Essay - Business Female Faculty Compensation in Higher Education Chapter 1: Introduction...

Business

Female Faculty Compensation in Higher Education

***** 1: INTRODUCTION

Background: Equality and the Workplace

American society has changed dramatically in recent decades, and with it, the American workplace.

Age-old assumptions and practices have been given up in favor of new outlooks ***** techniques. The last third of the Twentieth Century was a time ***** leveling, a period in which long oppressed groups fought for and, in many cases, gained their rights. *****s on all rungs of the socio-economic ladder looked at, and re-evalu*****ed, the fundamental premises and promises of their nation and society. The Un*****ed States ***** a country conceived in liberty, justice, and equality for all, pr*****cipals that had not always been lived up to; opportunities ***** had not always ***** made available to all. After a long and hard struggle, ethnic and religious minorities obtained equality under the law. They fought for and won equal recognition in the vot*****g booth, in the restaurants, clubs, schools, and the workplace. Conscientious citizens looked beyond the obvious minorities and discovered a full half ***** ***** American population that was suffering from discrimination. From the beginning, America's women had been denied *****ir right ***** a full and ***** participation in the ***** dream. Excluded from ***** *****, *****y were barred form promising careers, ***** forced to work for less pay than their male counterparts. All ***** began to change. Laws were passed, and old beliefs were swept aside - or at least th***** was ********** idea.

For despite all these changes in attitude and policy, many would argue that women are not compensated fairly and equally for the work they per*****. Even in the bastions of the new th*****king - ***** nation's colleges ***** universities - women may remain victims of traditional forms of wage and employment *****.

***** is perhaps the single most significant factor in determining individual and group success and socio-economic role. The amount of compensation ***** can be obtained ***** a given ***** factors into a whole other range of choices regarding career, marriage, childbearing ***** child rearing, housing, recreation, and so forth. (Blau, 1998, p. 15) An individual's decision to choose a specific c*****reer or position will be influenced by these varied possibilities. Conversely, should an individual value certain opportunities that would not ***** ***** available ***** a given choice of career or position, that form of employment will cease to be a viable option, or will function, instead, as a limitation upon that individual. When wages are applied not individuals, but acc*****ding to groups, these same opportunities or limitations *****come applicable ***** the group ***** a whole. If ***** ***** offered high salaries in one field only, ***** field will appear filled with opportunity. Similarly, if women are ***** high wages across a r*****ge of fields, those fields will ***** as restrictions on the choices available to those women. A wage earner can ***** make *****ly realistically ***** those life choices that are economically feasible within the strictures ***** her economic resources. A woman who