Permalco Executive Summary

In “How to be a ‘Woman Programmer,’” first published in The New York Times, Ellen Ullman argues that there is great prejudice against women in the workplace. Specifically, Ullman thinks that such prejudice exists in the deeper parts of the more technical fields such as computer programming. While encouraging women to avoid confronting men who show their prejudice against them, Ullman nevertheless points out the idea that women should stick to their passion for their work. For Ullman, it is the next best thing that women can do, apart from being a practical solution. However, I think that women should not be afraid to call their male coworkers out whenever women experience sexual prejudice in the workplace regardless of their position. Today, there are laws that equip women with the power to bring erring male coworkers to justice. After all, if the point is to make the genders equal, women should learn to assert their rights.

al, 1996, p. 65). Minority women faced greater oppression, and were less likely to be hired. If they were lucky enough to find a job, it was usually low-ranking, part-time, and short-term, as employers eagerly replaced them with Caucasians, men or both (Frances et. al, 1996, pp. 69-70). Part-time work was very common, with 25% of female workers part-time in 1989 (Frances et. al, 1996, p. 66), displaying an employer’s reluctance to allow women employees. Even as more females entered the workforce despite resistance, they were still discriminated against due to the current powers in charge.

Despite legislation for equal opportunities, sexism is still evident in the workplace. Women have made great advancements in the workforce and have become an integral part of the labor market. They have greater access to higher education and as a result, greater access to traditionally male dominated professions such as law. While statistics show that women are equal to men in terms of their numbers in the law profession, it is clear however, that they have not yet achieved equality in all other areas of their employment. Discrimination in the form of gender, sex and sexual harassment continues to be a problem in today’s society.

Gender bias has continued to be constructed in communication through marked forms. In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg discusses, “When people talk about a female pilot, a female engineer, or a female race car driver, the word “female” implies a bit of surprise”(Sandberg, 140). If everyone continues not to discuss gender bias then the world will continue to use marked forms, which Sandberg sees as a tool for people to be-little others (Sandberg, 140). She concludes this thought by saying “We can no longer pretend that biases do not exist, nor can we talk around them. The result of creating a more equal environment will not just be better performance for our organizations, but quite likely greater happiness for all”(Sandberg, 158).

Over the last several decades, great strides have been made when it comes to eliminating sexism and progressing towards gender equality. However, sexism is still ingrained in our everyday culture. This is evident in the fact that in 2017 women earn about 80 cents to a man’s dollar and are less likely to be promoted within the workplace. It’s an unfortunate fact the most women will experience some form of sexism throughout their lives. In this paper, I will address my personal experiences with both hostile and benevolent sexism, how the two forms of sexism differ, and how these experiences have affected me.

Within the case, a handful of Black women brought suit against General Motors, “alleging that the employer’s seniority system perpetuated the effects of past discrimination against Black women” (Crenshaw 139). However, they could not sue on the basis of racism because Black men had been hired, and they could not sue on the basis of sexism because white women had been hired. As a result, the court dismissed both claims of sex and race discrimination. Such cases revealed the reality of Black women’s discrimination being combined factors (Christon 2).

Throughout our world’s history we have seen many grievous instances where discrimination caused severely negative repercussions on how our society functions. The inequity demonstrated by our nation in the past has estranged its residents based on their religion, the color of their skin, their beliefs, and even their gender. With time, our community has become more accepting which has led to the abolishment of most, if not all, bigotry and racist beliefs. However, there is still an issue today that we have been facing for almost a century. This conflict has led to the prohibition of certain people obtaining a particular job in some cases, and the penalty of being paid less than her male colleagues if she were to obtain that job. The problem is sexism and its consequences.

