Women have faced great difficulty in the past to gain equal rights as men in the workplace. Currently, in the twenty-first century may seem that women have made substantial leeway in obtaining the equal rights and treatment in the workplace as men. Women still face inequalities that are barriers preventing them from advancing in their careers. Gender inequality is not the only barrier in the workplace. Race, social class and perceived gender roles are barriers as well. Inequality in the workplace has negatively affected women to advancing in their careers. The purpose of this paper is critically analyzing the factors that have negatively affected women in their ability to achieve higher positions and salaries in the workplace. This paper will contain an analysis of discrimination among women in the workplace by their social class and race, how perceived gender roles have influenced perceptions of employers and the consequences of gender inequality has all contributed to the barriers of women to move ahead in the workplace.
“Women’s struggle for employment equality began long before the feminist movement of the 1970s, especially for those of minority and working-class backgrounds” (Ortiz & Roscigo, 2009, p. 336). This quote is important because it emphasizes that women have faced inequality for a long time in the workplace. Presently, women still face inequity in workplace that has become a barrier to obtaining a higher potential. Women experience discrimination in their workplace by their class and race in which has become normalized by society. Women with lower working status jobs face discrimination more than middle and higher class women. Ortiz and Roscigo (2009) mention that women experience discrimination in losing their ...
... middle of paper ...
.../pdfviewer?vid
=8&hid=123&sid=7bb55ad6-33d5-4c57-b38a-14e0217d9d8b%40sessionmgr104
Isaac, C. A., Kaatz, A. & Molly, C. (2012). Deconstructing the glass ceiling. Sociology mind,
2(1), 80-86. Doi: 10.4236sm.2012.21011
Ortiz, S. Y., & Roscigno, V. J. (2009). Discrimination, work and women: Processes and
Variations by Race and Class. Sociological Quarterly, 50(2), 336-359.
doi:10.1111/j.15338525.2009.01143.x
Statistics Canada (2004). “Average earnings by sex and work pattern”. Retrieved from
http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/labor01a.htm
Storvik, A., & Schøne, P. (2008). In search of the glass ceiling: gender and recruitment to
management in Norway's state bureaucracy. British Journal of Sociology, 59(4), 729-
755. doi:10.1111/j.1468-4446.2008.00217.x
Throughout the world, discrimination in all forms has continued to be a constant struggle; whether it’s racial, gender based, religion, beliefs, appearance or anything that makes one person different from another, it’s an everyday occurrence. A major place that discrimination is occurring at is in the workplace. One of the largest problems discrimination issues is believed to be gender. Women, who have the same amount of experience as men are not getting paid at the same rate as men, these women also are equally trained and educated. According to the article Gender Pay, it was discovered in 2007 that a woman makes 81 cents for every dollar a man earns.(“Gender Pay”) . This shouldn’t be happening in today’s society for the fact the society lived in today is suppose to be more accepting. Men are viewed as being more popular, valuable and having higher powers than women. The Reason Discrimination is involved in the equal pay equal work is because of the significance it has to how some businesses pay their employees.
“Feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms” (Baptiste). Just as in the past, feminism continues to act as a controversial issue among men and women. In the 1960’s, women finally addressed workplace inequity and created woman organizations to achieve equality. In the early 1960’s, the Equal Pay Act and the Civil Rights Act set a milestone for women’s progression towards work equality. Though women have made great leaps towards true equality, women still face many challenges and continue to be categorized as the subservient gender.
Monroe, Kristen, et al. "Gender Equality in Academia: Bad News from the Trenches, and some Possible Solutions." Perspectives on Politics 6.2 (2008): 215-33. Print.
Although many women have achieved a college education, many will nit be able to share the same values as there male peers. Many women will have certain messages conveyed about them which will be used to profile them in their selective fields. These factors will contribute to the controversial issues facing women today in the workplace. The gender roles that have challenge women today will not allow the equal status of women who are trying to advance there job careers. Only with enough support from activist groups of women’s rights will break these stereotypes and, allow women to have a fair and equal role in society.
One important question that needs to be asked is, “what is equal?” Equality between sexes and race has been stressed and made law in the late nineteenth century, but even though laws have been made to protect woman from this discrimination, it still occurs frequently. Equal is being treated the same way and having the same opportunities no matter who one is. Big business has not given women the chance to be equal with men. One does not normally see a woman as the owner, or even the manager of a major corporation, these jobs consistently go to men. Traditi...
