The Glass Ceiling And Sexual Harassment

Researchers Stier and Yaish (2014) have stated, “men’s employment is more stable, their salaries are higher and they have more opportunities for advancement and access to lucrative jobs” (p. 1). Indeed, men have more advantages in the society to gain power than women. Therefore, men are still dominating over women in occupations. Furthermore, “women are denied access to good and rewarding labor market positions by employers and because of their inferior power position in society their work is devalued and they are often ‘pushed’

The authors of this book, as well as the reviewer make several illuminating statements. Our world has changed dramatically from a time when women’s work was confined to the home, to a time when women are doctors, lawyers, scientists, and soldiers in the military. It is imperative that we continue to evaluate the glass ceiling idea as the world evolves. This can save time by automatically discounting some barriers that are no longer relevant to women, in addition to uncovering new ones that have been created by a societal shift in the female role. The idea that equality for men and women is present in the workplace is not one that can be easily agreed with. As women working in traditional male careers, such as firefighters, police, and the military continue to face a stigma. That being said, a stigma alone does not equate inequality. These women are even, depending on the vocation, periodically offered benefits that men in that career would not have. Lastly, it is not possible to ignore the fact that many times one makes choices based on their own internalizations of societal standards and stereotypes, which ultimatley affects their ability to move into positions that challenge their archetype. Simply stated, there is really no way to truly measure workplace equality as it is moreover situational.

Over the past few decades, great strides have been made by women in the workplace. This increased number in women in the workplace does not mean equality however. Even with equal qualifications and achievements, women are still not given all the opportunities that men have. The chapter in the textbook, “Gender at Work”, shows us more of these inequalities in the workplace. Such inequalities cause gender segregation of jobs and can be linked with the pay inequality in the labor force. Even in jobs that are predominantly filled by women, men earn more than women. Women are often stereotyped as being family focused and not as able to travel, therefore they tend to get passed up for promotions (Garson p.353). This invisible barrier that keeps women from moving up the executive ladder is referred to as the “glass ceiling” (Baxter and Wright p. 346). Women also tend to do more domestic work, or unpaid labor and caregiving. This extra unpaid work is referred to as “the third shift” and is largely rested on the shoulders of women (Gersel p. 352). Consequently, this seems to be one of the biggest things holding women back from taking on jobs that are normally considered male

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.

Meanwhile, the segregation of jobs by gender and other factors affect pay equity. A term used back in the 1980’s as a metaphor for the invisible and artificial barriers that blocked women and minorities from advancing up the corporate ladder to management and executive positions is called the glass ceiling (Hill, 2013). Louisville Women’s Careers Examiner argues “ Glass ceilings are still found in the workplaces, not only in the discrimination of pay scales, but also marked by sexual harassment, exploitation at work and as a feeling of insecurity in women due to conduct of the opposite sex” (Hill, 2013, p.33). Societal barriers that women tend to face are prejudice and bias, cultural, opportunity and attainment, gender, and color-based differences. Moreover, several other barriers women run into are governmental, business structural and internal businesses all of which have ramifications on their chances of success.

Gender and work exist sociologically as a way to maintain both authority and inequality. Women’s roles throughout history shed a light on the expectations and stereotypes that exist today; however, navigating a gendered economy and overcoming sex segregation continues to be a challenging task for most women. Wages continue to be uneven, and wives continue to bear most of the child rearing and domestic responsibilities despite increasingly working the same amount as their husbands do. Becoming educated on these inequalities and viewing them with a sociological perspective will allow people to see gender and work in an accurate light and continue to develop

Sexism against women in the workplace is still common, particularly in managerial positions, which creates glass ceilings for women who can do as good or better job as their male counterparts. It is a sad fact that sexism still exists in the twenty-first century. What is the glass ceiling you may ask? The glass ceiling is (Bell, Mclaughlin, & Sequeira, 2002) as “the invisible or artificial barriers that prevent women (and people of colour) from advancing past a certain level” (Federal Glass Ceiling Commission-FGCC, 1997; Morison and von Glinow, 1990). As a civilization where we want equality for all – we should strive to eliminate inequality caused by the glass ceiling. I believe that if we do not seek to eliminate sexism, it will have a negative impact on us and future generations.

