Virginia Woolf and the Wage between Men and Women

Jerusalen OlivarezMs. RohdeAP LanguageApril 10 2018Virginia Woolf and The Battle for the Wage Gap Between Men and WomenIn 1998 a young woman by the name of Kerri Sleeman was hired by a company with the statement The offer is what it is. There was no negotiation about the position or the pay. The opportunity was one in a thousand especially for her as a woman. After five years of progression in the company, the company filed a bankruptcy and Sleeman discovered an injustice. People who she had supervised, mostly young man, where being paid more than her. Stories such as this reflect an age old problem that has haunted and still haunts society today. The wage gap is usually defined as the difference is earnings typically between men and women usually for the same work or job. In the United States alone women who work full time and have a yearly job, make 80 cents for every dollar that their male counterpart makes (The Wage Gap: The Who, How, Why, and What To Do. ). Likewise, many countries around the world have the similar problem where women make less than men. The famous English writer, Virginia Woolf was one of the most influential women of the twentieth century that put forth modern enlightenment ideas that advocated for equality and the advancement of women in society.Although Woolf would have been proud of how much society has advanced so far today, she would have agreed with the idea that the wage gap between men and women in society is currently not being solved in the most effective and most powerful way. Virginia Woolf would have viewed issues like the wage gap between men and women extremely absurd, unfair, and in the need of a resolution. There is an effective way to destroying the wage gap. By raising the federal minimum wage, by aiding women who are on family leave, and by making more individuals aware of the unfair wage gap, the wage gap between men and women can be resolved and eventually completely and utterly destroyed. Although the minimum wage has benefited many people, it still has a negative effect on women in society. By raising the federal minimum wage, the wage gap would disappear. As of July, 2009, the current minimum wage was of seven dollars and twenty five cents. The impact of the minimum wage has been frivolous amongst the female community. In the workforce, women are more highly concentrated in low-wage sectors such as personal care and healthcare support occupations (Allegretto 2014). This means that typically women are making about $7.25 and less than $15.00. It should also be noted that women are vastly working in jobs such as, cashier jobs, waitress jobs, and healthcare jobs. If it's already economically impactful on a single person, how much more damaging is it for a single mother or a woman with deteriorated health. According to the National Women's law center, states with the smallest wage gap, consistently displayed a higher minimum wage. As it is conveyed, women are affected by the minimum wage, which heavily determines the wideness of the gap between man and women. If more of this could be seen in the United States and throughout the world, there would not be such conflict over the existence of the atrocious wage gap. For all these reasons it would be beneficial to increase the minimum wage. This would not only greatly benefit women Globally, it would also decrease and offer a bigger step toward the complete disappearance of the absurd wage gap which affects the life of many women that could be making a bigger impact in society or that simply need the way to properly sustain a family without the excessive worry.Nevertheless, the nineteenth century feminist virginia Woolf who was a great advocate for women, would have viewed and understood the need for the raise of the current minimum wage as imperative to the eventual concealment of the wage gap. In Virginia Woolf's famous book which is a compilation of a series of lectures for the benefit of women, she states, A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction(Woolf). As it is conveyed by this quote, Virginia Woolf believes that women are continuously denied the time, space and money that are needed to write and create new and creative work. Unlike men, who have the great freedom of running society, women are not as greatly supported because they are viewed as frivolous and weak. Although Woolf speaks about fiction, she would have agreed that during this time this same concept would apply to the wage gap and the necessity of increasing the minimum wage. She would have agreed that women in society today, need a boost in their pay especially because women are more readily concentrated in more low- wage jobs, because of the influence of men in this world. Woolf would have viewed this as absurd and in the need of a rapid resolution.

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