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The Problem Of Gender Discrimination In The Workplace

Decent Essays

The events that transpired on 1 September 1939 will forever live in notoriety, its effects on the world resounding to this day. With the majority of the male population sent to the European front, many of the male-dominated occupations were left vacant. As a result, women were suddenly permitted to venture from the domestic sphere they had been so fervently ingrained to maintain and into the workforce. The necessity of labor gave women a taste of independence, subsequently implanting the notion that women were just as capable as men, and should be treated so. In the decades since, women have increasingly implemented themselves into the job market, but even today are met with resistance. Some companies are governed by an outdated mindset on the roles of men and women in society, and is reflected in their hiring practices, producing a gender bias in various professions. This prejudice against women is unethical and depraved, yet solving such an issue is easier said than done. In order to begin to resolve this problem, a question is proposed: should gender quotas be enforced within the workplace when hiring? Proponents of a gender quota within the workplace would argue that through equal representation of the sexes, the inequality faced by women would lessen significantly. Ellen Ullman, a computer programmer and author, recounts her experience as a women programmer in the article “How to be a ‘Women Programmer’” and would be in support of a gender quota. Within certain

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