Jazmin Narez & Mauricio:
Backrounders
- http://www.aauw.org/what-we-do/public-policy/aauw-issues/gender-pay-gap/
- The American Association of University Women
- A group who fight to end wage discrimination. They want to make new policies that will protect women from being discriminated, such as the Paycheck Fairness Act.
- http://www.pay-equity.org/
- National Committee on Pay Equity
- A group that is trying to close the wage gap between women and men. They try to protect the Equal Pay Act; they do research and experiments to show how much less women make than men.
Wage Gap between Females and Males
By: Jazmin Narez
My specific policy concern is wage gap between genders. The government needs to shrink the wage gap by lifting up the salaries for the women in the low wage jobs, also by making it easier for women to obtain high paying jobs.
Documentation
Rationale
The role of the government determines whether the Fairness Pay Act gets passed or not. Although, they do represent many policies it is important to remember how everyone was an opinion and for certain reason the policy might just not get passed. The National Women’s Law Center has helped me a lot with realizing how this issue can be ended with the policy that has been brought up.
The National Women’s Law Center is a group of female attorneys who are currently working to better the female issues. Their main goal is to help the females have a more equal and sustainable life. This group gives the public to participate by giving you the option of signing petitions or calling representatives.
Discussion of effects Â
My main goal of my action was to inform others on the wage gap issue that has been around for decades.
- The Instagram account was created to post with the hashtag of fair pay 4 genders in order to give users an easier access to find the page.
- The letter written to Paul Hahn was to ask for revision on the wage gap issue. Since there is a Non-Discrimination policy for Butte County it would be great if there was a equal pay policy as well.
- Town Hall was a great way to speak on my topic and what the government can do in order to end the wage gap.
What did I accomplish?
- I had the opportunity to look into interest groups who are already dealing with the issue which helps me a lot because I get the opportunity to interact with the group.
- Learned more about the issue itself and how there is the Fairness Pay Act which is a revision of the Equal Pay Act of 1963.
- Got the opportunity to work with my group members who also decided to take on the same issue
Narrative
I honestly didn’t know I was going to end up choosing a topic and completing research. I didn’t know what to actually expect. Before I started the course I didn’t fully look at how the constitution was involved with so many issues we currently face or have faced. The constitution plays a big role in the decision making for new laws or just in general how we live our daily lives.
- Going into this class I didn’t know what to expect and it was great to learn how the Constitution actually is used in this nation
- The policy process is helps guide the policy
- The Town Hall meeting with the other people gave us the chance to interact with other students and had the opportunity to explain our issue.
Sources
Coontz, Stephanie. 16 February 2013. Why gender equality stalled. The New York
Times. Retrieved October 05, 2017, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/opinion/sunday/why-gender-equality-stalled.html
Lipman, Joanne. 13 August 2015. Let’s expose the Gender Pay Gap. The New
York Times. Retrieved October 05, 2017,from
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/13/opinion/let’s-expose-the-gender-pay-gap.html
National Women’s Law Center Expanding the Possibilities. Equal Pay and the Wage Gap. NWLC. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from
https://nwlc.org/issue/equal-pay-and-the-wage-gap/
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Sophia Moresco:
Specific Policy Concern and Solution
The specific policy concern that I have chosen is the wage gap between men and women. I want the federal government to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act in order to fix the wage gap because women are payed .96 cents to every dollar a man makes.
Map of the Policymaking Process
My map of the policymaking process for the Paycheck Fairness Act:Â
Documentation of Action
Documentation of the types of actions taken to address my speci
fic issue:Â
Rationale
The reasons behind my thinking and the actions I have taken is because of the fact that women have been fighting for equality for several years, yet we as a nation still have not changed our biased views on how women should act and look. With this going around in my head I decided to choose this policy issue with a subtopic on the wage gap, vigorously research it and then take steps towards trying to transform it for the better. While conducting an inquiry into this I found out that there have been many times that the government has tried to prevent this issue or at least tried to contain it by enacting laws. Some bills that they have been passed are Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Pay Act, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (Equal Rights Advocates, 2015). Even though these have been passed women are still being discriminated against. There have been cases and lawsuits between women and their past or present employers that have started uproars, like the one involving Google and their staff members. Over “sixty” women who were and are still employees of Google say they may take “legal action” against this company over “unproven sexism” and pay differences with their male coworkers (Mikelionis, 2017). This proves that with every step that government has taken to distinguish this matter they are still several steps behind in solving it. Witnessing all of this it brings a new light with how the government works; I can see how hard they try to alleviate this issue, but with doing just that they still have to go through several steps. Not knowing this before confused me on how come no one has taken any form of action that can fix this problem, that was until I found out about the Paycheck Fairness Act and read the Policymaking Process. Now that I fully understand each and every step one has to take to get an issue changed and that the Paycheck Fairness Act has already gone through several of them it just needs the final push; I can with the help of my action plan and the public get this act passed. I feel like my action plan is appropriate and effective for this act is because like I already said the Paycheck Fairness Act has been formulated, gained support, been introduced to congress, and is now in review and with the creation of my blog I can inform more people and get them to call local representatives about this act. With all of this I hope that with this knowledge about gender discrimination at the workplace, especially the wage gap and the Paycheck Fairness Act it will spur people into their own form of action to get this bill to be enacted and for it change the way women are treated in the work field.
