Introduction
We have this belief that education augments our salary level, but it's not always true at least for women. Research based on full time year round earning of male and female workers shows that in the US women earn less than men of the same education level. In fact, the median earnings of women are on par with the earnings of men who are few levels lower in the education ladder. In 2010 the full time year round earning of female worker was $34,000 compared to $42,000 for men (H.L Solis and K. Hall). In fact, this gap between men and women is not only prominent in the salary structure; rather this gap exists in every aspect of work life. In Economics, we often come across the term glass ceilings which refer to an invisible yet unbreakable obstacle preventing women and minorities from going up to the high rung of the corporate ladder, irrespective of education and accomplishments. Though there are a lot of debates going on whether or not glass ceiling is a myth or really exists, a look into how women are discriminated in the workplace shows that glass ceiling exists in every form in the workplace. In the US, women have fought for hundred years to get their civil right and now at the juncture of 21st century when most of us believe that women have reached a comfortable position in terms of achievement, sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination shake our belief and force us to rethink. Even after attaining their rights decades ago, women in the United States still face umpteen struggles arising as a result of inequality and unfairness in the form of sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination in the workplace.
History of Women’s Rights
Historically women have always been viewed as objects of lust and reproduction and intellectually inferior to men. According to the description of early Roman law, women are like children who will remain inferior to men forever. Women being physically weak were assigned the task of domestic chores while work requiring labor such as hunting was taken care of by men. Maternity and raising children were regarded as the only suitable social role befitting women. In the US, the condition of a woman was like that of a showpiece whose role was to enhance her husband's social status by giving birth to his posterity and raising them. Their scopes of education was limited, they didn't have the right to own property or vote. Abigail Adams, the wife of the first vice president of the US, was one of very first women of her generation from the 18th century who raised concern about the need of more opportunities for women, their need of education and the property rights of married women. Her letter to John Adams, her husband during the Constitutional Convention is famous for her pleas to "remember the ladies..Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands.If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation" (Laurie Carter Noble).
Abigail’s hint of a rebellion materialized in the early and mid-19th century when a handful of women including Frances Wright, Ernestine Rose, Margaret Fuller and Lucretia Mott initiated campaign for women's suffrage. Gerrit Smith who was nominated as the presidential candidate for the Liberty Party addressed the issue of woman's suffrage in his speech at the National Liberty Convention in 1848 and demanded that "females as well as males" are "entitled to vote" (Judith Wellman, p 176). The first convention for women's rights was held in Seneca Falls in the upstate New York in the same year. Two days of debate and discussion resulted in the Declaration of Sentiments signed by 32 men and 68 women in favor of women rights. In 1850, the first National Women's Rights Convention was held in Worcester, Massachusetts drawing over 1,000 participants. This convention helped many women who had been fighting individually for women's rights come together.
In 1969, the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) were formed. The objectives of both the organizations were to acquire voting right for women through amendment to the constitution. In 1890 both the organizations merged and the merger made the movement stronger than before. Then one after another other states followed suit namely Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington State, Oregon, California, Kansas, Arizona, Illinois and by the turn 1918, 16 states granted voting rights to women. Finally in 1920, with the 19th amendment to the Constitution, women's suffrage was signed into law.
But women's movement didn't stop with the acquisition of voting rights. During the Civil Right Movement, women activists demanded their equal status with men in every respect. In 1964 the Civil Right Act was passed barring discrimination against anyone on the basis of sex, race and ethnicity. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was established soon after to enforce the Civil Right law. In 1969, California adopted the no fault divorce law granting divorce to couples by mutual consent and by 1985 every other state implemented the law gradually. Property rights as regards equal distribution and division of property was turned into law. In 1978 the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) was passed to bar discrimination in the workplace against pregnant women.
Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
Sexual harassment is a form of sexual discrimination targeted at women employees in order to sideline them in the workplace and deprive them of job opportunities. Sexual harassment is fairly common in the US with one out of four women having reported of workplace sexual harassment, as per the poll finds of ABC News/Washington Post (Gary Langer). There are two types of sexual harassment - quid pro quo and hostile environment.
