Introduction
The constitution of the United States of America guarantees equal rights for everyone in all spheres of life; however, the situation is different nowadays. Not only national minorities are oppressed and do not have equal rights with white Americans, but also women have other rights than men at work. Discrimination is unfair treating of some people due to some special features, such as gender, race, skin color, religious believes, nationality. The law of the United States of America forbids any kind of discrimination at work. Discrimination may be expressed in “hiring, firing, job assignments, promotions, training and fringe benefits” (Sex based discrimination, n.d.). The point is that female discrimination at working place is a problem in modern American society. This essay is aimed on proving that women are still being oppressed at work. The essay will contain evidence, such as statistics and scientific research on this issue.
Counter Argument
The government of the United States of America, as well as scientists from all over the world, present report annually that concern the issue of women oppression at work. However, it is significant, first, to emphasize that some cases when women are thought to be oppressed are underestimated. First, many women disagree to accept the fact that they are discriminated because of their gender. Besides, most of the women cannot acknowledge the fact of discrimination. The point is that, although the United States of America is a highly developed country and people are taught about their rights, most of women underestimate this knowledge and simply do not pay attention to facts of discrimination at work. Moreover, sometimes, it is rather difficult to say whether discrimination actually had place or not.
According to Covert, 28% of women confessed that they had experienced discrimination at working places (Covert, 2013). In most of cases women are discriminated because they are willing to get higher position. The higher she wants to get, the more is the possibility that she will be discriminated. There are different kinds of discrimination. Hence, it may be difficult to understand whether a woman is discriminated or not.
Wage
The most frequent kind of discrimination is when women get lower wages than men who obtain the same position. In 2008 the United States of America department of labor presented the study that showed that women earn 20% lower than men obtaining the same position (Finn, n.d.). Although The Equal Pay Act of 1963 states that no employer is allowed to subject his employees to payment “at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages of the opposite sex” ("The Equal Pay"), women still earn considerably less. Even holding the same jobs as their male colleagues, women do not make as much as men. The following graphic shows there is the huge wage gap between men and women doing the same job.
The graphic shows the difference between wages men and women get weekly. On the graphic it is visible that regardless the sphere of occupation, men earn more than women do. The point is that most of women do not realize that they have to be paid more than they are.
Promotion
The paragraph above showed that women are underestimated and paid less than men are. However, this is not the only aspect. Promotion is one of the types of discrimination at work. The point is that for most of the women it is difficult to be promoted to positions of higher levels of management, because of both conscious and subconscious sex bias ("Hidden Barriers: Discrimination", n.d.). when one looks up the Fortune 500 list, it will be rather difficult to find many female CEO. In 2012 in the article “Discrimination in the work place against women may depend on men’s marital structure”, it was shown that Fortune 500 list contained only 3.6% of women. The following study suggested several reasons about women's ability to manage companies, and female leaders have less attractive and even “feel less positive about the presence of women in the workplace” ("Discrimination in the work place against women may depend on men’s marital structure", n.d.). Moreover, Levinson stated that half of citizens of the United States of America are women, however, there are only 19% female representatives in the Congress (n.d.). Sociologists have suggested a special term “glass ceiling” for a situation that may occur at work when women are unable to go up the career ladder only because of their gender. The point is that men top managers are willing to promote those who resemble themselves.
Sexual harassment
The other form about female discrimination in work place is about sexual harassment. It islikely to be the most negative phenomenon, affecting many female workers in work environment. According to different surveys, up to 90% of women employees have reported cases of sexual harassment at their workplace. (“Gender inequality at work”, 2009) The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission specifies sexual harassment includes “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature” ("Sex-based discrimination"). Besides particularly sexual topics, humiliating about one's sex is also considered to be harassing.
Pregnancy
In some cases women are discriminated because of their pregnancy. In accordance with the Family and Medical Leave Act, women are eligible to have twelve workweeks of leave once a year when they give birth to a child or when they have to take care for the their children within one year of birth or for the child with a serious health condition (“Family and Medical”, n.d.). Apparently, most employers are not willing to promote or giving proper salary for pregnant women or those who are rising their children. Consequently, women are forced to conceal their pregnancy or marital status.
Conclusion
There are different types of discrimination at work. Gotter suggest types of such segregation:
- Vertical dimension;
- Horizontal dimension;
The main reasons for such inequality are the following:
- Conservative Values;
- Laissez-Faire Capitalist Values;
- Being wealthy;
- Mastery, which refers to the intend being successful and admired for personal achievements;
- Intellectual Autonomy, which means person ability of being creative and finding extraordinary solutions;
- Egalitarianism.
Finally, a company without any system of preventing discrimination within it is most likely be suited for discrimination, which might cost a lot for the company (money for advocates, compensation etc.). Besides, having a terrible reputation has never helped any company in doing its business nor did it help it to employ new personnel. Nowadays people are becoming more and more conscious. Thus, the only way to build a healthy and prosperous business is to be careful to elaborate the work ethics and the process of hiring. It seems rather obvious that every male and female must have his or her own right for a job and to self develop and self realize. Having such need satisfied is an important condition of every human being, and this right has to be protected. Not only will it affect the humanity, but it will also improve the corporation system itself and will make an important step forward to absolute work equality. Nowadays this problem may be considered an urgent one, because women are not protected from economical crisis: the research conducted in this paper shows that employers are tend to give job to men and thus women will be the first to be fired. To conclude, the gender policy and inequality at work is a sharp question which sociologists try to solve and understand its nature; on the other hand, government does nothing to provide equal rights and work conditions both for men and women, no matter what skin color they have. In my opinion, if such inequality at the working place is not stopped, modern civilization will become medieval again, because women will stay home, do household and raise children while men will make money.
Resources:
Covert, B. About a third of women have experienced discrimination in the workplace. Retrieved from http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/08/19/2486721/about-a-third-of-women-have-experienced-discrimination-in-the-workplace/
Discrimination in the workplace against women may depend on men's marital structure. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/17/discrimination-in-the-workplace-women-gender-revolution-marital-structure-men_n_1525863.html
Fairfield.H (2010) Why Is Her Paycheck Smaller? The New York Times Retrieve:http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/01/business/20090301_WageGap.html?8dpc&_r=0
Family and medical leave act. Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/
Finn, L. Female discrimination in the workplace. Retrieved from http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/female-discrimination-workplace-2736.html
Cotter D., Hermsen J., Vanneman R., 2009, “Gender Inequality at Work” retrieved from http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/papers/cotter_etal.pdf
Hidden barriers: discrimination. Retrieved from http://www.workplacefairness.org/sc/discrimination.php
Levinson, J. Let's stop celebrating the 'record' number of women in congress. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jessica-levinson/women-in-congress_b_2747046.html
Pay equity & discrimination. Retrieved from http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/pay-equity-and-discrimination
Sex-based discrimination. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/sex.cfm
The equal pay act of 1963. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/epa.cfm
