The Gender Pay Gap and Political Cartoons

      Chapter 13 of the course reading discusses the ways in which capitalism is gendered and racilized. Even before the  development of the capitalist wage, unequal pay patterns have gone along with sex and race with white men earning the highest wage and Black women earning the lowest wage. The chapter concludes that:

In sum, gender and race are built into capitalism and its class processes through a long history of racial and gender segregation of paid labor and through the images and actions of white men who dominate and lead central capitalist endeavors. (Acker, 2006, p. 108)

       Today, activists and journalists have taken to the creative arts, making political cartoons that point out the inequalities in pay by gender and race.  Editorial cartoonists use humor and satire to cause their audience to think about the problems in the world today.

https://www.tes.com/lessons/c57nMI0-bMWE4Q/wage-gap

      The political cartoon above, comments on the pay gap by replacing money with food, stating that for the same amount of work, women receive less compensation than men. Also, by making both characters in the cartoon appear upset, the cartoonist conveys the fact that the situation is a problem. The political cartoon below, comments on the extra amount of obstacles that women face when trying to earn the same pay, and the misunderstanding and lack of concern from men that it is unequal.  In addition, the cartoon comments on the gap between white men and women of color.  The cartoon below also brings up the idea of equality versus equity because they both are running the same distance, but she has far more difficult obstacles.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/11/e6/9c/11e69cb703b8e2032a80cd7ab599cffb.jpg

Concept Reference:

Acker, J. (2006). “Is capitalism gendered and racialized?” In M. L. Andersen & P. H. Collins (Eds.), Race, class, & gender: Intersections and inequalities (pp. 102-110). Boston, MA: Cengage.