Term Paper
Following APA Guide Lines June 18,2013
Florida State College of Jacksonville

Differentials in wages between women and men doing the same job, has been an often-discussed topic in our society today. In an age strongly influenced by equal opportunity and women’s equal rights. It is no longer openly acceptable for women to be undercompensated for doing the same work related duties and task as men. Besides the fact that it is illegal, society today has shown its concern by openly voicing its opinion. Letting it be know that gender wage difference is not only illegal, but also morally and ethically unacceptable and wrong.
In the early history of American lifestyles, women were known as the homemakers and keepers in traditional eyes. In this early era of American history it was thought for the woman to tend to the children, and make sure the household was taking care of while the male figure was out earning the pay. As time went own and with different obstacles arising with in our society, this forced the woman role to be drastically altered. Women started to have to branch out and assume duties they were not at first considered or respected for. History finds the changes of the women’s roles to be to be beneficial, but a hard fought battle for women to fight.
With the changes that women brought to the society, came a negative uproar. One of the major things that the early citizens of our society, which were mostly male didn’t agree with was the fact of working side by side with women. Some males felt it as disrespectful and degrading for them to have to share the same duties or titles as a woman. This misfortunate reaction by males across America, displayed an abundance of discrimination and hatred towards women. Not only were the employees showing discrimination, but the employers hiring were doing the same thing. With this disgraceful behavior toward women, future legal actions were taken to help eliminate some of this negative treatment.
In 1964 Congress passed Public Law 88-352, which fell under The Civil Rights Act. The provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing. Section 703 (a) made it unlawful for an employer to "fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions or privileges or employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." The final bill also allowed sex to be a consideration when sex is a bona fide occupational qualification for the job. Title VII of the act created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also know as the “EEOC”, to implement this law.
The EEOC, as an independent regulatory body, plays a major role in dealing with different issues when it comes to women’s equal rights. Since its creation in 1964, Congress has gradually extended EEOC powers to include investigatory authority, creating conciliation programs, filing lawsuits, and conducting voluntary assistance programs.
Today, according to the “U. S. Government Manual of 1998-99”, the EEOC enforces laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age in hiring, promoting, firing, setting wages, testing, training, apprenticeship, and all other terms and conditions of employment. Race, color, sex, creed, and age are now protected classes. The proposal to add each group to protected-class status unleashed furious debate. The phrase often associated with this is affirmative action. Affirmative action refers to equal opportunity employment measures that federal contractors and subcontractors are legally required to adopt. These measures are intended to prevent discrimination against employees or applicants for employment, on the basis of "color, religion, sex, or national origin".
With the help of the EEOC and affirmative action, women