Economic Race and Gender - Essay Example

Economic Race and Gender The Economy explains that “Labor market discrimination may take the form of different wage rates for equally productive workers with different personal characteristics (such as race, sex, age, religion, nationality, or education).” The three chapters of the book, chapters five, six and seen lay more emphasis on discrepancies and differences associated with various occupational earnings between males and females. Fairness among both sexes in economic terms and with reference to occupational responsibilities has been of great concern to many writers and reviewers.

As a matter of fact, nations and governments have taken over the issue and constituted various law and regulations that ensure that there is maximum fairness between male and females at the workplace. In the chapter five of the book, the writer laments on certain differences that exist in certain quarters of the working fold. In some sectors of the economy, males are actually paid much more than females for the same piece of work done – something the writers lament about. But they are however skeptical and hopes very little for a change pointing to the fact that contracts between employers and employees are mostly kept secret and between the two parties and so evidence for litigation, justice and fairness in issues of difference in occupations and earning are mostly not encouraged.

The human capital model is further considered in chapter six of the book. Reviewing beyond the book, Polachek (2004) explains that “human capital model predicts a smaller gender wage gap as male-female lifetime work expectations become more similar. According to the writers, human capital is the most essential resource for the running of all organizations, institutions and offices – thus the labor market. This means that there is no way the labor market can be sustained or grown without the inputs it gets from the labor market.

The writers make us believe that the labor market needs ‘more than want’ human capital to keep it running. For this reason, whatever the source, human resource or human capital should be revered and appreciated for their roles in the labor market; as long as they can deliver. This not withstanding, some employers devalue the competence of females in the labor market and limit them only to restricted part of the larger labor market. In the view of the writers, this is unacceptable and out of place.

They therefore admonish employers to have trust in ‘the competence of the female gender’. It is alleged that in order for some employers to have an excuse of underpaying female workers, they handle them with less demanding roles so that they cannot compete with their male counterparts – something the writers frown on. The title of the seventh chapter is captioned ‘The Role of Labor Market Discrimination’. The title is of direct following to the previous chapter as it delves more into the issue of labor market discrimination.

The difference however is that whereas the chapter six focuses on the value of the female human capital and the need not to discriminate against it, the seventh chapter gives clear instances of discrimination against the female and questions the will power to check the situation. The writers for instance ask, “ How do economists generally measure the extent of labor market discrimination against women statistically?” (Blau et al., 2009). This is a rhetorical question that ridicules the efforts being made to curtail discrimination from the labor market.

The question brings out the intent and character of the writers in pointing out that the writers indeed have discovered a problem and wish it was solved but fear if there are enough ways of solving the problem. Later in the chapter, they write, “Economists generally measure the extent of labor market discrimination by estimating statistical models of the gender wage or earnings gap using regression analysis techniques.” (Blau et al., 2009). Such regression analysis fosters the solution to the problem of discrimination against women.

It is actually based on the outcome of such analysis that further action on how to stop discrimination against women in the labor market is crafted. REFERENCE LIST Blau et al. (2009). The Economics of Women, Men, and Work. Amazon.Com Polachek S.W (2004). How the Human Capital Model Explains Why the Gender Wage Gap Narrowed. Available online http://ftp.iza.org/dp1102.pdf. Accessed July 4, 2011 Economy Professor (2011). Labor Market Discrimination. Accessed July 5, 2011 from http://www.economyprofessor.

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