Stereotype threats are negative consequences about one’s race, sex, nationality, or social group. Stereotype threats are used a lot more frequently than people realize. Gender is a powerful stereotype that affects many people’s decisions and actions. The stereotype of women in the workplace has come a long way even in the last twenty years. Many businesses tend to want to diversify their demographics by making the ratio of men to women almost equal. “Demographic projections anticipate that by the year 2000 women will exceed 50 per cent of the total workforce…” (Johnston and Packer, 1987). Women were able to make their way in to the workplace when men were off at war during the 1950s. During this time, women proved their ability to do the same kind of jobs men did. Many women worked as machinist, factory workers, and clergies.

Women are one of the most groups being discriminated against today. They try very hard to fit in and be successful in their careers. Discrimination against women is found in many workplaces. Some managers try to fix this problem, but others just ignore it. Companies that pretend that gender discrimination doesn’t exist are usually the ones that get sued for it more often. Other companies try to avoid law suits by dealing with gender discrimination and resolving conflicts before it gets to the law suits.

Discrimination continues to run rampant throughout organizations in both the United States and worldwide. The Supreme Court case, Dukes vs. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., dealt with 1.5 million current and former female Wal-Mart employees that claim that they had been a victim of gender discrimination. The ensuing pages will discuss the specific issues that the plaintiffs encountered, followed by suggestions from a human resource manager’s stand point in rectifying adverse impact within the Wal-Mart organization.

Within this company known as Permalco, the potential to succeed and turn around the direction of the company is a primary concern for strategic planning which in turn affects recruiting strategies. In conclusion, Permalco must embrace their need for change in all of their aspects of the company so that they can change for the best and improve their presence among the completion that is set

“Since it was perfectly legal to discriminate on the basis of sex, there was no real comeback when employers simply said that no women need to apply (Collins 21). Madeline May was rebuffed by the editor from working at the Providence Journal because a woman was raped in the parking lot. Women, like May, were declined jobs or were offered jobs for short periods of time. Airlines only keeping women for short period of time so they didn’t have enough time to become dissatisfied and form a union left me in shock. Airlines hired women who fit their appearance requirements and were unmarried. Men have never been declined jobs because of their appearance or whether or they are married. There was no reason for women to be discriminated in these

Permalco does have some strengths in its recruiting production leaders despite the high turnover and layoffs that have occurred recently. One strength is the company has a good reputation by compensating the employees well and by recruiting college graduates. A reputation of a company is what draws new employees into the organization because they want to experience all the good things that have been said about the company. Also, the scenario implies that the company has high-tech equipment, which is a positive for the company’s reputation as well as a plus for potential employees. Employees want to work in an environment that has the best equipment to produce the product, so by the company having high tech equipment

Some organizations mirror society’s idea about which group of workers are appropriate for certain types of jobs. Although hiring and promotion are supposed to be based on rational and universal criteria, they often express informal expectations about gender, race, and class of the people best suited for particular positions, producing race and gender stratified work forces. Men are thought to be more ambitious, task-oriented, and work involved; while women are considered less motivated, less committed, and more geared towards work relationships than work itself.

Many people believe that gender stereotypes are sets of characteristics thought to be typical for gender categories. For example, some companies are not employing a woman because of the maternity leave. Employing somebody because staff believe him or her to be homosexual, this is still direct discrimination because of sexual orientation. Recruiter in some companies believe males are generally strong and aggressive but females are weak and emotional. The equalization of males and females in organisations showed better profit and performance than organisations with either a predominantly male and a predominantly female workforce (Hays-Thomas, 2017). According to Al-Rahahleh (2017, p.89) states that ‘diversity either gender or racial is considered an important factor contributing to good corporate governance’. In this gender diversity case, the Citigroup is good example to show how to manage sexual diversity in the workplace. In 2010, the Citigroup accused by 6 women because of gender bias. The women contend that the Citigroup fails to compensate female employees as much as their male counterparts, overlooks them for promotions and is more inclined to part ways with them in company-wide layoffs. After that the Citigroup had recruitment and hiring practices for find employees who have ability and regardless of gender. Recruitment can find employees who from different backgrounds and perspectives lead to a variety of ideas, knowledge and variety ways of work. The Citigroup can