Why Women Cannot Capitalize Off of Capitalism
By Athena Zhuang
Edited by Joyce Li
There was a time when, during elementary school, children were asked to write their parents’ careers. Kids said their dads were surgeons, firefighters, and pilots. Then, they included their mom — but if she worked at home as a housewife, they had to leave the box empty.
The feminist movement values equality amongst all women. It supports females, fights to remove sexism, and enforces workplace rights.
Capitalism harms feminism in a variety of ways. The system itself prioritizes making profit through the most “efficient” ways, might they be historical. It adds fire to pre-existing oppression of underrepresented groups. Companies or individuals are allowed to justify their choices for the purpose of “making more money”. This leads to discussions like if domestic mothers should be paid for their housework and if employees should have paid maternity leave.
Females have been historically perceived as “less worthy” than men.There is a distinctive gender wage gap. Women are paid less, particularly those belonging to racial subgroups. For example, a hispanic or latino female receives, on average, $0.54 per dollar a white man receives.
Men are often pushed to enter higher paid industries, such as STEM, where they make up 73% of workers. In comparison, females are encouraged to follow norms of either becoming housewives or entering fields like education and childcare. The feminist movement accepts everyone — it believes that if someone wants to become an engineer for NASA, she deserves the chance. If someone wants to be a stay-at-home mother, she is also valid. It is restrictive to coerce women to be in one position or another.
Moreover, capitalism perpetuates such an idea, where in a society focused on monetary gain and private enterprise, women lose opportunities to their male counterparts. Neoliberal feminism says that the best way to achieve the goals of the feminist movement is to push them into positions of power and to succeed alongside capitalism — but what if they cannot get into these positions of power due to the default of occupational segregation in the first place? What if there is internal discrimination — ie with their sex, their faith, or their sexual orientation? Or maybe a combination of multiple factors?
Ernesto Reuben, during his time with the Columbia Business School, said that “hiring managers possess an extraordinary level of gender bias when making decisions and filling positions, often times choosing the less qualified man over a superiorly qualified woman.” He proved this in an experiment, where male and female managers studied different participants through mathematics. None of the workers received background information, yet a man had twice the amount of chances to be hired than a woman. When questioned, the interviewers claimed they assumed men were more intelligent in STEM fields than women.
What are the consequences of this? Females are often overlooked in a patriarchal and sexist world. They are rejected from opportunities, despite the fact that they may be more qualified or suitable for a position. This not only decreases workplace productivity but adds a limit of what a woman is able to receive. She may not be hired post-application, but if she is hired, she may not receive a raise when her manager has to choose between her and a man. As a result, many women feel unmotivated to enter specific “male dominant” careers or even an industry at all. Therefore, while capitalism can empower females and provide job opportunities that enforce financial independence and power, men will always receive more.
Whether managers are boldly sexist or have internalized the ideas, the feminist movement lacks the chance to reach full potential within this capitalist system.
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Works Cited
Bleiweis, R. (2020, March 24). Quick Facts About the Gender Wage Gap. Center for
American Progress.https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/
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Bureau, U. S. C. (2021, January 26). Women Making Gains in STEM Occupations but Still
Underrepresented. The United States Census Bureau.
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/01/women-making-gains-in-stem-occupati
ons-but-still-underrepresented.html.
González, M. J., Cortina, C., & Rodríguez, J. (2019, January 30). Role of Gender Stereotypes
in Hiring: A Field Experiment. OUP Academic.
https://academic.oup.com/esr/article/35/2/187/5370650.
School, C. B. (2017, November 22). New Research Proves Gender Bias Extraordinarily
Prevalent in Stem Careers. Newsroom.
https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/newsroom/newsn/2700/new-research-proves-gender-
bias-extraordinarily-prevalent-in-stem-careers.
M José González, Clara Cortina, Jorge Rodríguez, The Role of Gender Stereotypes in Hiring:
A Field Experiment, European Sociological Review, Volume 35, Issue 2, April 2019, Pages
187–204, https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcy055
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