Gender Discrimination Against Women In The Workplace
Traditionally, women have been considered to be the weaker sex and subordinate to men. Moreover, their roles have been assigned to domestic and childrearing duties. The job market is male dominated, and women are often considered to be out of place therein. Women face considerable sexual discrimination in the world of work, significantly limiting their employment prospects and subsequent advancement in their careers.
Women generally find it more difficult than men to acquire a fulltime job. What is more, when they can successfully find work, they often struggle to extend their reaches and advance to higher positions. The jobs women are granted are very often those with low status and correspondingly lower income. As Harolambos (Sociology: Themes and Perspectives) says,
“Women face a number of disadvantages in paid work. Firstly, they tend to be lower paid than men. Secondly, they are more-likely to be in part-time work. Thirdly, they tend to concentrated in the lower reaches of the occupations in which they work. Fourthly, women tend to do particular types of jobs, usually those with low status.”
In aquiring a job, it must be remembered that more often than not, the employer is male. Men are the ones in the job market with power and authority, and thus make the majority of the decisions – including who gets hired. As Peter Worsley (The New Introducing Sociology) puts it,
“Within the gendered workplace, it is invariably men who are overwhelmingly in positions of power and authority. It is men who, by-and-large, make decisions.”
When prospective female employees are being considered for employment, several biases tend to come into play in the minds of the employers. Firstly, male applicants for the