Good Day Fellow Hive Learner
Today I want to share some thought about equality. Equality is a vast topic, I will try to narrow it into Gender Equality. Honestly after trying to make some outline, I realize that even a Gender Equality itself still a vast topic.
So Let's pick the micro one, Gender Equality in pay, the professional life issue...
Why Woman Tend To Be Paid Lower
When I was at school, some lecturer said that Woman tend to be paid lower than man, there were gender discrimination in some offices. They should be paid the same, because man and woman were equal!
So when we set into some small discussion group, the discussion was about telling the boys not be those vile of men. Treat Lady the same as Gentlemen...
It was decades ago, so I did not recall in detail all the talk, but I remembered that day my female friends bursting out to guys, but of course in friendly and joking manners
In these day, I would not say Women are paid lower due to discrimination. There are many factors in it, and I could not say one is completely wrong, because they hold some value in their decision.
Ok let me pick a simulation here. The modus wage of a general officer here is around $400 a month. It is not the median nor the average, the modus which is the most commonly found in Jakarta - Indonesia. There are many employement rules that differ for woman and man. If a company asks a female employee to do overtime, the company must pay for the taxi fare. Yes a taxi, not a public transportation. In some condition, company must pay for extra accommodation for female staffs or workers, which is not implied to man.
Wage wise, both still receive the same, $400. But if we see further, company can pay more than $50 to afford those extra expenses for employing woman, even for some cases it can reach more than the basic salary. So basically in monthly base, company is paying 10-20% higher in employing female workers, with the same wage.
We are not calculating all law and legal issue here. There is maternity leave, which allow female officers to leave office for 3 months and still eligible receiving 100% wage. There is the D day leave, which allow female to take an extra leave for having bad period days.
So if we are talking about being equal, it won't end at something as the same because whenever you put two thing as the same in one part, the other part won't be the same. There won't be the same for everyone. That's the nature of equality
The Equality In Humanity Point of View
So should we reduce woman wage by 10%? That's a nasty topic, however some agree with that. For me, it is not supposed to be like that. The equality in the professional should be about getting the same for doing the same with same result. So virtually everyone whether a man or a woman, should be paid around the same.
Around the same? let's face it, even for the same job, people with the same gender as man, still receive different pays. Even those who work in the same office or company, the same position and job desc, they can get different remuneration. So even if there is the same numbers of wage or salary, that is specific on some companies, not for all.
So we are talking about a bit of fairness issue here. Does it fair? Well there is no ultimate fairness anyway, as long people are paid in similar wage, it should be fair. Fairness is often perceived as a subjective, for example does it fair to pay someone with 10 years experience the same as someone with 2 years experience? Well some say yes, some will say no, some will try to lead to further discussion such as the job description.
Ok back to the gender equality, why would we still promote equal pay if the condition would not be the sameness. Better companies ditch all female employees and go for all man and gay workers, right?
Well the thing is... All of this is not that simple. If you want to have an economic striving, or let see this from smaller group, you want to improve and develop your neighborhood. To improve our little neighborhood, it is not about getting some people with high pay. All the people must be developed too, whether they are kids, teenager, elder, regardless their gender.
So Gender equality indirectly play greater part in any development, which include the economic development. This is the case of where the big numbers beat out small numbers, rather than talking which person should be pay more, it is more like promoting everyone getting a fair pay and all can walk forward to better future.
We just talked about indirect result from gender equality. let see the direct one, Gender equality builds up healthier families and communities. A better educated women are more capable in nurturing her family by investing in their children's health and education. In the end we will have a better generation, and this will be rolled over making a snow ball effect.
So we can say to those employers or companies that do not want to hire woman due to having to pay more that hiring woman and promoting gender equality is part of corporate social responsibility. It is how they join in developing the communities, promoting healthy society and being the respected governance.
As for the closing, I always see equality is all about fairness, it is not about sameness. I do not know how about you, do share it below and thank you for your visit here.
Thank you for coming and reading my post. I live in Jakarta, Ex-Capital City of Indonesia. I used to live by making money online, that's why I like being here, on HIVE, and in #PIMP - (Paper In My Pocket) community.
