Gender Discrimination in the Workplace

Gender Discrimination in the Work Place

Discrimination in the work place has been a major problem all throughout history. There are many different types of discrimination such as gender discrimination or racial discrimination. By definition is the treatment taken toward or against a person of a certain group in consideration based solely on class or category. So this could mean that a person would show favoritism towards a certain gender or the exact opposite. Gender discrimination most commonly referred to as sexism now the term sexism was coined in the 20th century it is the belief or attitude that one gender or sex is inferior to, less competent, or less valuable than the other. It can also be associated with a hatred of, or prejudice towards, either sex as a whole, or the application of stereotypes of masculinity in relation to men, or of femininity in relation to women which is also called chauvinism. Over the past century there have been many laws put into place to protect people from being discriminated against in the work place such as the equal opportunity act and the equal pay act. The equal opportunity act was put in place to protect employees and employers from being discriminated on and the equal pay act was set into motion in order to make sure that employers were not discriminating against certain employees. Gender discrimination in the work place is becoming a growing problem ever since the combination of genders in the work place came to be. Gender discrimination also known as sexism a term which was coined during the 20th century. Sexism is revealed in the English language, as well as most world languages, in many ways. Language studies have concluded that language discrimination is usually covert and difficult to be noticed without conscious awareness. Gender analysts warn that the danger of continuing sexist language is that sexist language tends to perpetuate gender stereotypes and reinforce biases against women. Sexist language may also perpetuate male stereotypes as well. A form of sexism is the view that men are superior to women when expressed by men it is considered sexist towards women and the same is considered of the opposite. Sexism can take many forms such as verbal in every day conversations, or non-verbal in workday situations. A good example of verbal discrimination was Near the end of the 20th century, when there was a rise in the use of gender-neutral language in western worlds. This is often attributed to the rise of feminism. Gender-neutral language is the avoidance of gender-specific job titles, non-parallel usage, and other usage that is felt by some to be sexist. Supporters feel that having gender-specific titles and gender-specific pronouns either implies a system bias to exclude individuals based on their gender, or else is as unnecessary in most cases as race-specific pronouns, religion-specific pronouns, or persons-height-specific pronouns. Some of those who support gender-specific pronouns assert that promoting gender-neutral language is a kind of "semantics injection" itself. Up until the 20th century the legal system of marriage stated that by being married the husband and wife would become one person in law thereby the legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage. It was not until 1875 when women in the U.S. were legally defined as persons in the case of Minor vs. Happersett. Women also did not receive the right to vote in the U.S. until 1920. In the professional world women have been excluded from many professions over the years and then when one finally does break into the profession they must persist through massive amounts of discrimination. Take Elizabeth Blackwell who was the first female to receive an M.D. she went into an all male profession and had to struggle through a lot to succeed. According to a study done by Cornell University professional discrimination still continues today. Although some experts believe that the parents play an important role in all of this in how they act when they are around their children. If you think of most of the baby boomers and the typical family at that time the father went out and worked while the mother stayed home and did the housework. This simple fact of the matter is that the examples that their parents gave them drove an entire generation to believe that women do not believe in the workplace and their rightful place is at home taking care of the children. In many countries it is mandatory for males to join the military, but not females. Men in the United States at the age of 18 are required to register for military conscription to be drafted in time of war or military service. However women are not required to register with the selective service system and have no obligations to be in the military in the case of a draft. This is sometimes cited as an example of discrimination against men for them having to serve or at least sign up to be drafted into the military. There have been sexist terms for many occupations, such as Policeman, Fireman, Businessman, Repairman etc. The use of these terms places specific images and ideas in people's heads that these occupations were only for men. Hence, sexist language discouraged many young girls from believing they could become a police officer or a firefighter, for instance. To combat this, these terms and many similar types have been replaced by: Police Officer, Firefighter, Businessperson, and Repairer respectively. Consider as well that a sexist term like gunman, places the idea in our minds that violent shooters are and can only be men. A term like gunman is now frequently replaced by shooter. Another form of sexist language is the use of Mrs. and Miss for married and unmarried women respectively. These terms are viewed as sexist because equivalent terms are not used for men. A man will be Mr. Smith before he is married and Mr. Smith after he is married. No clue is ever given in language as to a man's marital status. The same had not been true for women, as women's marital status used to be advertised by their title, Miss Smith for unmarried and Mrs. Smith for married. The past few decades have seen the use of Ms. as the acceptable title for women, i.e. Ms. Smith. Ms. does not denote whether the bearer is married or unmarried, thereby putting the title on par with the male equivalent Mr. in fact, the use of Miss and Mrs. was banned by the European Union in early 2009, which claimed the terms were too sexist for use in Parliament and public discourse. Modern etiquette in the United States dictates that a woman should be called Ms. Smith upon first meeting, and referred to as Ms. unless she requests to be called Miss or Mrs. Sexist language is also revealed in the categorization of women according to their age. Use of Miss and Ma'am are the examples of this. Miss is commonly used to address a younger woman for example. What can I get for you today, Miss? Convention had previously taught that older women be referred to as Ma'am. However, there is no commonly used younger/older term for men. The address for men is always Sir. For example what can I get for you today, Sir? Women in the millennium have become increasingly aware of this discrepancy, and increasingly vocal regarding their distaste of it. As a consequence, the use of both Miss and Ma'am is becoming more and more obsolete in common use. To avoid awkwardness or offense, many in the service industry are simply dropping the Miss or Ma'am from the end of their sentences. For example hello did you find everything you were looking for today?
