Discrimination may not always be direct, in fact, most of the time women are indirectly discriminated in the workplace. It’s not as simple as witnessing a female worker being verbally harassed for doing the same exact job as a male worker. It can merely be a promotion overlooked. Statistics have recently shown that out of 710 companies, “only five reported having a board comprised of 50 percent (or more) women” (Racco, 2017). Factors that play into this statistic may also be the fact that women are primarily looked to as being the one who takes care of the children in the family, resulting in fewer hours within the office and less recognition. Furthermore, when women bear a child, maternity leave comes into play, whereas for males, there is less pressure for them to take time off for parental leave. Many families must decide who is going to work and who is going to look after the newly born child. In most cases, it ends up that the mother of the family stays home rather than the father. Not only in regard to discrimination within the workplace, but in society as a while. A female in society may have a status set that includes being a student, a mother, a daughter, a sister, as well as a community volunteer, a teacher, or a lawyer. Each role that an individual person has, sets a stand in the views of society. Sociological imagination can be applied to roles, specifically with women. One woman may become a nurse, but you if you step back and imagine not only one woman, but
Racism is defined as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. In the workforce, the issue of racism and discrimination has been brought to the center of conversations around the world. Companies claim to be “colorblind” and not hire somebody based on their race or gender, but the employment rates among minorities and women around the world is significantly lower than the majority in the given country. There is also the growing issue of minorities, such as blacks in america, making significantly less money than whites. This issue affects people all around the world who happen
When returning back to Wanzek’s after layoff I had noticed in my paycheck I had lost $2 an hour in pay when I had received a $2 raise and a gift certificate before layoff. I did report the loss of wage to Tina Harrison in Human Resources and she would e-mail Phyllis at Headquarters. Anthony Butler has
Women are continually being overlooked for promotions and additional projects in the workplace for the same reasons. Employers assume that women with families have other obligations, so they won’t consider those women for additional responsibility. Because of this, women aren’t even given the opportunity of job advancement and the opportunity to compete with men in the workplace.
Besides the previous reasons stated, one of the most common problems for women in the workplace is being discriminated against due to pregnancy. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has stated seeing a 65 percent increase in complaints about discrimination against pregnant women in the workplace between 1992 and 2007 (Chaney, 2008). Example of pregnancy discrimination are refusing to hire a pregnant woman, firing or demoting a pregnant women, denying a woman the same or similar job when she returns, or treating a pregnant employee differently than other temporarily disabled employees. Many women get laid off and even fired from their jobs because they get pregnant. Often male bosses will give excuses for these situations saying that the woman is unable to do their job or that their missing attendance will be a problem due to their pregnancy. Some bosses simply give the reason that women will not be as interested in their job once the child is born, which is an outrageous assumption to make.
The article “Female Company President: ‘I’m Sorry to all the Mothers I Worked With’” by Kathrine Zaleski, president and co-founder of PowerToFly, argues that women can be both successful mothers and employees if employers take the initiative to accommodate them. At the beginning of the article, she regretfully recalls moments in her career in which she judged other women for trying to balance family life and a career. After she gave birth to her own daughter that she realized that she held wrong and harmful attitudes towards female employees with children. Our society required her to choose between a career and raising a child, and she decided that something needs to change. She decided to co-found a company
Gender discrimination is not something that we can see in our home but also when we look into our society, we can see many types of discrimination. It can be in school, workplace, bus or even in train. The main problem with our society is that people consider women as powerless or someone to be in home to look after the kids. People think that some works can be done by only men so they just hire male workers by thinking that female workers can't do heavy works. Also, there will be unequal wages between male and female workers by just looking into their gender. Sometimes men get higher wages because the boss think that males are the one who take care of the family. In some cases, if woman is pregnant, some employers do not even like to interview or hire them just because they are pregnant. So, in most cases, women have to hide their pregnancy because of the fire they get fired. These kinds of gender discrimination
Childfree women are also being offered more career promotions than women with children. The pay gap might also increase with age because women hit the infamous “glass ceiling” at the top of their professions. The “glass ceiling” is the highest level they can obtain in their careers’. In supporting my statement, many women hit the “maternal wall” of discrimination before they ever reach the “glass ceiling.” Sarah Glazer provides a perfect example, “A civil engineer in Pennsylvania was awarded $3 million in a lawsuit because she was passed over a promotion after the birth of her son. She testified that the president of the company asked her if she wanted a career here of if she wanted to have babies” (Glazer 36). The president of this particular company obviously came to the assumption that her level of production in her chosen profession would decrease due to raising her child.
