious. This is evident in some of the small places such as modern day dress codes in schools. I attended a prestigious Catholic School where the dress code of the girls involved billions of rules and regulations from not having hair dyed certain colors, no leggings or tight pants and even no thigh high boots. I had my hair dyed not because I wanted to impress the guys or because I wanted to show off but because I felt like it was me and I felt as though it made me unique. It allowed me to express myself and I felt like when my hair was dyed I was confident and felt good about myself. The school just assumed all actions girls took was to impress the guys. On the contrary, the boys had less than 10 dress requirements which included small things such as only wearing black socks, tucking their shirts in, and not wearing cargo pants which they often did anyways and never got reprimanded for it.

One afternoon, a group of friends and I decided to ask the dean of students why there were so many requirements women had to abide by and she explained to us that she didn’t want the clothing we wear to “cause lust” for the men. I believe that the clothing we wear is a form of self expression and the idea that we would have to adjust our image to meet the needs of someone else left me startled. What made it worst was that a woman was saying this to us, like how could you tell young woman who look up to you that all the choices they make will draw the eyes of a man whom will only lust them.

This idea of women having to adjust their clothing can date back to early clothing designers of the 1700s. Men’s clothing has always been designed with larger pockets to fit necessities needed to travel from place to place. On the contrary, in the 1700s, women had to wear sacks tied around their waist tucked deeply under layers of petticoat. This constrained women from doing active things with the weight of the bag constantly dragging them down and acting as a burden. The bag that they had to that around left many woman to just relax and hang out in the corner watching gentlemen as they handled what we refer to as the “heavy work” As time advanced, it became fairly difficult to carry the bags tucked in under their dresses. Clothing is always advancing with many new ideas and the many inventors during this time period. By the early 1800s women carried reticules which were miniscule, portable purses. While these were obviously more convenient, they still served as a barrier to once again hold a woman back…why did a woman have to go out and purchase a bag in order to carry around her belongings where as men could easily access theirs?

In modern day society, the ideology of men getting larger pockets has been embedded into the United States clothing designers culture. Cell phones have become a necessity of the current generation, we need to carry them just about every place in which we go. Unfortunately, the small pockets placed on women’s pants and even the fake pockets to represent style placed on many expensive designer pants make it difficult or even impossible for women to carry their cell phones. Thus, women are forced to lug around handbags and are once again constraining. I loved a pair of expensive jeans from a store, I tried them on and they fit perfectly and I reach down into what I believed was a pocket to rest my hand and instantly my hand gets stuck in the threads. It was a knock off pocket placed there as a design for show with no actual value. It was such a disappointment.

Something as small as the pocket size plays a huge role in society’s way of shaping a women, guiding her in a silent way subtly telling her what she should and should not do. The handbag is an evident gender distinction, and acts as a silent weight once again holding a women back.

“To me clothing is a form of self expression — three hints about who you are in what you wear” Marc Jacobs. This idea of self expression is a civil right that men have and it is a right that is continuously taken away form a women. Dressing up and looking nice is even an art to some women, the idea of designing your outfit and showing it off has a way of making a women happy. Society tells us this is wrong, it tells us that we have to adjust who we are to meet the standards of other….what does this say about society?