Effects
I hoped to accomplish bringing more awareness to the public about the detrimental benefits that comes to those in the work field. I did accomplish in holding a successful house meeting with a few fellow friends and creating an informational blog about the wage gap and with ways how we can fix that with the Paycheck Fairness Act. I know that I have accomplished all that I have stated because my house meeting was not only collaborative on figuring out ways to diminish the wage gap, but it also brought a new light on the subject with so many differing opinions on this issue and my action plan of creating a blog turned out to be very organized and insightful with information on the wage gap and how to contact local representatives about the Paycheck Fairness Act.
Narrative
I believed that I would need a better understanding of the Constitution and how the government works when I began this class in order to get where I am at now. Some things that I didn’t know before I began this course, but that I now know are what the policymaking process is and how it truly works, that english and political science go hand in hand when it comes to constructing a bill, the Constitution, and mostly anything that needs to persuade someone on a certain issue, but most of all I now have more insight into the Constitution and everything that applies to it. I arrived to this conclusion through each and every course reading, discussion, and group project. The most important documents/readings that impacted me would be the policymaking process, the Constitution, and the Bundy Case; they all taught me the importance of the different powers and views everyone holds when it comes to policies. The DACA Rally and the Activists Panel helped teach me the importance of standing up for what you believe in and how to go about to get an issue changed. Attending Town Hall was the highlight of this semester for me because I was able to go out and discuss the policy issue and subtopic that I had been researching and writing about, also it gave me the chance to learn even more from my fellow peers and those who had witnesses or even experienced discrimination.
Sources
Here are some sources that gave me detailed information that helped me fully understand this policy issue, especially the wage gap. Each one had essential facts, data, and even personal opinions from all the stakeholders; women, the government, and men. Â
Equal Rights Advocates. (2015). Sex Discrimination At Work. Retrieved October 05, 2017, from https://www.equalrights.org/legal-help/know-your-rights/sex-discrimination-at-work/
Martin, E. (2017, September 12). Here’s how much money American women earn at every age. Retrieved November 29, 2017, from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/12/heres-how-much-money-american-women-earn-at-every-age.html
Weiss, S., Republican Closing Wage Gap Equal Pay For Women, News • Politics US News, Weiss, W. B., & Images., P. R. (n.d.). Utah Republican Argues That Equal Pay Will Destroy Families & Society. Retrieved November 29, 2017, from http://www.refinery29.com/2017/02/141695/utah-republican-argues-against-equal-pay
Instagram I created to spread awareness about an issue
https://www.instagram.com/?hl=en
The national committee on pay equality is a an interest group that wants equal pay for women and men.
It gives statistics about male wages and female wages and shows a lot of info involving the differences between the wage gap.
https://nwlc.org/resources/the-wage-gap-the-who-how-why-and-what-to-do/
The national women’s law center also gives info about what different wages there is. between men and women and they support women who work the same hours but get paid less than men
- The specific policy issue that I have chosen is gender discrimination with a subtopic in the wage gap.
- I want people to see that there is such a thing as the wage gap and that there needs to be awareness about this issue and also for the federal government to enforce a Fair pay act.
- Documentation: I created a social media website on instagram about gender discrimination and to spread awareness about this issue
- The reason why I chose to do this topic is because it has been a very controversial issue all my life and growing up with this issue, I haven’t really paid any attention until this class and what it has done.
- I decided to a instagram page because i felt that it would get a lot attention from many people because a lot of young minds are doing this so it will spread more awareness.
Gender Discrimination 