Another form of discrimination is occupational sexism which refers to any discriminatory practices, statements, actions, etc. based on a person's sex that are present or occur in a place of employment. One form of occupational sexism is wage discrimination, which is prohibited in the US. Women have historically earned less than men; the reasons for the current wage gap are the subject of controversy. In the 19th century and for much of the 20th, women were paid less than men for the same work. In the United States, this eventually led to the passing of the U.S. Equal Pay Act in 1963. At that time, women earned approximately 58 cents to a man's dollar. Today, women in the United States are estimated to earn roughly 75 percent of the income of men. The difference in wages is reduced when factors such as hours worked and experience are controlled for. One study found that while women earn 69 cents for every dollar a man earns 10 years after graduating college, when experience, education, training and personal characteristics were controlled for women earned over 96 cents for every dollar a man made 10 years after graduating college. Unmarried women without children may earn 15 to 20 percent more than males in the same situation, depending upon geographical location in the US. Women are less likely to negotiate raises, and when they do negotiate, they are less likely to receive them. David R Hekman and colleagues found that women are less likely to negotiate because they are less valuable in the marketplace than equally well performing white men. Perhaps because women are less valuable to customers than men, women are more likely to work part-time, to take more time off for their children, and join lower status professions. Research done at Cornell University and elsewhere indicates that mothers are 44 percent less likely to be hired than women with otherwise identical resumes, experience, and qualifications, and, if hired, are offered on average $11,000 a year less than women without children. Exactly the opposite form of discrimination is indicated for men those without children earn, on average, $7,500 less than men with children.
Though sexism refers to beliefs and attitudes in relation to the gender of a person, such beliefs and attitudes are of a social nature and do not, normally, carry any legal consequences. Sex discrimination, on the other hand, may have legal consequences. Though what constitutes sex discrimination varies between countries, the essence is that it is an adverse action taken by one person against another person that would not have occurred had the person been of another sex. Discrimination of that nature in certain enumerated circumstances is illegal in many countries. Sexual discrimination can arise in different contexts. For instance an employee may be discriminated against by being asked discriminatory questions during a job interview, or because an employer did not hire, promote or wrongfully terminated an employee based on his or her gender, or employers pay unequally based on gender. In an educational setting there could be claims that a student was excluded from an educational institution, program, opportunity, loan, student group, or scholarship on account of his or her gender. In the housing setting there could be claims that a person was refused negotiations on seeking a house, contracting/leasing a house or getting a loan based on his or her gender.
Socially, sexual differences have been used to justify different roles for men and women, in some cases giving rise to claims of primary and secondary roles. While there are non-physical differences between men and women, there is little agreement as to what those differences are. The United Nations has stated that women struggle to break through a glass ceiling, and that progress in bringing women into leadership and decision-making positions around the world remains far too slow. The Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues, Rachel Mayanja, said, "The past ten years have seen the fastest growth in the number of women in parliaments, yet even at this rate, parity between women and men in parliaments will not be reached until 2040." The term glass ceiling is used to describe a perceived barrier to advancement in employment and government based on discrimination, especially sex discrimination. In the United States, the Glass Ceiling Commission, a government-funded group, stated: "Over half of all Master’s degrees are now awarded to women, yet 95% of senior-level managers, of the top Fortune 1000 industrial and 500 service companies are men. Of them, 97% are white." In its report, it recommended reverse discrimination, which is the consideration of an employee's gender and race in hiring and promotion decisions, as a means to end this form of discrimination. In 2008, women accounted for 51% of all workers in the high-paying management, professional, and related occupations. They outnumbered men in such occupations as public relations managers; financial managers; and human resource managers.
