This may have held true then because woman rarely did the same work as men and normally tended to the house and children. And any acceptable part-time job they had were viewed as extensions of the women's role in society. Some jobs they held were house-cleaning, sewing, or caring for children of others. But this does not hold true today. Today women make up about half of the United States workforce and Conway states in Singled Out,(2013) "They also earn less: At a mean $41,687 annually, single women make the least of all groups classified according to marital status. Among single women, single mothers are the worst off, making $23,000 a year. " (p. 42) This stoic notion that women don't support families even if it is themselves only hurts women and especially single mothers. .
As a society we hear that men are harder workers or that they are the breadwinners. But so many women now are breadwinners or are the head of the household. Women have become an important part of the workforce in America doing more jobs than what was once considered an extension of a woman's role in society. Women are very prevalent in every field of work and completing the jobs as well as men. Also by not paying a female the same as a male is a form of exploitation. Exploitation is defined as the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work. And by not paying women the same as a man is a prime example of exploitation. The companies and business that still hold the same view as Colonial America and pay women less than men reap the benefits of society's stereotype of women. There are no longer restrictions on the type jobs women hold, so why should their pay be limited because at one point their work was viewed as less valuable by society. .
Not only is unequal pay unfair but it is also illegal. Many women in the 1940s flooded the workplace during wartime because the men were overseas serving and fighting for our country.
