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The Economic Situation of women in the US

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The Economic Situation of women in the US
The economic situation of women in the United States and the economic situation of women in Germany

The progress of female empowerment and equalization especially in the Western society, from being a housewife with no voting rights to conquering the labor market with equal rights, has been huge. However, women still earn less than men do and due to the glass ceiling effect women are often unable to make it to the top positions in a company. To get a deeper look into the current situation of women in highly industrialized countries, this paper describes and examines the economic chances, opportunities and situation of women in the United States and women in Germany. Furthermore a possible solution to the glass ceiling effect, a quota that balances the percentage of men and women in leading positions will be examined and discussed.

Keywords: gender economics, equalization, gender gap, earnings ratio

1. Introduction
Both, the United States and Germany are industrialized and technologically advanced democracies where females are supposed to have the same opportunities and rights as males. However, if one takes a look at numbers from the labor market women are far from having the same opportunities and chances.
As you can read out of the graphs below, the economic situation of women has improved but it has not yet reached the same level as the economic situation of men. Two good indicators to show this is the labor force participation (shown below) and the earnings ratio. The overall female labor force participation has increased since the 1960s but it seems to have come to a hold in the recent years and it has still not reached the level of men.

Additionally, the gender earnings ratio1 clearly shows that on average women still earn less than men do. This paper will give an overview of the development of the economic situation in both, the United States and Germany and it also describes the current economic situation of women in
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