Sexism In The Workplace Essay

Sexism was first widely recognized as a problem when the first wave of feminism came about in “the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” (Rampton) Women often experience sexism of some form in the workplace, which is not only degrading and harmful, but also hinders women’s ability as a whole to advance further in society. Sexism not only haunts women in their personal lives, but it follows them into the professional world and prevents them from receiving the same opportunities, pay and treatment as men, impeding their ability to hold positions of power and be recognized for their hard work. The first problem with women’s rights in the workplace was that in many situations, women were not even supposed to work and were instead expected to be a housewife. The United States government was established in 1798 and yet we did not have a woman serving in the US House of Representatives until 1922, 124 years later. (Mallory, Colbert) Another issue that came along with women’s workplace rights when women were somewhat accepted into the workforce is the difference in treatment they

Before this there was no real law against sexual harassment. Even today, many women’s complaints are brushed off as an over-reaction or a lie when women come forward about being harassed in the workplace. We can always hope that the law will prevail and that women will be heard when they speak the truth about their experiences but the only way women will ever be completely protected from harassment, not only in the law but also in society, is when society as a whole stops favoring men over women. When sexism ends, people will actually care about the workplace harassment of women. Our sexist society has trained people to have a predisposed biased against women and because of this, women will struggle to be heard when it comes to topics that expose men until sexism is