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Gender Wage Gap Essay

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The gender wage gap is a very important topic and has been a concern worldwide for decades. Women have been making less money than men for years, regardless of their educational attainment or experience. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the gender wage gap is “the difference between median earnings of men and women relative to median earnings of men” (OECD, 2015). According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report of 2014, the gender wage gap has barely diminished over the past nine years. The global gender wage gap has decreased by 4% since 2006, with 60% of the gender wage gap closed in 2014. Iceland currently has the most narrow gender wage gap with Finland and Norway in second and third …show more content…
The four categories analyzed were Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. In regards to Economic Participation and Opportunity, 60% of this gap closed by 2014. Fourteen countries, including the U.S. and five European countries, have closed 80% of this gap. Seventeen countries, including 11 Middle East and North African countries, have closed less than 50% of this gap. Thirty four countries are below the world average (World Economic Forum, …show more content…
Thirty-five countries have completely closed this gap. The countries with the largest gap in this sector include Vietnam, China, and Armenia. Nine countries are below the world average for this sector. Finally, in regards to Political Empowerment, 21% of the gap was closed by 2014. Iceland and Finland closed more than 60% of this gap. Thirty-seven countries have only been successful in closing less than 10% of this gap. These include the Middle East, North Africa region, Asia, the Pacific, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Five countries, including Yemen and Lebanon have only closed less than 3% of this gap. Further, ninety-eight countries are below the world average (World Economic Forum,

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