Although the argument of equal pay is a modernized concept, it may not be as modern as it seems. All throughout history male superiority has dominated culture and society for various reasons, and women have been the group to suffer from these notions. When looking back into history, there is a noticeable difference between the average income of men and the average income of women. This concept is especially evident in many European nations before
the Renaissance, and dating as far back as the thirteenth century A.D. In these time periods, especially earlier in the time period and unlike in many societies today, there were not many influential leaders who had the ability to captivate audiences of lawmakers and other men in the country to express their grievances in an organized manner. Due to the extreme structural confines these societies and cultures placed on women, it is almost as if they had no choice other than to conform to the idea that they were inferior to their male counterparts, and remain within the domestic sphere raising children, cleaning the house, cooking, making clothes, and any other duties that men of the time period with which men were not to be bothered.
Men were favorable in the workforce, and it was believed that women should not challenge this idea, but respect the the authority of men and remain
in their domestic roles. Although there was little fight from the female side in the early years of this time period, as the years passed more women began to take a stand against the inequality that faced them in their daily lives. Around
the time of the sixteenth century, more women began to take a stand against the male-dominated culture and fight for what would later evolve into equal rights between both men and women. Influential leaders such as Catherine de Medici and Queen Elizabeth I led the the way and provided immense strides toward allowing women to gain social equality with men. Like these two extremely influential women, most of the leaders in the early fight for women’s rights were royalty. Queens in Europe were without a doubt the most influential women of the time, and they would intercede to the King to help them in attaining their cause through any means possible. The Queen had the ear of the King at her disposal, and she could usually find methods to persuade him into granting his wife a favor, should she present the right argument. Even so, equality was a task that took several hundred years and many attempts. From the beginnings of the era that were cloaked in patriarchy, women found their way into the workforce. However, it would still take yet another fight to even their pay and make them truly equal to the men that lived alongside them.
The idea of patriarchy had been alive and well several eras before the
the Renaissance time period in early Europe. Men, dating back to the days of hunter-gatherers were known as the “breadwinners”, and women were left in control of the domestic sphere that included making clothes, cooking and preparing meals, raising and taking care of the children, and collecting small plants to be eaten alongside the massive animals that the men would bring back from a hunt. This would eventually evolve into economic oppression, forcing women to remain home and cater to domestic needs while the men earned a living to support their families. Another factor was social oppression, which came from the the societal belief that women should remain at home. While this idea was most likely begun by men, women had succumbed to their fate and accepted their role in the society. The third perceived type of oppression women faced in early Europe was religious oppression. The laws of the Catholic Church, which dominated many European nations in this time period, stated that only men were permitted to celebrate the Mass and Eucharist (Maslak, 2017). While this may seem like the Church is responsible for this oppression of women, the idea of men teaching descended from the idea that Jesus was the original teacher, and his successors at the alter are male. The oppression lies in the fact that European men of the the time used the fact that only men were allowed to celebrate Mass and the Eucharist to further their narrative of patriarchy, saying that the Church is implying that women are not allowed positions of authority. This is not the case however. In fact, in many religious organizations nuns held very high roles in many church functions (Harris, 2016). The fact that men used the Church as a tool to suppress women shows that they altered the interpretations of symbolic gestures in order to further their narrative that men were superior to women using any means possible.
The idea of male superiority, or as it would be called, patriarchy, was a driving factor that held women out of the workforce. Many years later than this time period in history, historians would coin the term the “cult of domesticity”. This term was used to explain the the notion of women being forced to stay in the home and take charge of cleaning, cooking, child care, and other responsibilities. One significant factor affecting women in the workforce was pregnancy. When a woman became pregnant, her would-be employer would be forced to face the fact that he would have to give her free vacation time out of work in order for her to give birth and take care of her newborn child. Obviously one can see where this would be an issue that could carry some significant weight in an employment decision, and the employers of the time period did not care to think of possible solutions that would allow both the woman and the place of employment to maintain success and health during the process of childbirth. Many employers when asked why they preferred men would openly state the issue of pregnancy and claim that it would cause him to lose money by paying an employee while she would not be working (Bennett & Ruth, 2013). Another issue that women faced in regards to employment was illness. Studies of medicine in the time show that women were more likely to contract serious illnesses than men, which made them more of a risk to hire (Howell, 2008). Thus, an employer could argue, hiring men gave him a better chance of avoiding illness within his business or place of work. By playing the odds and refusing to hire women that were more likely to contract and spread disease, he was therefore at a lesser risk of losing employees for extended periods of time. This in turn would save the
the employer money that he could put to another cause, most commonly personal gain.
With this argument stored in their library of excuses for not hiring women, employers seemingly found the golden ticket to keep women from entering the workforce. The argument was logical and was generally understood as true by the women in the time period (Howell, 2013). Although this argument from employers is obviously flawed by today’s standards, it seemed a realistic threat to commerce at the the time and received little argument when it was first proposed. “It wasn’t until around the Age of Enlightenment, around the year 1650 in most of Europe, that the seeds began to be planted for the idea that women are as competent in men. Some members of society started to believe that women are only lacking in education – not intelligence. One hallmark of this period came from British writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft’s 1792 book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. That book was well-received and nudged societal views into gradually becoming more accepting of women in the workplace.” (Shepard,
2015).
The first women finally entered the workforce around the middle of the 1600’s in Europe. Upon their entrance to the life of employment, they continued to be the subjects of harsh discrimination and oppression. Women were given the lowest jobs working in less than desirable conditions. Many jobs assigned to women in this time were the jobs that had ben stereotypically assigned to women while they would take care of the home. Many women working in factories, stores, and businesses would be assigned the duties of cleaning, cooking, and sewing cloth. (Burnette, 2012). Their employers believed that they were showing sympathy toward the woman and helping her become accustomed to her new job. They saw these duties as a compliment to the the women for their abilities to excel at such tasks after years of preparation with similar jobs within the home. However, this system would actually demean women by reducing them to the same roles that they were forced into while still confined to work within the home. Women wanted the same jobs as men. These women wanted to be selling land, farming, working in businesses, and earning money for themselves. These first women to enter the workforce and fight for equal jobs with men would set the framework for a women’s equality movement that is still in motion today, with several million supporters.
These women quickly realized that the jobs they had asked for were not the easiest jobs to complete. They involved grueling manual labor and continuous, tiring tasks. Another aspect of difficulty that was overlooked when allowing women into the workforce was education. Employers soon realized that even though some women were capable of completing their jobs, their education level was nearly below the level of competency required to complete the more advanced jobs they were being assigned to complete. As this trend continued to prove problematic both to the employers as well as the women and men working under them, it was ultimately understood that it was necessary to provide more available education for women to teach them the the necessary skills and knowledge required for their jobs. This led to education becoming more readily available for all women, and even at a younger age before they would become of age to start working in a factory or business (Burnette, 2012). This led to a snowball effect of women slowly, one – by – one gaining increased rights and earning a larger amount of equality with men in the society. Once women were working, they required education to continue working at a pace that would allow their company to be successful. As women were becoming more and more educated, they were deemed competent to the extent that they were eventually allowed to hold higher positions within the company. When women began holding significant leadership roles within the companies they were working for, their opinions on matters of society, news, and politics became more relevant and influential in the world.
With the expansion of women into the work force comes the argument of compensation for tasks performed during the work day. By total numbers, it was evident that women were not making the same amounts of money that the men in their jobs were making. For example, in the year 1551 in England women had earned about 25 percent of the total wages collected by males in the country (Humphries & Weisdorf, 2015). However, this number is constructed by a study of total earnings throughout the year.