Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Discrimination against women at work
Bad impacts of gender stereotypes
Discrimination against women at work
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Discrimination against women at work
In the early 1800s till now things have changed dramatically between men and women. Women were not allowed to attend college with the opposite sex; however, now women are allowed to work the same the jobs as men (p.313). What would you do if someone told you that you could only be a house wife and nothing more? Luckily, times has changed. However, men still make more money. Is it because of our gender? It couldn't be because of our education. According to figure 10.7 the tables shows the difference between men and women among education. Throughout the table its ranges from ten thousand to almost fifty-one thousand pay gap from average workers to doctorate degree (p.317). So, what is the meaning of this pay gap? Is it our personal choices, or is it just something that is always going to be there? When kids were younger, we always had this idea of …show more content…
"The glass ceiling is a invisible barrier that prevents women from reaching the executive suites, meaning the top level of work" (p. 319). This is all because of stereotypes. Something that teach children in schools, to never judge a person and give them a label. However, this is exactly what they are doing between men and women. " It is common for men, who dominate leadership, to have the stereotype that women are good at 'support' but less capable than men of leadership" (p.319). This is basically saying that women are not capable enough to reach higher standards and be a part of something much bigger then 'support'. This one of the many reasons why women don't go on to reach bigger and better things because of stereotypes. Women go to school, and can be anything that any male could ever be. Pay gaps should no longer even be an option because of the progress we have made from the earlier years because women can now be anything they want to be and should be paid the same amount of
Unfortunately, even today, women are still trying to prove themselves equal to men in many ways. The “glass ceiling” is perhaps one of the most familiar and evocative metaphors to surface from the 20th century. This expression has been used widely in the popular media as well as in official government reports. The image suggest that although it may be the case now that women are able to get through the front door professional hierarchies, at some point they hit an invisible barrier that blocks any further upward movement. “Below this barrier, women are able to get promoted; beyond this barrier, they are not”. Such a situation can be considered a limiting case for a more general phenomenon: situations in which the disadvantages women face relative to men strengthen as they move up executive hierarches. “Traditional approaches to recruitment, organization and job design, performance management and promotions are often designed in ways that are more suited to men than to women. This is what creates the glass ceiling”. Beyond the limit of job titles, the glass ceiling also creates a pay difference between men and women performing the same work requirements.
The glass ceiling is defined as the “unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps… women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements.” According to the Department of Labor, the glass ceiling is made up of “artificial barriers [that are] based on attitudinal or organizational bias that prevent qualified individuals from advancing upward in their organization into management-level positions.” Qualified women are continuously denied a promotion to the highest levels of corporate America and other professions. Once women reach a certain level at their career, they plateau and the glass ceiling prevents them from advancing any higher.
Women have struggled to reach the top of the corporate hierarchy since the beginning of time. They have encountered prejudiced discrimination and inequality, and those who have noticed this unfairness simply put these problems on the backburner since they were merely the problems of women’s incompetence (Wynn). An intangible barrier blocks women from higher-level positions and equal pay to men, and this barrier is entirely relevant today’s American society. The Glass Ceiling has yet to be shattered despite its familiarity among Americans. Through education, eliminating stereotypes and unjust standards, and enforcing action plans, the Glass Ceiling can be broken (Johns).
This phenomenon was first described in a Wall Street Journal report by Hymowitz and Schellhardt (1986). Morrison, White and Velsor (1987) adopted the term in academic settings in their book titled: Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Can women Reach the top of America’s Largest Corporations? They defined glass ceiling as “a transparent barrier that kept women from rising above a certain level in corporations”. Many studies across different disciplines adopted the term since then (Bullard and Wright 1993; Cornwell and Kellough 1994; Crum and Naff 1997; Kellough 1989; Lewis and Emmert 1986; Lewis and Nice 1994; Mani 1997; Naff 1994; Naff and Thomas 1994; Newman 1994; Pfeffer and Davis-Blake 1987; Reid, Kerr, and Miller 2003; Wilson 2002). As a consequence, social psychologists provided the theoretical explanation of why there is fewer female on managerial positions. They came to the conclusion that this phenomenon is closely related to the fact that leadership is considered as a male quality. Traits that can be found in the literature, such as: ambitious, directive and risk-taking, are generally associated with men (Sabharwal, 2013). Moreover, there are some theories that try to expand the role of men in leadership even further. The “think-manager-thin-man” is undoubtedly dominating the literature (Agars
Despite the ability of women to now enter into a variety of occupations and positions, men still dominant the power structure and make it much more difficult to rise. Within organizations men are given preferential treatment as a result of viewing women as the inferior gender. Men get promotions easier than women and women are expected to display exceptional behavior in order to receive any type of promotion at all for the same amount of effort. Often times, the presidency is considered the last glass ceiling, and one that is believed to likely be shattered by the election of the first women president. However, even if this glass ceiling is shattered, the existence of glass ceilings in a variety of organizations can still be seen. For example, the severe lack of women within congress (a meager 20) shows how difficult it is for women to be elected and hold their spot despite being just as qualified as their male counterparts. Similarly, Professor Redding provided examples of women within occupations such as lawyers and doctors. While the opportunities for them to get into these occupations has widened, there is still a gap within the occupations
Though it is arguably true that tremendous strides have been made for women’s rights, I firmly believe that there is still a discriminatory glass ceiling beyond which women cannot advance due to gender. Women possessing the skills and abilities of their male counterparts are blocked from the innermost circles of power and influence, and promotions to top-level managerial positions achieved by women lag behind the actual increase of women in the workforce. Ann Morrison, who describes the glass ceiling as subtle and transparent, yet strong enough to prevent women from moving up the corporate hierarchy, notes that it “is not simply a barrier for an individual, based on the person’s inability to handle a higher-level job. Rather, the glass ceiling applies to women as a group who are kept from advancing higher because they are women” (Breaking the Glass Ceiling, pp. 13).