- Quid Pro Quo
Quid pro quo refers to trading job with sexual favors. Such situation arises when a person in powerful position forces a woman working under him to give in to his sexual demands upon the threat of loss of job opportunity or loss of job. A woman employee's job performance appraisals and job assignment may get affected under quid pro quo if she denies the request of sexual favors of her boss. Nichols vs. Frank case is a classic example of quid pro quo harassment. Terri Nichols was a deaf and mute employee working in night shifts as a mail sorter at the postal facility of Salem, Oregon. Ron Francisco was the nocturnal supervisor and one of the high-rank managers of the night shift. He was authorized with the power to grant overtime pay or leave of absence and assign work to employees. One night Francisco asked Nichols to make copies of some documents and when Nichols went to the copy room to do her work, he grabbed her from behind and started kissing her. Though initially Nichols declined his overtures, but later she gave in to his sexual demand for the fear that she might lose her job if she didn't comply. This activity continued for six months when Nichols under the pressure of losing her job and her husband had he come to know of it surrendered to Francisco's sexual favors without reporting about it to anyone. Her silence took a toll on her health. She became depressed and irritable, developed sleep problems, lost weight and once she even tried to commit suicide. Her relationship with her husband became strained. Consequently, her husband filed for divorce and when she requested for two weeks of leave of absence to sort her problems at home, Francisco demanded her to perform oral sex on him upon which he granted the leave of absence to her. Finally, Nichols lodged a complaint about Francisco at her company, the American Postal Workers Union and the EEOC. Nichols was unable to work for two years after she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder due to the sexual harassment and she received disability benefits from 1987 to 1989. Medical tests conducted on her under the inspection of the Postal service also confirmed a connection between her disorder and sexual harassment (Nichols vs. Frank).
- Hostile Environment
Hostile environment may not be directly linked with the loss of economic benefits or job loss for women, but its severity at times affects the performance of women employees by creating an intimidating and inimical work atmosphere. Hostile environment includes inappropriate touching, verbal misconduct, suggestive gestures, crude jokes or posting sexually explicit photos or calendars. The sexual harassment case against the Mitsubishi Manufacturing plant in Illinois is an example of hostile environment in the work place. Based on the statements of 50 victims and eyewitnesses, the plant was saturated with a sexual atmosphere where women employees were reportedly groped, fondled and subjected to catcalls, whistles, verbal abuse, crude jokes and sexually explicit graffiti. The hostile work environment made many women quit jobs and those who couldn't were denied promotions when they refused to comply with sexual favors. As per the report submitted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Mitsubishi allowed that sort of an atmosphere build up when the training managers during their visit to Japan were often taken to sex shows and engaged in sex parties on a large scale in hotels and bars within the neighborhood of the plant, and later on that sexual atmosphere spread into the work environment. The company didn't have any stringent policy in place to prevent sexual harassment; rather the women who complained were subjected to humiliation by the company's encouragement (Nancy Millman). Though Mitsubishi initially denied all the charges raised against the company, but later on it agreed to pay $34 million to female employees and spent few millions more to settle individual lawsuits (Michelle Fabio).
Pregnancy Discrimination
Pregnancy discrimination refers to the unfavorable treatment meted out to female employees due to pregnancy, childbirth and other post natal or pre natal complications. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act enacted in 1978 protects the female employees from discrimination with regard to their hiring, promotion, assignment, layoff, pay, leave and health insurance benefits and so on. But in spite of this act being in place, women are frequently subjected to discrimination because of pregnancy. In the last decade, pregnancy discrimination incident has increased by 35%. The chairwoman of the EEOC, Jacqueline Berrien states, “Pregnancy discrimination persists in the 21st century workplace, unnecessarily depriving women of the means to support their families” (Bonnie Rochman). There are plenty of incidents involving pregnancy discrimination. Mallory Baker, a part time arts and crafts teacher at the University School of Milwaukee was fired when her supervisor came to know of her pregnancy. The EEOC filed a lawsuit in 2012 on her behalf for violating the PDA and the school has recently paid $37,500 as settlement (Bruce Vielmetti).
