As an American citizen and a future working woman, I would like to show my concern for the current gap in pay between genders. In 1963, America began the fight for equal pay for women. Here we are, 53 years later and this problem is still unresolved. In the United States, women are only making 79 cent per dollar men make. The wage gap affects women negatively all over the world. Woman are primary or co-breadwinners in two thirds of all families.  When a women is the only source of income, the wage gap will not only affect the  woman's standard of living, but her family's.

            President Obama is a big supporter of equal pay for woman. Since 2009, President Obama has established 3 events dealing with the gender wage gap.  These include the Pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, the Establishment of the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force, and the Lilly Ledbeter Fair Pay Act.(Fact sheet: Closing the Gender Wage Gap) 

           Hillary Clinton, a presidential nominee for the 2016 election, has shared her thoughts and experiences about the gender wage gap. In early 2016, she spoke out about just one example dealing the with gender wage gap, sports. The Women's US soccer team won the 2015 world cup and the Men's US soccer team have not won in years, but they are still making hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the women.  Hilary also mentioned a company named the Glassdoor. They support and brings awareness to this issue. The company created a study comparing men and women's salary working at the same company, doing the sames job. The male employees made 24% more than the women employees. ( Charlotte Alter)

             Gender is not the only thing that affects the wage gap. Ethnicity, education, age, location, and marital status are factors that can influence women's pay." While most women suffer from the wage gap, it does not affect all women equally. According to 2004 Median Annual Earning U.. Census data, African American women earn only 68 cents for every dollar a man earns, while Hispanic women earn only 57 cents to the male dollar."(Wage) The wage gap may increase with age. Women between the ages of 55-64 experience the biggest wage gap, 59%. The gap can decrease and/or increase with location. If you live in the midwest, the gap is between 75-83% compared to 62-75% if you lived in the southwest region.

              AAUW published an article about women's experiences involving the wage gap. A women named Kerri Sleeman had been working for this company for 5 years. On her fifth year the company went bankrupt. When she went to pick up her last check and the man she supervised was in line ahead of her ahead. He was being paid a lot more than she was. Another woman tried standing up for this issue. For example, Ellie Setser and her female colleagues, working at a research lab, band together and sent in complaints to the U.S. Department of Justice pay discrimination hotline. To their surprise a pay raised happened not long after. 

              The gender wage gap is just one example of inequality between men and women. Many people are hurt and affected by this wage gap. The world needs to fix this problem before it gets out of hand and leads to worse and worse things. Pay needs to bee equal for men and women. 

                                                                 Works Cited

 1. Alter, Charlotte. Hillary Clinton Calls for Closing Wage gap on Equal Pay Day. Time,                        http://time.com/4290427/hillary-clinton-equal-pay-day/, April 12, 2016.

2. Equal pay day. United States department of labor, https://www.dol.gov/wb/equal-pay/  , Accessed November 2, 2016.

3. 7 Women Shortchanged: Personal Stories of Gender Pay Gap. AAUW, http://www.aauw.org/2014/03/27/personal-stories-of-the-gender-pay-gap/, March 27, 21014.