Women Discrimination in the Workplace

For many centuries, the issue of gender inequality has been widely debated. Access to a good education, equality of social or economic opportunities, and workplace opportunities can be regarded as main measures of gender equality. Despite the fact that over the last decades, progress has been evident, thus many alarming issues considering gender discrimination still prevail today. Hence, female gender is one that mostly suffers from gender discrimination. A large number of women face challenges while applying for a certain job position. Consequently, womans socioeconomic status can be significantly lowered by such manifestation of workplace discrimination. The topic of female workplace discrimination was chosen because this issue continues to exist globally despite different measures towards gender inequality in the workplace. It is important to identify causes and effects of the issue in order to understand levers for reducing female discrimination. Nowadays, many women tend to suffer different forms of gender discrimination in the workplace, which influences their economic and social status.

General Overview of the Issue

Since past times females have experienced gender discrimination in the workplace. Although many policies regarding the equality of both men and women have been introduced, the issue of women workplace discrimination still remains to be one of the most painful problems over a whole global community. Nowadays, women usually, experience different kinds of gender inequalities. Considering some examples of female workplace discrimination, which affect womens job opportunities and earnings, they may include a wage gap and women dearth in leadership positions. Besides, compared to men, women need the longer period to advance in their careers. Such things as sexual harassment and withholding promotions based on can be regarded as the main forms of gender discrimination in the workplace. Hence, female discrimination may lead to negative consequences such as diminished company revenue, high employee turnover, low gender morale, and reduced working productivity. Consequently, considering all aforementioned aspects of female gender inequality, this issue remains to be a highly debilitating stigma. Furthermore, it leads to detriments not only of womens job opportunities but also their psychology and worth of themselves.

Many policies in regards to gender discrimination in the workplace were operated. They aim to equalize the rights of men and women in order to eliminate working discrimination and give equal opportunities for both genders. For example, in the United States, one of the best-developed countries, there exist determined regulations regarding womens rights in the workplace. Hence, if a woman is discriminated in her workplace, it is regarded as a manifestation of violence since appropriate employment conditions are not followed. American women are protected by federal law Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Besides, the majority of modern American enterprises have their own gender policies, which guarantee women equal working opportunities. Germany is one more country, where the issue of gender discrimination in the workplace is widely debated. Nowadays, German women occupy more than twenty percent of corporate boardroom places. In order to increase this number of gender diversity in the workplace, the government passed a new law considering that all enterprises should have at least thirty percent of women occupying supervisory seats. Such countries as Norway, France, Spain, Italy, and Belgium have similar legislation. Obviously, such policies provide women with job security and help them get equal job opportunities.

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Forms of Female Discrimination in the Workplace

Wage Gap

Many women experience unequal pay in their workplace. There exist many cases, which show that women can have the same job title as a man, have the same level of education, and equal responsibilities can be paid far less than men. This is a common example of discrimination of female earning opportunities. A recent wage-gap study of the U. S. Labor Department suggested that women earn only seventy nine percent of the average mens wage. Besides, according to the The Equal Pay Act of 1963, such violations of womens right should be sued. Moreover, employers must pay fines and provide women with issue back-pay. One of the justest laws supporting womens labor rights is the Fair Play Act, which was passed by Jerry Brown, Californias governor. The law gives employees an opportunity to freely ask their employers about the wages of others compared to their. Hence, they can trace if the wage gap is practiced in the company. Despite the fact that many developed countries struggle for gender equality in the workplace, there still exist a huge number of women suffering from unfair wages.

Sexual Harassment

While considering the issue of female discrimination in the workplace, sexual harassment is still regarded as gender bias affecting many women. Hence, companies implement different policies in order to eliminate this situation. Besides, there exist cases when females having the same perks, pay, and other benefits as their male counterparts, they can still suffer from inappropriate behavior related to her gender. Such behavior may include unwelcome touching or offensive jokes about her sex. Although one single joke is acceptable, regularly repeated jokes may be supposed as harassment. Various promises of advancement in exchange for sexual harassment are believed to be sexual harassment as well. Sexual harassment can be performed not only by womans boss but also by other male coworkers. For example, since IT is supposed to be a male-dominant profession, women working in this sphere can be easily harassed. Furthermore, male workers can simply do not perceive a woman as their counterpart. Consequently, usually, the majority of women tend to eliminate such positions being afraid of gender stereotypes and biases.

