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WAGES LESS FOR WOMEN

Why Women get paid less than men: Genre analysis of Newspaper article and Political cartoon
Faride Scarlett centeno Fournier
University of Texas At El Paso
Rhetoric and Writing Studies 1302

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Why Women Get Paid Less Than Men

For many years, the United States has been dealing with an issue in the workplace, which is to be
considered as the pay gap. Although some companies have significantly narrowed down pay gaps
between the two genders, there have not been companies that have closed the pay gap completely.
Some medias like magazines, and posters seem to push aside this topic but medias like political
cartoons and newspaper articles seem to focus more on different ways that pay gap is still an on going
issue and what ways the issue could be diminished. Medias, such as newspaper articles and political
cartoons, both show how the pay gap has increased for women but can be differentiated by analyzing
the pros and cons about how well each media displays the topic. Throughout the analysis genres will be
compared to show how women get paid a lot less than men.
Audience and purpose:
A New York Times article Titled, Pay Gap is because of Gender, Not jobs, written by Clair Cain
Miller in April of 2014, simply explains the huge pay gap between occupations and also how pay gap
isnt because of the jobs, but is more because of the gender. This news article is specifically used to
inform women what has been happening and why the pay gap issue still hasnt been resolved even after
many years. Miller states how republicans assume that placing women into a better occupation would
completely diminish the pay gap, but in reality it only decreases it by 15 percent. Women who are in a
medical occupation, such as a doctor, earn 71 percent of men wages, meaning there is 29 percent gap
for women to eventually be equal to mens wages. The audience here is clearly to older women, who
may have a college education and are personally dealing with the issue and are finding a way to resolve
it. Although comparing wage gap with two different occupations is a bit dense, comparing wages
between genders in the same occupation makes more sense because different occupations mean for

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different wage amounts, so comparing the same jobs with two different genders can possibly better
explain the wage gap rate. This article gives a lot of simple details but can be easily understood by the
way that Miller clarifies her own information stating that republicans in the year of 2014 had recently
voted against equalizing pay gap, Miller states This is what some republicans who voted down the
equal pay bill have you believe(p2). The positive thing about this media is that everyone can see it,
although the main audience here is women, because this article is a newspaper article and online, it can
be easily spread and shown to many people and it somehow gives more awareness to a younger crowd
who has not heard about the topic. The language used in this news article is an educated choice of
words but can be better displayed if miller added more facts rather than opinions. Miller doesnt use
words that are used in texts, but miller just quotes republicans throughout the article, and really doesnt
seem to have any other information other than a list of different occupations and their percentages gaps
compared to mens wages, miller also explains how if working overtime may diminish the pay gap rate,
but doesnt seem to really back up her information for it. This news article should have been more
detailed, and miller shouldve stated the reason for wage gap other than just gender and occupation.
Another media source that isnt as serious and detailed as the news article, are political cartoons.
Although political cartoons are somewhat hard to find unless you are searching for them, they do
appear on social media cites and other general cites. These political cartoons are more for satire and
fun, and not so much for a serious issue. In a political cartoon there are more animated pictures, and
simple words that are used in order to explain a bigger issue. This political cartoon by Stuart Carlson is
used to show how republicans had recently voted to block legislation to ensuring equal pay for women.
In this political cartoon it simply shows an elephant figure sitting on the couch, which clearly
represents the republican, saying After a tough day of blocking equal pay for women I am Beat!
Wouldya be a doll and get me another beer sweetie? the elephant figure is simply asking his wife for

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a beer after he votes against equal pay for women. Although this political cartoon doesnt give super
detailed information about the issue, it does get the message across. The audience for this type of media
is definitely a younger audience and can be intended for men because men dont have to worry about
the pay gap since they get paid more in the first place. An audience is definitely interested in politics
can find this a lot more funny than women just because women who are struggling with this matter may
not be as intrigued with the cartoon because it is making fun of the issue rather than resolving. This
cartoon can be focused more on the male audience rather than female, because women are the ones
trying to get out of this pay gap, and women who are definitely serious about getting rid of it
completely might not find it as amusing as men. The language used in this political cartoon is very
casual; Stuart Carson didnt necessarily use any professional or educated style of language because this
type of media is specifically used more for humor, but this political cartoon is definitely a short way of
going over the problem that women are going through.
Rhetorical issues
Both of these genres have some rhetoric in them, but the way the newspaper article is written, it is
easier for their intended audience to understand the issue, and may be easier to persuade men to vote on
pay equity because miller. Although the political cartoon is full of humor, there is not much rhetoric to
show it is more focused on the male idea in the cartoon and the elephants interaction with female figure
in the
Ethos
The news article written by miller doesnt show much credibility. Some information given that
helps make her information credible, is the chart that is shown on the page, and that chart just shows
the different occupations and the percentage that women get paid of mens wages. Miller quotes
republicans that are part of the republican national committee and miller also quotes a few doctors at

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the end of the article that help explain that working in the medical field, you can be on call but working
overtime doesnt really decrease any pay gap. There is credibility such as the chart that show that pay
gap is still an ongoing issue, but quoting republicans doesnt help this article to be more credible since
republicans are the ones voting against pay equity. In the political cartoon by Carlson, there is no
credibility what so ever to explain that this is an issue, because although the elephant in the figure
states how he voted against pay equity, not many people would understand the issue off the bat. So,
there is not much credibility to help express the issue clearly.
Pathos
Although both of these genres are trying to express pay gap they show two different type of
emotion. The audience might feel angry or amuses depending on how the article relates to the specific
audience. The political cartoons emotion is to attract more humor rather than something serious, but
depending on the audience that might be seeing this cartoon it may not be the same for everyone.
Logos
The newspaper articles structure was better presented because of the simple detail they put. The
author seems to make quotes to back up her information from reliable sources and structured the article
quite well starting from the main issue and ending with ways that it can be resolved. The second genre,
the political cartoon, doesnt seem to show much structure other than an image and a few words, but
because it is a political cartoon it isnt meant to be as structured as a newspaper article.
To conclude my analysis, both of these genres seem to show the same issue, but also portray it in
different ways. The newspaper article has more detail and structure and is easily seen by a bigger
audience, while the political cartoon is a less structured genre but has a good sense of humor that is not
easily seen. Both of the genres did a great job with describing the pay gap, but both have pros and cons
to show which one did a better job on describing the issue.

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References
Miller. C (2014,April 24) Pay Gap Is Because Of Gender, Not Jobs, The New York
Times. Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/upshot/the-pay-gap-is-because-of-gender-not-jobs.html?
_r=0
Carlson, S. (2012, January 1). [Republican votes against pay equity for women].
Retrieved from http://www.gocomics.com/stuartcarlson