Title of Report: "We are all equal before the law" To what extend is this common statement about the law reflected in practice Title Page (where you put the exact Title Question, student ID, degree...

“We are equal before the law”
    “We are equal before the law”    2018
Abstract
Equality is considered to be an intrinsic part of every civilized society as every individual demands to be treated equally. “We are equal before Law” is thus to state that all men are equal in the eyes of law, but in practice it situation is much different. The paper reflects on how the principle of equality is suppressed in the United States of America and how the women are still treated as second grade citizens. With special focus on some laws and conventions it is made clear that the women still do not avail the same privileges in America as men.
Content
Introduction
“We are equal before the law” is a powerful statement that questions the significance of the term equality. Equality before law is the principle at the heart of the rule of the law but it is harder to ensure whether it is practiced or not. The belief in the concept of Equality before Law” is known as egalitarianism, it forms the intrinsic feature of a democratic country but its existence always becomes questionable. Most of the countries across the world claim equal rights for all and boast that all the citizens should be treated equal in the eyes of the law but it is not always so. The United States of America presumes that all the citizens are equal before the law but since the law administrators are frail people therefore this is not always possible.
Apparently, the judgment is not given on the basis of the principle of humanity or equality but it is always driven by the economic position of an individual. Equality is an acclaimed constitutional right but the society continues to get ruled by money. Lawyers often speak about equality before law and they do so under the influence of the constitutional provisions which affirms its notion and its cognates(Lucy, 2011). But, economy determines almost everything in the present time including services, justice and living in any society. This paper therefore aims to find out the relevance of the term “Equality before law” in the present world context. It focuses on the significance of Equality and digs into the fact as to what extent it is applicable. Though throughout the paper I have been in conflicting position with the statement, “We all are equal before the law”. Despite the fact that equality forms the basis of every constitution but unfortunately it is seldom put to practice. The justice is determined through various factors and not just equality.
Topic
Every individual in a civilized society demands for its rights and strongly stipulates to be treated equally in all walks of life. Lately, the whole world is experiencing the continuous demand for equality by various social groups like the women continue to fortify their position through the wave of ‘women empowerment’ and strongly demand for equality in all aspects of life. The minority communities around the world who have been ill-treated due to several reasons have been asking for the equal rights. The LGBT communities around the globe is asking for right to equality too, but the paper focuses on the demands raised by the women and the struggles made by them in the journey of demanding equality, their constitutional right.
Women have always been regarded as second grade citizens across boundaries, their position has fortified in some places gradually but in most of the regions across the world they continue to remain dejected citizens. Even after decades of continuous demand for equality the laws prevent women from fully using their economic opportunities. The policymakers also tolerate such outdated legal restraints and force them to fight for their economic freedom with their one hand tied at their back (Poo, 2018 ). For generations women have been fighting for their rights, their endless demands have been vehemently brought them on the streets but the success still remains questionable. They have been rigorously asking for equality at workplace, equality in domestic sphere and in every other aspect.
In many developing and underdeveloped countries the situation is so grim that the women are not just denied of justice but they are not given justice at all. They are humiliated, ill-treated and are considered as burden on the society. They face humiliation at work place and are paid low than their counterparts for the same work. Despite the fact that they have made some undeniable and remarkable contributions to the society but their position continues to be grim. Even after so many years of activism the women organizers continue to lead the Black Lives Matter Movement, Equal pay for equal work, protection from domestic violence etc. Unfortunately the half of the population is obstructed from fully utilizing their skills and talent and contributes in the development of their countries.
Laws to Empower Women
Several laws have been made for protecting the dignity of the women and for empowering them. The international community works in coordination with all the member countries to frame policies for empowering women but not much success has been achieved till now. Some of the laws made for safeguarding the sanctity of the women.
Several laws have been made to empower women and to get them equal status in the society some of the conventions and laws made are as follows:
· Convention on the Political Rights of the Women: The convention was adopted in 1952 and it implemented the principle of equality of rights for men and women. The convention states that women are entitled to vote and can also hold public offices to exercise public functions. (Nations, 1952)
· Convention on Elimination of Violence Against Women (1979): This is an international treaty adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979 (Women, n.d.). It is also referred as International Bill of Rights for Women, it sets up an agenda for national action making all governments of all the member countries accountable in case of any atrocities against the women.
· Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (2000): The protocol was adopted on 6 October 1999 and entered into force on 22 December 2000. By ratifying this protocol a state can recognize the competence of this committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
· Equal Pay for Equal Work: The Equal Pay Act of 1963 entitles all the working women to get same salary and other benefits like bonuses and allowances as their male counterparts.
· Equality Act of 2010: The Equality Act of 2010 provides the legal framework to provide equal opportunities to all and to provide the individuals with the legal framework to protect their rights. This act applies to all the employees, trainees, contract workers, office holders and job applicants.
Practice
The Equal Pay for Equal Work Act requires to pay men and women equally without any discrimination across the country. The Act binds the companies to hire every employee on fair grounds and pay them same wages, the employer should therefore not discriminate on the basis of sex of the employee.
The wage laws are still not well applicable in America, as per the research done by American Association of University Women, the women still earn just 79 cents for every dollar earned by men (Brinlee, 2016). This means there is still the difference of 21% between the wages paid to men and women, though these figures are disgraceful but slight progress has been made since the law was enacted, when the Act was formed the women earned 59 cents for a dollar earned by men.
According to a recent Federal Court ruling that took place in California the employers can legally pay less to women employees on the basis of their previous salary history. The ruling was overturned by 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as they considered this practice to be discriminatory. According to the 9th Circuit decision that cited 1982 ruling, the employees previous salary information could only be used if it is applied reasonably and had a business policy that will justify it. This decision thus led as a trend to ban employer from asking for salary history and the law for doing so has also been passed in the states of Philadelphia, New York and Boston. California, where this case was held passed a law in 2015 that the prior pay alone cannot justify the pay differences based on the gender (Tarr, 2017).
The above given cases reflect that the law is working in practice but not completely as people still continue to face discrimination though the gap has been minimized. There could be many reasons due to which the law does not seem to be applicable completely as by not abiding with the law the employers save more money, as they do not have to pay equal amount to the women employees while they may continue to make same profits. There is lack of transparency and accountability due to which the employers are not questioned about their internal audits.
Conclusion
Conclusively it is seen that equality does not exist in the society, there is a indistinct difference between the males and females in the American society. Despite being one of the most advance countries in the world the sense of equality does not persists here. Unfortunately the implementation of the laws is feeble due to which it fails to make an impact on all the citizens. The paper covers in detail about the position and the rights of the women who are regarded as the second grade citizens and are do not enjoy equality as their counterparts.
The loophole in application of the Equal Wage Act and Equity Act is the clear depiction of the failure in the system. The country still continues to fail in bringing equality among its own people due to which there is unstoppable fight in the system. There is much needed demand for establishing equality among the citizens of America. (1700)
Works Cited
Brinlee, M., 2016. Why Didn't The Equal Pay Act Close The Gender Pay Gap? 50 Years Later, America Still Has A Major Problem. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bustle.com/articles/154078-why-didnt-the-equal-pay-act-close-the-gender-pay-gap-50-years-later-america-still
[Accessed 14 Aug 2018].
Lucy, W., 2011. Equality Under and Before the Law. JSTOR , pp. 411-465.
Nations, U., 1952. Convention on Politica Rights of Women. [Online]
Available at: http://www.un.org.ua/images/Convention_on_the_Political_Rights_of_Women_eng1.pdf
[Accessed 13 Aug 2018].
Poo, A.-J., 2018 . How to Fight Gender Equality is Chnaging in 2018. Time .
Tarr, T., 2017. How This Recent Court Ruling Could Hurt Equal Pay Laws And Competitive Hiring. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyatarr/2017/05/02/how-this-recent-court-ruling-could-hurt-equal-pay-laws-and-competitive-hiring/#1a1ebbaf731c
[Accessed 14 Aug 2018].
Women, U., n.d. CEDAW. [Online]
Available at: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/
[Accessed 13 Aug 2018 ].