Gender Discrimination in the Workplace
Discrimination Against Women in the Workplace Unfair treatment of women has been prevalent throughout time. Although there have been many movements to attempt to terminate this tendency, it is still ubiquitous in today’s society. Sex discrimination in the workplace occurs when women are treated differently because of their gender. Many factors influence employers and coworkers to display prejudice against women. Gender bias in the workplace is an unfair practice that results in lower payment, disrespect, and an overall bad occupation experience for victims. Gender discrimination is not necessarily a new issue, but it remains to be a major struggle despite the attempts that have been made to stop it through legal manners. In a report by The Institute for Women’s Policy Research’s Ariane Hegewisch, Cynthia Deitch, and Evelyn Murphy, the results of these attempts are summarized on both simple and complex levels. “The 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employers from discriminating in their employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Although Title VII banned employment discrimination, it did not require specific actions to achieve this objective.” Because the Act lacks such a critical detail, employers are able to avoid obeying it very easily. Laws besides the Civil Rights Act have been put into place in order to reduce unjust treatment in the workplace. For example, in 1963 the Equal Pay Act was passed.
This act was supposed to end “the practice of paying men more than women when performing the same jobs and duties. Despite these protections, many women still feel gender biased discrimination is a problem” (Gluck). The effects of both the Equal Pay Act and the Civil Rights Act have obviously been minimal, seeing as women are still very much looked down upon in the workplace. One of the most direct effects of sex discrimination in the workplace is the stereotyping that occurs. The mass overrepresentation of men in “senior
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