Though gender discrimination and sexism refers to beliefs and attitudes in relation to the gender of a person, such beliefs and attitudes are of a social nature and do not, normally, carry any legal consequences. Sex discrimination, on the other hand, may have legal consequences. Though what constitutes sex discrimination varies between countries, the essence is that it is an adverse action taken by one person against another person that would not have occurred had the person been of another sex. Discrimination of that nature in certain enumerated circumstances is illegal in many countries. Currently, discrimination based on sex is defined as adverse action against another person, which would not have occurred had the person been of another sex. This is considered a form of prejudice and is illegal in certain enumerated circumstances in most countries. Sexual discrimination can arise in different contexts. For instance an employee may be discriminated against by being asked discriminatory questions during a job interview, or because an employer did not hire, promote or wrongfully terminated an employee based on his or her gender, or employers pay unequally based on a person’s gender.
Socially, sexual differences have been used to justify different roles for men and women, in some cases giving rise to claims of primary and secondary roles. While there are alleged non-physical differences between men and women, major reviews of the academic literature on gender difference find only a tiny minority of characteristics where there are consistent psychological differences between men and women, and these relate directly to experiences grounded in biological difference. However, there are also some psychological differences in regard to how problems are dealt with and emotional perceptions and reactions which may relate to hormones and the successful characteristics of each gender during longstanding roles in past primitive lifestyles.
Affirmative action leads to white men being discriminated against for entry level and blue collar positions. An employer cannot hire a white man with the same "on paper" qualifications over a woman or minority worker or the employer will face prosecution. Employment discrimination refers to disabling certain people to apply and receive jobs based on their race, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation and disability. In relationship to Sociology, employment discrimination usually relates to what events are happening in society at the time. For example, it would seem ludicrous to hire an African American male, and absolutely unheard of to hire an African American woman over 50 years ago. However, in our society today, it is the absolute norm to hire any qualified person. Employment discrimination has decreased tremendously from previous years. This is due to laws that prohibit employment discrimination. In our society today, everyone is ordered to treat all different types of people equally and grant them the same opportunities. If a person hiring another ends up breaking these rules, they can be sued for hate crimes.
Some attempts at antidiscrimination have been criticized as reverse discrimination. In particular, minority quotas discriminate against members of a dominant or majority group. In its opposition to race preferences, the American Civil Rights Institute's Ward Connerly stated, "There is nothing positive, affirmative, or equal about 'affirmative action' programs that give preference to some groups based on race."
Equal Opportunity, sometimes known as Equality of opportunity, is a term which has differing definitions and there is no consensus as to the precise meaning. In the classical sense, equality of opportunity is closely aligned with the concept of equality before the law, and ideas of meritocracy. Equality of opportunity is in philosophical contrast against the concept of equality of outcome. Examples of this would be that some use it as a descriptive term for an approach intended to provide a certain social environments in which people are not excluded from the activities of society, such as education, employment, or health care, on the basis of immutable traits. Unfair opportunity practices include measures taken by an organization to ensure fairness in the employment process. A basic definition of equality is the idea of equal treatment and respect. In job advertisements and descriptions, the fact that the employer is an equal opportunity employer is sometimes indicated by the abbreviations EOE or MFDV which stands for Minority, Female, Disabled, Veteran.
Various federal, state, and local laws prohibit discrimination against employees and job applicants in the terms and conditions of employment. In general, the laws make it unlawful to treat applicants or employees less favorably or differently because they are included in certain "protected categories." This means all employment decisions should be based on legitimate business-related criteria. Some of the major federal laws and the protected categories under those laws are: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination against employees on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, or national origin. Equal Pay Act: amends the Fair Labor Standards Act and prohibits paying different wages to men and women who perform equal work under substantially similar conditions.
Most states have laws that prohibit discrimination on the same grounds as federal law and some additional "protected categories." For example, several states prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, outside political activities, medical condition, or genetic testing. And there are many local laws that go even further to protect employees and applicants. If state or local laws have protections that are broader than federal law, covered employers must comply with the broader protections.
In contrast, conservative writer and law professor Matthias Storme has claimed that the freedom of discrimination in human societies is a fundamental human right, or more precisely, the basis of all fundamental freedoms and therefore the most fundamental freedom. Author Hans-Hermann Hoppe, in an essay about his book Democracy: The God That Failed asserts that a natural social order is characterized by increased discrimination.