Tiana Mikes Project - Alaska Pacific University

Insights into Feminism 18
male managers. “Women’s lower earnings did not result from less education. At every
education level, women earned less than men” (p. 77). They state that women entered
into continued established economic and occupational hierarchies among themselves and
that women’s group mobility failed to destroy structural inequality regrettably it
reinforced it. They believe that this process of differentiation is crucial to the paradox of
inequality. According to Fader, Katz, and Stern, “there are powerful lessons in this
history of the paradox of inequality. The most obvious is the access-political and civil
citizenship-is not enough. Access promotes individual and group interests but does little
to diminish the structures of inequality” (p. 83).
Since women’s earnings are at an all time high ($.77 per male $1.00), some
believe that the issue is resolving itself. According to Mark Doms and Ethan Lewis
(2007), the difference in wages between men and women, the so-called “male-female
wage gap”, has shrunk substantially- by about half- over the past several decades (p. 1).
They believe that society should consider the decline in discrimination and rising skills
among women (p. 3), as contributing factors for the decline of the wage gap.
Women and Schooling
Gender discrimination exists still in American schools. In 2003, Fannye Love,
Sherry Owens, and Bobbie Smothers, wrote an article focusing the aspects that plague
American schools. Through their research they found the greatest discrepancies were
identified in math and science (p. 131). According to Scott-Jones (2002), “the ideology of
equal access to school for males and females prevails in the U.S., but the vigorous