福建师范大学外国语学院 2001级（1）班  郑颖

The great principle of equality has been so thoroughly put into practice in China today. But in many places women are still denied to right to compete with men for jobs on equal terms and to receive equal payment at their job.

Even though entry-level salaries for males and females in the same occupation are nearly equal because woman’s education and skills have improved vastly, the chances of the overall wage gap closing in the foreseeable future are minimal. This is due to several factors that are likely to change very slowly.

An important reason is that women are concentrated in occupations---service and clerical---that pay less than traditional male jobs. Even in comparable jobs, it is possible that more women than men in their twenties are hesitant to commit themselves to the job that often demands overtime or traveling outside on business. Although great strides have been made in achieving greater equality for women in the past decades, their role in the family remains basically unchanged. The double burden of work inside and outside the home renders them impossible to make full use of their talents and difficult to rise to position of leadership. For example, women often drop out at critical points in their careers to have a family. Women still have the primary responsibility for child rearing; even if they continue to work, they often forgo overtime and promotions that would conflict with home responsibilities. The ages of 25 to 35 have been shown repeatedly to be the period when working consistently and hard is vital to advancement and job security. These are precisely the years when women are likely to have children and begin to slide away from men in earning power, consequently, a woman’s income is more likely to be seen as secondary to her husband’s.

Another significant factor in the wage gap between men and women is a lingering attitude on people’s mind that men are superior to women. Men’s resistance to women’s equality arises partly from their awareness that what the male does is no longer indispensable or frequently succeed brilliantly in all the fields you care to name and that men will be beaten in real competition.

Taking into account all the relevant factors which affect and contribute to the current situation, we may safely conclude that we won’t make a dent in the attainment of women’s social status and their equal opportunities in every field, if they cannot be released from busy housework and men can not give then enough respect.

（张祥和老师　批阅）