The Issue of Competence

Another issue considering women discrimination in the workplace is the perception of her quality of competence. Many females are plagued by this problem nowadays. Such phenomenon can be explained by the fact that when a woman is clearly competent, most likely she would be judged to be unlikable by both male and female counterparts. Studies show that the more competent woman becomes, the bigger possibility that she would suffer in her workplace is. Traditionally, competent men are regarded as forceful, worthy of promotion, and likely to succeed. Furthermore, men are admired and treated in an appropriate way, which only enhances their ability to conquer. However, women display the quality of competence in her workplace often experience hostile attitude. Such women are considered to be unfeminine, aggressive, conniving, and untrustworthy. The paradox is that women not showing enough competence are also seen as unlikable for their position. Consequently, an attitude towards womens competence should be reconsidered because both female and male should have equal opportunity to reveal their potential in the workplace.

Positional Bias and Glass Ceiling

Position discrimination may be regarded as one more form of gender discrimination in the workplace. Traditionally, men and women are prescribed particular professions. Men, for instance, are associated with professions, which require sufficient physical ability. Women, on the contrary, serve as secretaries or teachers. As a result, such spheres if occupation does not require additional physical ability. Thus, nowadays, more and more women tend to overcome such gender bias and are open to be placed in positions typically held by men. One more form of gender discrimination in regards to women is the glass ceiling. Many women suffer from being unable to climb equally high in their workplace. There exist cases when women with better job performance do not get an appropriate promotion. Men are easily promoted and given all job opportunities even if they perform worse than their female counterparts. Furthermore, responsibilities of women should not be diminished. For example, if a woman wants to perform some physical job that is believed to be hard to perform, she should not be deprived of this opportunity. Hence, despite their gender, each employee should have equal opportunities and must be able to reach the highest positions in regards to their skills and performance rate.

Examples of Female Gender Discrimination in the Workplace

Today, there exist many examples of female discrimination in the workplace. One of the most common examples is discrimination that occurs in regards to womens pregnancy. There was a case happened to one woman working for a big corporation. Throughout her whole career, she performed professionally and devoted many long hours to her work. Thus, one day discovered that she pregnant. Obviously, the woman was afraid of being fired because of her interesting position since she evidenced many similar cases in the workplace. The woman also did not want to introduce her pregnancy because she knew that her supervisor would not give her a chance to return to her position after the birth of a child. Nevertheless, the woman told her boss about that situation. As a result, unpleasant news was waiting for her since her boss even did not want to wait until the end of the pregnancy and fired her immediately. Obviously, a large number of women face such situations of their gender discrimination and are not able to protect themselves from mistreatment.

One more example of female gender discrimination is the issue of appearance. Many companies have a determined dress code for their female workers. Usually, women are required to wear official dresses, skirts, and blouses. One woman was unlucky to experience her gender discrimination in regards to her appearance. The enterprise where she had been working for ten years decided to make an innovation. They wanted all female members of their corporation follow a determined dress code. That dress code included wearing only dresses, skirts, and shirts only. Any kinds of pants and blouses were prohibited to wear. However, the woman did not agree with such rule and continued wearing pants as she felt more comfortable in them. Consequently, her boss penalized her and then fined. Nevertheless, the women refused wearing dresses and skirts. As a result, despite her sufficient working experience in the company, the woman was dismissed. Such case is not rare since many modern women prefer wearing pants rather than dresses. Forcing them to wear dresses or skirts only is a vivid example of female gender discrimination.

Conclusion

To sum up, the issue of gender discrimination is rooted in history, tradition, and humans history. Furthermore, gender inequality is supposed to be a highly debilitating stigma, which can lead to different forms of womens mistreatment in the workplace. Considering the aforementioned issues of gender inequality, in order to prevent women from being discriminated in the workplace particular policies should be introduced and applied. The government must provide women with the law, in which each form of discrimination and appropriate punishment for it should be mentioned. Consequently, companies and male workers, in particular, will know that in case of violation of the law in regards to gender discrimination in the workplace they would be punished. Besides, in order to protect their female employees, companies can implement their own policies, which will regulate the norms of gender equality in the workplace. Each employee should be familiar with these policies so that not to violate each others rights. In addition, considering the level of social awareness of female discrimination, many community organizations can be formed to protect women from being discriminated. Such organizations can help women become familiar with their labor rights and think of an appropriate solutions to their problems. The cases of female discrimination are not rare today, so women should not be afraid of protecting their rights.

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