In general, the wage gap has narrowed at a slow, and uneven, pace over last three decades. Recent data shows that women in the American workforce earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns (Trevino). The existence of this “gender wage gap” has been an issue since women entered the workforce. The ongoing issue of the past has now become an apparent problem in our modern-day, progressive society. Women nowadays have opportunities that were not obtainable in past decades but must overcome, or ignore, the barrier of being punished in the long run for simply being a woman. While there have been major progresses in breaking through the norms and social constructs, women face other challenges, including discrimination and sexism (Gender). Despite the ongoing struggle to reach wage equality between the sexes through various legislative initiatives and the ever increasing involvement of women in the American workforce, the wage gap has only closed by a marginal 15 percent over the last four decades (Dale and Levine).

Since the 1920’s women have worked hard to be considered as equal citizens in our country. The book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck shows the gender discrimination back in the 1930’s ; and the Houston Chronicle article “The Effects of Gender Discrimination in the Workplace” by Samantha Gluck shows gender discrimination today. Gender discrimination has been dealt with for decades; despite the legislation for equality, many women to this day still feel gender based discrimination exists. Victims of gender discrimination experience offensive judgment. In Of Mice and Men the workers on the ranch constantly made jokes about curley’s wife.

Women make up half of the world, but they’re never been treated as equal to men. They’ve had to work for everything they have today. Women had to fight for the right to vote as well as the right to leave their homes and become working citizens. Women have broken many barriers placed on them, but they still haven’t broken the glass ceiling. The glass ceiling is the invisible barrier that women, as well as other minorities, face when it comes to equal pay. For every dollar earned by a man, a woman only makes about seventy-five cents. This is not in any way a fair. Women work the same job for the same amount of time as men, but they earn less. This is what sexism looks like and there are laws against it, but these laws are not being enforced or taken seriously. The laws against the glass ceiling and sexism in the workplace should be enforced.

For many years in the United States, women have been faced with equality issues. Men were regarded as superior, which made women feel inferior and insignificant. One place this has occurred is the workplace. This type of inequality dates backs centuries and comes from the common belief that since men were the breadwinners, women should take care of the home and children. As a result, men were believed to be more efficient in their careers. This is also known as systemic discrimination (Kennedy et al., 2008). When women were given the right to vote, they began to progress and take their place in the workforce. As they increased in numbers, there became a need to for fair

As we performed our research methods, starting by asking several ladies about the questions on our survey, we were surprised that 5.6% of the females that were asked the questions, believed glass ceiling still exists nowadays and that it affects them professionally, however the other 44.4% of the women who answered our questions, had similar responses, acknowledging it was a problem that affected women years ago but that times have changed and it has been proven that we all have the same capacities. For example, most of the people interviewed had a boss or a superior, when we asked them what was the gender of their superior, the response was very balanced between women and men, proving the equality we are living in. The Majority of the women

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.

Women have experienced a historic situation of inequality in the social as well as professional aspects. Women were normally the ones that would take care of children, do the chores in the house, and in rural areas; they would work in the field with the rest of the family. However, today’s women have become more self-sufficient and independent from the predominant male figure within every historical family. Gender inequality in the workplace is becoming less common; yet, gender is a factor that affects men and women. Especially women have been subjected to a historical discrimination that has influenced society to decide which job is more suitable for women than men. However women have confronted and tried to break down the barriers that

“The wage gap has narrowed by more than one-third since 1960”(Hegewisch, 2010) and “the share of companies with female CEOs increased more than six-fold” (Warner, 2014) since 1997. As well as the truth that men and women’s earnings differ for many other reasons besides the presence of sexism. “Discrimination in labor market, in education/retiring programs, unequal societal norms at home and the constrained decisions men and women make about work and home issues” (Hegewisch, 2010) are also factors that can contribute to the unequal treatment of man and women in the workplace. Yet even with most of these variables removed women are still being paid less than men, sexually harassed in the workplace and hold very little managerial positions.