The Great Injustice

(Dedicated to Haley Nightingale)

Women in today's workforce are quite capable of performing the same tasks as men, yet there is still a large amount of discrimination and inequality in the workplace, both in Australia and overseas. A pay equity gap still remains, despite advances in women's rights. Today, women earn 84.7 cents in the male dollar when the average weekly earnings of full-time ordinary time workers are compared. When part-timers and casuals are included, this gap widens to 65.3 cents in the male dollar.

This is not only unfair, it is unjust.

What the hell is going on here? I get so frustrated when I hear these statistics (the above statistic is from a speech made by Pru Goward, Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner). I discussed this with a teacher of mine - a proud, modern feminist. I just couldn't get my head around the fact that many women are still not getting paid as much as men, and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Where are the rallies? Where are the protests? And the response I got from my teacher was, "Most women don't even realise it."

Wake up, ladies!

Talk to your male colleagues, girls. Make discreet inquiries. Find out whether your co-workers are earning more than you for doing the exact same job.

Get mad!!

I've always believed that this country stood for (amongst other things) fairness and equality, a fair go, etc. etc. Apparently i've been mistaken. As it turns out, Australia (like the rest of the world) is a well-oiled machine being run by a patriarchy ('patriarchy' meaning male-dominated) that resists women rising to positions of power, both in the political and social sphere.

In 2010, we have our first female acting-Prime Minister, and possibly our first female Prime Minister come late August.

Cleopatra was leading a nation 2000 years ago!

So why do women still earn less than men? Well, the following reasons have been given:

• More women than men work part-time and therefore earn only a proportion of full-time earnings
• More men than women work overtime because they work in areas where overtime is an option and women generally have more responsibilities at home
• Some occupations and areas that are dominated by women have been traditionally undervalued and tend to be lower paid
• Junior worker positions, which attract a lower level of pay, are filled by a higher proportion of women than men.

We have learnt these habits of gender construction throughout mankind's (and womankind's) evolution, yet this construction seemingly oppresses women throughout many cultures.

In 1969, the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions) mounted a test case to get rid of the 25% difference that existed betweeen pay rates for women and those for men. The court ruled that as of 1st of October women would get at least 85% of the male wage; their pay would then go up in steps until 1st of January 1972 when they would be rewarded with equal pay - 100% of the male wage.

What's taking so long?

This is ridiculous. Women are being discriminated against in their sexuality, in their value in the workplace and in their right to dress as they please (i.e. Muslim women and their head-coverings).

Pull your head out, Australia!!