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
Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddess, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken Books. 1975.
This article believes the gap is gone when you look at occupation and experience. The reason that men earn more was because in some circumstances they outpaced the women, also saying that women simply choose different jobs that do not receive as much money as a few jobs that men would take. When comparing job-by-job, it shows that the highest paying jobs have more males and the lowest ones being females. This article states that it is more of an issue with "job gap" then of gender wage gap. When comparing each element of the same job (education,
Today in the United States, men make more than women in various sectors, including education and other trades favoring women workers. The gap gets bigger when comparing the wages earned by men to those of women in jobs favoring men workers such as construction or other physically demanding jobs. Women are less likely to work those jobs, therefor; men have the advantage of having more experience and get paid better. In addition, employers would rather hire a man instead of a woman because they believe that a man will be able to sustain the difficulty of the job and work longer hours which crate a disadvantage for women because they are unable to gain experience and become skilled in that certain field. Gender pay gap based on this information is explained as the result of the discrimination of employers toward the feminine sex in terms of pay, which discourage them to work certain jobs leading to create a bigger gap due to the lack of
Men and women both have a stake in this issue. Women would care more about my position and it would benefit them more because the information mainly pertains to them. Anyone (men or women) uninformed needs to be made aware of the issue and my viewpoints. Women are more impacted by the issue so therefore, they will need the most convincing. My intended audience has not changed since first writing my argument outline. While my argument is to prove that there are many facts that prove the pay gap is currently being portrayed grossly inaccurate, I acknowledge the fact that there is some kind of pay gap issue because of personal life decisions, not simply because women aren’t being treated equally to men. So, one thing we can all agree on is there
The glass ceiling is a subtle barrier of discrimination that limits minorities from moving up the corporate ladder. There are other barriers referred to as glass walls or glass elevators that restrict women’s progress in only certain career fields (Mathis and Jackson 85). Although the glass barriers can affect all minorities, they are best known for stalling the success of women. As Ann Morrison—author and researcher—discovered through her “Executive Women Project”, the glass ceiling is not the prevention of one who cannot handle an executive-level position, but instead, the discrimination of women simply because of their gender (Morrison 13). Although there is clear evidence of the inequality between genders, some still believe that the glass ceiling is just a self-imposed barrier better referred to as a glass cage “held together by the misgivings [women] have about [their] ability to succeed and handle the demands of leadership” (Warrell). The idea of the glass cage is just another product of the glass ceiling a...
Gender equity is a diversity management issue. This is because male workers in certain jobs are still common in the workplace. ‘Gender pay gaps appear across age,ethnicity, profession, education and country’ (Ellemers, 2014 p.47).Females at a disadvantage in the labour market with a high gender pay gap (Williamson & Baird, 2014). In addition, due to the particularities of women, hardly they can find a job than men although they are more qualified for the job. As females become more and more independent and educated nowadays, gender equity as a basic and a nonnegligible diversity issue that organisations should pay more attention to. To manage this issue well is good for both organisations and society become healthier and more competitive. There
A recently published article in the Independent sought to uncover the mystery behind how women in the United Kingdom are underpaid with figures revealing an annual gap of one hundred and forty thousand billion Euros between what they earn compared to what their male counterparts earn (Bulman, 2018). The article authored by Mary Bulman, who is a social affairs correspondent working with the newspaper, revealed how female employees earn far much less than what other male employees with equal or in some instances, less qualifications earn.
Women have fought to be treated fairly and should have the same pay as men. Men still have better jobs and receive better pay than women (Cotter, Hermsen and Vanneman). The fight for economic equality has slowed, but it is still necessary in society (Obama). The role of women in society has changed drastically. Women no long have to stay at home and take care of their children. There is now a need for women to work in order to provide for their family. Women continue to dream of a life filled with economic and politically equality. If they continue to work for this dream, it can become a reality. They can break through the stereotypical glass ceiling, “a term coined by The Wall Street Journal in the mid-1980s to describe an invisible barrier that keeps female executives from being promoted to the top ranks or corporate management” (Lee and Wagner). The glass ceiling can have different connotations for each and every person.