Women and Economic Justice was discussed for Women’s History Month, Thursday, March 23.
Micah Pratt, mechanical engineering major, spoke upon women and economic justice.
Pratt shared that, inequality in pay between genders is one of the greatest international failures in history.
Pratt strongly disagrees with the practice of wage discrimination and believes equally productive workers should be paid equally.
The culture society has built around women in the workplace often pushed women and men into different fields.
He talked about how women are less encouraged to pursue high paying jobs or women also choose careers where they believe they will be less likely to be discriminated against.
“Women should know the ways the system and employers discriminate against them so as to better protect themselves,” Pratt stated.
He shared the average woman will lose between $700,000 to $2 million in their lifetime, with women with advanced degrees and experience losing the most.
He encourages everyone to enact change and speak up against discriminatory firms, because salaries are private information many firms can illegally discriminate without notice.
“I believe supporting women is imperative for everyone, even at the most selfish level, men would still reap the benefits of a more stable economy. At an emotional level, we all have mothers, sisters, partners, or friends we care about,” Pratt said.
Kacherine Rose, nutritional science major, shared that her mother had little support but nonetheless she worked hard and attended school to be successful despite the negative comments.
“Pay them what they deserve, for me any women can do anything guys can do, there is a physical difference but if they put in the work if they make you the profit why not? Who cares?” Rose said.
Professor Katya De Los Rios said, “This topic is very close to my heart because I grew up in a country where women don’t reach the high levels in their positions, and having two daughters I’m very passionate about women’s issues and women equality and want to see equal pay.”
Ricardo De La Cruz, english and photography major, shared that as a son he sees how his mother works every day.
“She does house cleaning; I have seen and helped her and it’s such a struggle and for her to not receive the financial income that she deserves and any women is just very unbearable to hear,” De La Cruz said.
Veronica Sanchez, psychology instructor, enjoyed the talk she said, “I think that we all need to come together from all the different disciplines and bring whatever we can to the table to try to promote the change.”
She continued, “Personally throughout the course of my life and the course of my studying for my career, I’ve dealt with negative attitude, stereotypes, lack of social support and lack of family support. I think that gives me the perspective in understanding in terms of knowing where some of our students are coming from and how to better support them.”
