Changing the Pay Gap

My attempt to be a fashion designer at age 8.

Like many children, I spent my youth dreaming of my future career. At first, I wanted to be an Egyptologist, then a fashion designer, then a journalist. In my mind, it never mattered that I did not like deserts or could not sketch — everything was a possibility. But then, in junior high, I learned about the gender pay gap and that women earn, on average, only a fraction of what men make in the same job. As a woman of color, I would probably earn an even smaller fraction.

After this realization, every time I would imagine my future career, I would remember the pay gap, and I could not help but wonder if one day I would have a job in which I was paid less than my male colleagues just because I’m a woman.

I soon learned that pay equity laws were weak and that if I was in that situation, it would be extremely difficult to remedy. I wondered how I could live my life knowing that inequalities like that existed. How could I have a career and just ignore that reality? No matter how much I tried to shake it, my knowledge about the pay gap would always be there haunting me.

I realized that I would have to dedicate my life to changing things. If the policies and protections were weak, I would have to fight for them myself. I recognized that if I wanted equality, I would have to spend my life fighting for it full time, and that is exactly what I have done and what I plan to continue doing.

Now, as a junior in college who is contemplating graduate school and my future career, I am more dedicated to this mission than ever. To commemorate and teach others about Equal Pay Day — the symbolic day when women’s salaries caught up to what men made in 2011 — and the importance of pay equity, I organized an April 17 screening of the documentary Miss Representation and distributed fliers about the pay gap.

Too many generations of women have had to endure this discrimination. It must stop. The world will not change if there aren’t people out there fighting to make a difference. That is what AAUW, its members, and I are dedicated to doing, both for us and for future generations of women.

This post was written by National Student Advisory Council member Samantha Abril.