Equal Pay Legislation and the U.S. Gender Wage Gap
This essay argues that the United States should pass additional legislation to guarantee equal pay for women, drawing on three core arguments. First, the U.S. remains one of only six UN member nations that have not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), putting it out of step with the international community. Second, stronger equal pay laws would set a positive example for nations in the Middle East and elsewhere that look to the U.S. for leadership on gender rights. Third, the persistence of a roughly 20% gender wage gap contradicts the nation's stated commitment to equality. The paper calls on the U.S. to align its laws with its principles and ratify CEDAW.
- Introduction: The U.S. and CEDAW: U.S. lags on CEDAW and equal pay laws
- Falling Behind the International Community: Most UN nations ratified CEDAW; U.S. has not
- Setting a Global Example: U.S. equal pay laws could inspire Middle East nations
- Equality in Principle Must Become Equality in Practice: Wage gap contradicts America's stated equality values
- Conclusion: U.S. must legislate equal pay to lead globally
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What makes this paper effective
- Structures the argument around three clearly stated reasons introduced in the opening paragraph and developed in sequence, giving the essay a tight, easy-to-follow logic.
- Grounds claims in both domestic data (the 20% wage gap) and international context (CEDAW ratification rates), which broadens the argument's scope effectively.
- Uses the U.S. failure to ratify CEDAW as a through-line connecting all three sections, maintaining thematic coherence throughout.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the use of a classical three-part persuasive structure — international norms, global leadership, and principled consistency — where each body paragraph develops one argument fully before transitioning to the next. Citations are woven into the argument to support specific factual claims rather than used decoratively.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a context-setting introduction that presents the thesis and three supporting reasons. Three body paragraphs each develop one reason in turn: CEDAW and international standing, the U.S. as a role model for emerging democracies, and the contradiction between stated values and current law. A concise conclusion synthesizes all three arguments and issues a direct call to action.
Introduction: The U.S. and CEDAW
More than 30 years ago, the United Nations (UN) held the first Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, known as CEDAW (Ramdas & Janus, 2011). Since that time, nearly every single member nation of the UN has shown its support for the convention by ratifying the associated treaty and resolving to work with other member nations to ensure that gender equality is achieved across the entire globe. What is surprising, however, is that the U.S. is not among those member nations. It is one of only 6 of the 191 UN member nations that have yet to ratify CEDAW. For more than three decades, the U.S. has failed to sign on to the treaty, while so many other countries around the world have acted with conviction to end gender discrimination.
The story in the U.S. is one where discrimination against women continues — most notably in the workplace, where women are routinely paid approximately 20% less than men (Holmes & Corley, 2017). This paper argues that there should be more legislation passed to guarantee equal pay for women for three reasons: (1) CEDAW is widely supported around the world and illustrates how far behind the U.S. is when it comes to embracing gender wage gap laws; (2) guaranteeing equal pay for women would demonstrate on the world stage that the U.S. is ready to combat gender inequality, which would encourage other countries — especially in the Middle East, where equal rights movements need all the support they can get (Ramdas & Janus, 2011); and (3) equality is equality — men and women should be paid the same when performing the same work.
Falling Behind the International Community
The first reason there should be more legislation passed to guarantee equal pay for women is that CEDAW has already been established and much of the world has embraced it — yet the U.S. remains stubbornly behind the curve. By refusing to adopt CEDAW and ratify the treaty, the U.S. is essentially signaling that the laws already on its books are sufficient. Yet virtually every other country can look at the U.S. and recognize that it does not want to admit it has a problem. As Sommers (2011) notes, the U.S. has been unable to stand with the other nations of the world for over 30 years when it comes to guaranteeing equal pay for women. It is, in effect, the outlier on the international stage — still attempting to maintain its standing yet unwilling to conform to the standards that almost everyone else endorses. Simply in order to be taken seriously by the rest of the world, as well as by its own citizens at home, the U.S. should ratify CEDAW and support more legislation guaranteeing equal pay for women.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the gender wage gap is a real and persistent issue that the U.S. has failed to adequately address for many years. Meanwhile, other nations around the world have called for and demonstrated their support for change. Almost all of them have embraced and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Many of them still look to the U.S. for leadership and guidance. And yet the U.S. struggles to practice what it preaches: it has failed for over 30 years to ratify CEDAW even as women continue to earn approximately 20% less than men. In order for the U.S. to earn the respect of the rest of the world, set a positive example for emerging nations — particularly those in the Middle East that look to the U.S. for direction on how to treat women — and promote the equality it has long proclaimed to cherish, the U.S. must pass more legislation to guarantee equal pay for women. Only then can the United States become the nation it aspires to be and the model it wishes other countries to follow.
References
Gould, E., Schieder, J., & Geier, K. (2016). What is the gender pay gap and is it real? Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved from http://www.epi.org/publication/what-is-the-gender-pay-gap-and-is-it-real/
Holmes, K., & Corley, D. (2017). International approaches to closing the gender wage gap. Center for American Progress. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2017/04/04/429825/international-approaches-closing-gender-wage-gap/
Ramdas, K., & Janus, K. (2011). Ratifying women's rights. Hoover Institution. Retrieved from https://www.hoover.org/research/ratifying-womens-rights
Sommers, C. (2011). Feminism by treaty. Hoover Institution. Retrieved from https://www.hoover.org/research/feminism-treaty
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