Gender Wage Gap and its Impact on Women's Education and Career Choices

How the gender wage gap discriminates against women and influence their
education and professional career choices?
Introduction
This case study examines women who have faced discrimination in their
chosen profession and the shifting assumptions and perceptions that woman can
have a professional career in politics and leadership roles. To explore this social
inequality, this case study outlines key conceptional frame works such as gender,
education, family and sexuality that impacts on choosing a professional career when
it comes to equal pay and equal opportunities. These conceptual frame works
located in the spheres of material, cultural and political spheres provide further
analyse of how gender is contested through the political sphere by investigating
women’s leadership roles in political power. This case study also explores the
hierarchical and the power relations of gender inequalities and how this impacts the
gender wage gap. This study looks at the role of Julia Gillard as the first Australian
Prime Minister and her role in leadership, and how she influences women to gain an
education and chose a possible career in politics. Julia Gillard’s influential misogyny
speech was a defining moment in her career and challenges the stereotypes of
women in political power and she created social change. This case study explores
Julia Gillard’s speech with critical discourse analysis and how the language is
constructed and how Julia Gillard challenged the ideologies and stereotypes of only
men being dominate in politics. Julia Gillard shifted identities and how gender is
perceived in politics and leadership and made a future path for women in leadership.
In Julia Gillard’s current role, she identifies a problem with women in leadership.
More needs to be done with providing equal opportunities in leadership with finding
voice and agency in collective identities that have common interests and solidarity to
provide women with an education. This case study unpacks a social inequality that
can change the future for women in leadership, create great leaders with equal
opportunities with equal pay.
Intersectionality, Gender, Education, and the Workplace through the Political sphere
Gender inequalities impact women’s professional career choices. Gender
inequalities is one of the critical areas of concerns for women and can have
influential decisions on their future occupation and career development. Examining

intersectional factors such as gender, family status, sexuality and socioeconomic
class that can contribute to women’s education choices and how these factors can
have an impact on their future. The concept of Intersectionality defined by Staunaes
(2003, 101) can be described as a framework to anayalse an individual or group of
people that can be overlapped with other subjectivities and sites of inequalities.
These intersectionality factors can have an impact on choosing a career that can be
marginalised and discriminated against when it comes to gender, equal opportunities
with equal pay.
To address key issues of gender and inequalities, further analysis of gender
that intersects education, and professional career choices within the workplace will
provide the necessary frameworks to make social change and influence the
economic environment for women to provide a better future. In Friedman et al.
(2020, research suggests that the relationship between gender and education is that
there is still a gap pertaining to men who are being educated as opposed to women.
There are concerns those men are completing a tertiary education and obtaining a
higher education. Freidman et al. (2020) provides evidence that countries such as
Southeast Asia is showing that there is still a large increase of men being educated
more than women. The disparities of wealth as the main contributing factor and
women from a lower income family are unable to gain an education. This is
becoming a challenge and a disadvantage for some women who cannot have the
means to obtain an education because they are from a lower-income family. If
women are being more educated this will create more jobs and opportunities for
women to choose careers and challenge the gender wage gap and women will be
paid the same just like the male.
The gender difference of women who have a professional career find it
difficult to reach their full potential in leadership and management and raising
debates of equal pay because of raising a family. Women who work and who raise a
family can be subjected to less pay due to family obligations, Magnusson (2010,
101) explains how ‘gender division’ can lead to ‘gender differences’ in the workplace
and can result in less pay for a woman. Gender division is a term that is used for
women and unpaid work, for example, women may have family responsibilities that
require to take more time off due to family circumstances which can impact their
wage.

To make social change within gender equalities, more needs to be done
through the political system and media representation to promote women gaining an
education that will influence their career choice and reduce the gender wage gap. To
provide a better future for women, more effort needs to be made through the cultural
sphere by examining social structures and how there are still hierarchy boundaries
that women face and how an ideology system of patriarchy continues of power
relations and dominance of men in political power (Patel et al. 2020, 3). This
provides challenges for women in leadership and there are not enough women in
power to challenge these power relations and raise important debates for women
that can provide equal opportunities, especially for women who requires education in
lower socioeconomic welfare and the inequalities they face that could support in
respect to eliminating social disparities such as poverty.
While gender inequality in education, employment, and political power still
providing much needed attention. Feminist advocacy and women’s human rights are
strengthening to end discrimination and women can find agency through solidarity of
organisations that can focus on discussions and strategise to make the necessary
changes (Sen 2020, 34). Women can change societies values and beliefs that are
able to challenge the stereotypes that women can be in leadership and make social
change.
Critical Discourse Analysis - Gender language and Power
This spoken discourse examines social constructionism through the political
sphere and how the role of language, social interaction, power, and ideologies, can
impact gender inequalities. This method of research examines how language is used
in spoken interaction and to anaylse written data as a form of social practice and
uncovering hidden ideologies (Cameron 2001, 12). Julia Gillard was the first female
Prime Minister of Australia and gave a speech that was held in parliament on
October 9, 2012, that impacted the future of women in politics and ‘fought for
women’. Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech highlighted sexism, misogyny, gendered
framings, and identified ‘the double bind’ and how women are expected to show