When a person is discriminated against their race, gender, and age. This is some of the most evident forms of discrimination. I believe the most qualified person should receive the job, regardless of race or ethnicity. When employers disrupt workplace discrimination, legally they can be sued by the person or persons and receive bad publicity. When a employee hurts from unfair treatment due to their race and religion. Proving discrimination is difficult as is can occur in a number of work-related areas, during your initial hiring phase, during training or even after you get the job and have to participate in job evaluations. As far as ethnicity goes, Americans come in every color, shape, and size and a successful business is one that understands
While the world has unanimously advanced and is more accepting of change, the workplace continues to be a place of discrimination, prejudice and inequality. Discrimination is broadly defined to ‘distinguish unfavourably’, isolate; and is context based (Pagura, 2012). Abrahams (1991) described the workplace as an ‘inhospitable place’ where gender disparity and wage gaps persist (Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015). Among other states and countries, the Australian government actively implements and passes laws to protect and maintain equal employment rights. While the objective of these laws is ‘to eliminate discrimination,’ the regulatory mechanisms in the legislation are largely ineffective at achieving this ultimate goal (Smith, 2008). However,
With all of the advances in modern society and human behavior, racism is still a crisis that many people have to cope with. It can occur at any place or at any time, including in the workplace. Racial discrimination arises when someone is treated differently based on their actual or perceived race. Many people believe that if one were to be in the vicinity of a respected workplace that they would be respected by all co-workers and employers; this is in no way true. A big amount of minority employees, mainly African-Americans, are affected by racial discrimination in the workplace whether it’s from their employers or their fellow co-workers, and it is not at all acceptable. Racial discrimination is a situation that has always been a problem, so we must show an effort to try to eliminate it from our society.
To what extent does discrimination in the workplace negatively impact the growth of the nation?
Sex-based wage discrimination is against the law, as is stated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The same Act prohibits pregnancy discrimination and states that employers cannot refuse to employ a woman because of pregnancy or terminate her, force her to go on leave at an arbitrary point during pregnancy or penalize her because of pregnancy in reinstatement rights credit for previous service, and accumulated seniority. Family responsibilities typically still fall more heavily on women, and neither society nor employers have found good ways to mesh those with job demands. Employers see parental leaves as a lack of commitment to the job and therefore more likely not to give promotions to the female workers (Kleiner & Kuta, 2001:45-47). Women can get equal treatment, but mostly when they behave like traditional men and leave the primary family responsibilities at home. Many women choose to take time off or to work part-time to be with their children rather than stay on the job and mainly because of lack of day care and flexible job options (Kleiner & Kuta, 2001:45-47). Some women drop out of work force for as long as two or three years,
Researchers have proposed a variety of explanations for systematic gender inequality in the workplace. Cultural benefits, the actions of male employees, the actions of the female employees, and the actions of the employer can contribute to intentional or unintentional gender discrimination (Ngo, Foley, Wong, & Loi, 2003). It has also been mentioned that women make less money because their work environment is generally safer than the stereotypical male work environment; childcare, cashiers, and secretary positions as opposed to firefighters, truck drivers and construction workers (Parcheta, Kaifi, & Khanfar, 2013). Perhaps the most dominant reasoning for women receiving less pay is the carrying over of biological roles into the workplace. Female employees often take time off to have a family, take care of a family, and are the primary caregiver of said family.
A second key issue is the hiring process. Many companies prefer to hire men over women for a positionregardless of their education or experience. Some reasons this may be is because most females have to balance work and family duties which may be a huge barrier in helping advancement in an organization, so an employer may prefer to hire a man who will not come with the baggage of children or the issue of balancing work and family duties. During an interview some women are not hired because they cannot be taken seriously because some may wear too much make-up or their pants suit or skirt may be too tight. Women that are pregnant are also sometimes not considered for a position because the manager may worry about the women wanting time off work on maternity leave. This may not be a direct financial concern about paying women while on maternity leave. It's more about the cost of replacing and training someone to cover their role while they are off.
The generation now has made it easier to equalize men and women but there is still a substantial amount of places where gender inequality is still happening in the workplace and where females still face discrimination. Women are often discriminated in the workplace and are usually not promoted as quickly as men are and they also receive less pay. History shows that women have not always been defined as property and thought of as second class citizens. But in the 21st century many have seen a drastic change in the so called “traditional” family ways where women are suppose to stay home and take care of the household chores, food, and children and men are suppose to work to support their family and provide financial stability. Many assume that in the workplace women are more vulnerable and less competent than men because women 's instincts are to put their family before work or anything else. Whereas men are the ones who will usually stay the late hours to work. People on both sides of the political spectrum and everywhere in between seem to be fearful of what is to come and more fearful of others than they are often willing to admit.