Essay on Gender Discrimination in Workplace (673 Words)
In this century, a woman actively participates in workplace. Many women desire a career and a place in this world. They want to stand on their own two feet, to become self- independent individuals, independent and free from other individuals. One thing that is clear is that women in all careers are striving to gain equality in die work force today. Through their determination, women now have the ability to break out of the gender roles that were created for them by society.
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One of the issues that have affected women in the workplace is that of stereotyping of women. Throughout history women have taken the role of housewife, mother, and nurturer. Women are stereotyped to stay at home and take care of the house and children.
It has been their job to cook the meals, do the laundry, and manage the children’s school activities. Even today, motherhood is still considered to be die primary role for women. Women who do not take on this role are still thought of as selfish.
Women that look to establish careers outside the home, for years, were thought of as being selfish and self-centered. Because women were viewed as homemakers they were often given jobs that were meaningless, and they were not thought of as managers or professionals.
Even today, women are not treated the same as men. One area that clearly shows this oppression is the area of equal pay for equal jobs. Another area in which women are at a disadvantage in the workplace is through discrimination. Discrimination can be an uncomfortable situation for the women involved.
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There are two types of discrimination, indirect and direct. Indirect discrimination might be a women being overlooked for a promotion, or an employee displaying inappropriate sexual material in the workplace.
Direct discrimination may include a women being discharged from her employment because she is pregnant, or being excluded from after work group events.
Another major area were women have been affected in the workplace is sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is closely linked to sex discrimination. Sexual discrimination forces women into lower paying jobs, and sexual harassment helps keep them there.
One tiling is clear, whether the problem is sexual harassment or sexual discrimination the problem continues to exist in the workplace, creating tension that make their jobs more difficult. In the last decade, companies have turned their attention to some of these issues.
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There has been more training and education about women’s issues. Even though there is more corporate training for these issues, this training may not work, but start educating people.
Women need to overcome the image that they are sensitive people, which let their emotions control their mind. They need to prove that they can think with their minds and not their hearts when it comes to business. Most people want to correct the unequal treatment of women in the workplace.
One method that can be used to support equality would be to introduce federal legislation to guarantee equal pay for equal work. The logistical problems associated with this solution would be great. How would people measure the value of one person’s work to another’s? Who would decide this and how would it be implemented?
Our attitudes toward women in the workplace are slowly starting to change. More opportunities are appearing for women workers today than ever before. The unequal treatment of working women will take years to change, but change is occurring.
This topic will remain until people treat and pay women equally, based upon their abilities. There have been many remedies introduced into the workplace that have tried to address the injustice toward women in the workplace.
Although there have been many improvements for women in the workplace but there are still many inequalities for women when compared to men. Remedies are needed to secure a fair and equal role in the workplace.
This change can only fully occur when we change the attitudes of every individual toward women. When we accomplish that then we can finally achieve gender equality in the workplace.