Debate over Inequality
However, a group of people believe that the wage gap between men and women is not due to the inequality and discrimination they face at the work place, rather it has more to do with the style of work. They think that men and women think differently and hence choose different job paths. Male entrepreneurs make more money than female entrepreneurs but that is not due to discrimination. In his book “Why Men Earn More” Warren Farrell points out the difference between life style choices that explain the huge pay gap between men and women. He insists that men are more flexible for commuting distance, have no qualms working in night shifts, can continue working without vacation and work in hazardous conditions. But the reason behind men being so flexible and open to the idea of working without vacation or night shifts or in hazardous condition is that most of the men don't need to deal with the responsibility of looking after children or taking care of family as women do. By virtue of her biological constitution and social obligation a woman has to give birth, breastfeed the baby, take care of the family and children and hence she might not always be open like men to work in any kind of circumstances, but that cannot explain the growing wage gap between men and women. A woman with higher qualification is entitled to higher pay job than men lower in qualification, but that is not the case. Research shows how highly qualified women earn less than men few levels down in qualification. Further, there is no denying the fact that women are discriminated in the work place because of pregnancy related issues with sexual harassment adding to the woe. Both men and women are involved in the act that leads to pregnancy but it's always women who have to bear the brunt of it, men are never laid off due to their wives being pregnant, but there are ample cases of women being terminated from their job or denied promotion due to pregnancy issue.
Conclusion
Hundred years of women's struggle might have earned women the right to vote and employment, but still the discriminatory behavior against women is prevalent in the work place which comes into focus when a pregnant woman is laid off or denied promotion because of pregnancy. The startling gap between the wages of men and women and the higher number of men occupying the top position in corporate or in politics compared to women are indicative of the existence of disparity between men and women. Sexual harassment is another issue women in general face in office often and many remain silent because of the fear of repercussion. Many people are of the opinion that the wage and corporate position between men and women vary not because of discrimination but because of men being more flexible and competent in their work, but the truth is a woman has to tackle a lot of family responsibilities alongside work. While there are many successful men who don't need to worry about how their home is run with their wives managing everything at home, hardly few women are there who receive the same support from their husbands. Though inequality is still prominent in the workplace but women can keep their hopes high as they have travelled a long way from being completely dependent on men for everything to their independent identities when they can work and nurture family freely without anyone's interference. The vestiges of inequality existing now would become a matter of past one day when women would be on par with men in every angle.
Works Cited
Noble, Laurie Carter. "Abigail Adams." Unitarian Universalist History and Heritage Society (UUHHS). Retrieved on 23rd May 2013 from <http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/abigailadams.html>
Wellman, Judith. "The Road to Seneca Falls: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the First Woman's Rights Convention." University of Illinois Press; First Edition (October 13, 2004)
"Sexual Harassment and Inappropriate Conduct." Law Dept. Training Committee, 1998. Retrieved on 23rd May 2013 from <http://www.apwu.org/dept/ind-rel/sh/shirk/Hyperlinks/Training%20for%20Supervisors%20Sexual%20Harassment%20&%20Inappropriate.pdf>
Langer, Gary. "One in Four U.S. Women Reports Workplace Harassment." ABC News. Nov 16, 2011. Retrieved on 23rd May 2013 from <http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/one-in-four-u-s-women-reports-workplace-harassment/>
Millman, Nancy. "Mitsubishi Case Details Emerge." September 16, 1997. Retrieved on 23rd May 2013 from <http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-09-16/news/9709160173_1_mitsubishi-motor-manufacturing-sexual-harassment-harassment-case>
Fabio, Michelle. “Five Biggest Sexual Harassment Cases." June 2006. Retrieved on 23rd May 2013 from <http://www.legalzoom.com/legal-headlines/corporate-lawsuits/five-biggest-sexual-harassment-cases>
"Terri L. Nichols vs. Anthony M. Frank." Retrieved on 23rd May 2013 from <http://nalcbranch908.com/NicholsvFrank.pdf>
Rochman, Bonnie. "Pregnant at Work? Why Your Job Could Be at Risk." Feb. 16, 2012. Retrieved on 23rd May 2013 from <http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/16/pregnant-at-work-why-your-job-could-be-at-risk/>
Vielmetti, Bruce. "University School pays $37,500 in pregnancy discrimination case." JSOnline. Retrieved on 23rd May 2013 from <http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/198208091.html>
Solis, Hilda L. and Hall, Keith. "Women in the Labor Force: A Databook." U.S. Department of Labor & U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. December 2011. Retrieved on 23rd May 2013 from <http://www.bls.gov/cps/wlf-databook-2011.pdf>
"Women Workplace Discrimination." Debate.org. Retrieved on 23rd May 2013 from <http://www.debate.org/debates/Women-Workplace-Discrimination/1/>
