The wage gap between genders in the U.S. have women fired up on why it needs to be equal. And it’s about time it has happened.

Recently, a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), that was explained in Business Insider, discovered that even though the gap between men and women has been decreasing over the past 20 years, women are still paid on average 18% less per hour than men.

Now, although the wage gap has been falling gradually, it’s still isn’t equal to what men earn and that shouldn’t happen because women work just as hard as men do, and for the same job.

And it needs to happen now because women can do just as much as men and let’s face it, they do way more essential things than men, like reproducing- creating life for this planet that’ll repeatedly continue. Without women, none of us would be here right now.

Women in the United States and around the world experience all this daily as they help provide for their families and themselves. The American Association of University Women (AAUW) clarified data from the U.S. Census Bureau that highlights how the gap affects women as they provide the essential source of income for 40% of American families. So, even with all that responsibility in making income for yourself and your family, it still doesn’t match up to men’s income.

The IFS have also found out that with differences in career arrangements deriving from the birth of children has a crucial role in explaining the progression of the gender wage gap. The institute said, “There is, on average, a wage gap of over 10% even before the arrival of the first child, but this gap appears fairly stable until the child arrives and is small relative to what follows, child arrives, there is a gradual but continual rise in the wage gap over the following 12 years, until it reaches a plateau of around 33%.”

So, even without having a family or children, women still have to suffer through the wage gap at an over 10% difference, and when having children, experience a gradually increasing gap over the following years until it reaches to about 33%. Here’s the main question- why? Why is it that when more duties are piled on white women, they still have to earn 80 cents on the dollar compared to men?

Well, I’ll tell you why: it’s because the work done by women aren’t valued as highly as the work by men. It’s all based on gender bias and discrimination placed on women.

An article from the Huffington Post entitled, “The Wage Gap: Is Gender Bias the Chicken or the Egg?” references the study, “Occupational Feminization and Pay” published in the Oxford Journals. It shows data from 1950 to 2000, that reveal that when women go into certain careers in big numbers, the jobs started paying less.

The study found “when women moved into occupations in large numbers, those jobs began paying less even after controlling for education, work experience, skills, race and geography.”

So in other words, even if a female has had a great education, work experience, skills and such- it doesn’t really matter because, they will still get paid less no matter what. This shows that women’s work isn’t as admired as men’s.

This huge conflict has to be solved, and with the solution of women having equal pay as men in all jobs. This has to happen NOW, because nowadays, women are receiving more education, college degrees, etc., than men. They can help provide more and better skills in careers needed for them, provide more labor in the workforce, and so much more.

On College Times website, an article, “10 Surprising Statistics on Women in the Workplace”, revealed a fact from the United States Department of Labor, which was that women comprise 46% of the total U.S. labor force. Now, if the pay went up to how much men’s pay cost, there would definitely be a much higher percentage of women, and that will lead to more workers, more products/things getting done which will greatly benefit the economy, which is something any country would want.

An article from Forbes, called, “Causes And Consequences Of The Increasing Numbers Of Women In The Workforce”, recalled data about business result improvements.

Who writes, “According to research and advisory company, Catalyst, companies with the highest representation of women board members attain significantly higher financial performance than those with the lowest representation: 53% higher Return on Equity; 42% higher Return on Sales; and 66% higher Return on Invested Capital.”

In other words, women in the workforce and especially in businesses is a good thing because then that company/business will have much better financial performance.

English teacher Kari Beery, who teaches her juniors a unit that focuses on the conversation of gender equality with various literature sources and text mediums to see how the conversations of equality, or lack thereof, still exists for women.

They see how it exists in politics, business, music, pop culture, and everyday life, as well as the gender expectations of men over the centuries and how those ideals are changing.

Beery, a feminist herself- believing in equal rights for everyone- has said of her opinion on the gender wage gap. “It is never fair to compensate someone differently for the same job or job performance based on gender” She said.

With the topic of gender discrimination/bias, Beery has also said, “I don’t always think it is malicious, but it exists and if people perpetuate it, then they are part of the discrimination.  We have to change the dialogue that is ‘was always that way, so why change it?’”

Even though people may or may not agree on this topic, for however much longer, it is still important to keep talking about all of this because who knows, maybe eventually women will get what they deserve and worked extremely hard for. I mean, why not?