Gregory, Raymond F. Women and Workplace Discrimination: Overcoming Barriers to Gender Equality. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Gender inequality in the workforce is not only a current civil rights issue but one that spans back through our history as a nation. Rooted as far back as the 1800s when the Cult of Domesticity
Also, the majority of women have been able to secure employment from traditionally female occupations such as teaching compared to male-dominated careers like engineering. Moreover, democratic country like the United States of America has recognized gender inequality as a fundamental issue and espouse equal right between men and women in contributing to social, economic and cultural life. Despite this improvement, gender inequality persists as women are not represented and treated equally in the workplace (Michialidis, Morphitou, & Theophylatou, 2012). The increasing number of women in the workplace has not provided equal opportunity for career advancement for females due to the way women are treated in an organization and the society. Also, attaining an executive position seem impossible for women due to the glass ceiling effects which defines the invisible and artificial barrier created by attitudinal and organizational prejudices, which inhibit women from attaining top executive positions (Wirth
Parcheta, N., Kaifi, B., & Khanfar, N. (2013). Gender Inequality in the Workforce: A Human Resource Management Quandary. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 4(3), 240-248.
Some women would prefer to be barefoot and pregnant housewives that spend their days cooking and cleaning while their husband goes to work. However, other women embrace their right to pursue educational and occupational dreams. Unfortunately, because it has not been all that long ago that women were not considered to be qualified for a spot in most work places, they experience a lot of discrimination in the workplace. Because gender roles are almost deeply embedded in our society, women often do not get put up for the same job opportunities and promotions that their male equal might be subject
For many decades, women have faced inequalities in the workforce. At one point, they were not allowed to work at all. Although women's rights have improved and are now able to work alongside men, they are still treated unfairly. According to the 2012 U.S. Census, women’s earnings were “76.5 percent of men’s” (1). In 2012, men, on average, earned $47,398 and women earned only $35,791. This is when comparing employees where both gender spend the same amount of time working. Not only do women encounter unfairness in work pay, they also face a “glass ceiling” on a promotional basis. This glass ceiling is a “promotion barrier that prevents woman’s upward ability” (2). For example, if a woman is able to enter a job traditionally for men, she will still not receive the same pay or experience the same increase in occupational ability. Gender typing plays a huge role in the workplace. It is the idea that women tend to hold jobs that are low paid with low status. Women are not highly considered in leadership positions because of social construction of gender. Society has given women the role of “caretakers” and sensitive individuals. Therefore, women are not depicted as authoritative figures, which is apparent with the absence of women in leadership roles in companies. Furthermore, sex segregation leads to occupations with either the emphasis of women in a certain job or men in a certain job. In 2009, occupations with the highest proportion of women included “secretary, child care worker, hair dresser, cashier, bookkeeper, etc.” (3). Male workers typically held job positions as construction workers, truck drivers, taxi drivers, etc. (3). Sex segregation represents inequality because the gender composition for these jobs depends on what ...
Gender stratification limits women’s achievement in their lives. In term of jobs, women continue to enter a narrow passage of occupations range. Compared to men, women often face greater handicap in seeking job because the higher income and prestigious jobs are more likely held by men. In the workplace institution, men are also prior to a faster promotion. There is a case where women were allowed to get promoted to a more advance posi...
Gender Inequality at a Workplace Historically, males and females normally assume different kinds of jobs with varying wages in the workplace. These apparent disparities are widely recognized and experienced across the globe, and the most general justification for these differences is that they are the direct outcomes of discrimination or traditional gender beliefs—that women are the caregivers and men are the earners. However, at the turn of the new century, women have revolutionized their roles in the labor market. Specifically in industrialized societies, the social and economic position of women has shifted. Despite the improving participation of women in the labor force and their ameliorating proficiency and qualifications, the labor force is still not so favorable to women.
Gender bias has a long history and continues to occur in the workplace today. Research indicates that women remain significantly disadvantaged and mistreated compared to men in the workforce. How do the disparities of hiring, promotion, and salaries affect women in the workplace?
It can be concluded that women are treated in terms of stereotyped impressions of being the lowest class and greater evidence can be found that there are large disparities between the women and the men 's class. It can be seen that women are more likely to play casual roles as they are most likely to take seasonal and part time work so that they can work according to their needs. They are hampered from progressing upward into the organizations as they face problems like lack of health insurance, sexual harassments, lower wage rates, gender biases and attitudes of negative behavior. However, this wouldn’t have hampered the participation of the women in the work force and they continue to increase their efforts which is highly evident in the occupational and job ratios of females in the industry.