Sexism and the Glass Ceiling
Sexism is still in evidence in the workplace and in today's society despite the battle that women are making for themselves. Sexism is a particular concern for society when considering its effect in the workplace. Sexism has always been a particular problem in the labor market especially with the formation of capitalism. In the last half of the 20th century this has been especially highlighted due to the increase of woman entering the labor market. This aroused the need for legislation for equal opportunity for both sex's to be passed in 1975. It stated that discrimination of a person's sex whether male or female was unlawful in employment, union membership, education, provision of goods, services, advertisements.
Woman hold a large percentage of the work force in companies but hardly any seems to pertain any of the power. There are many obstacles in the way of woman in careers; women are in the quest for equal pay for both sexes. The pay should be the same for the same jobs, but many companies pay men a higher salary then women for the same job causing sex discrimination. Sex discrimination means that a person gets treated in a less favorable manner because of their sex.
A good example of this is to take two fictional characters, Mr. and Mrs. Jones. The Jones's wanted to go swimming. They get to the swimming pools where they find that Mrs. Jones is charged an discounted price while Mr. Jones has to pay the full price even though they are both the same age. This is because women become pensioners at the age of sixty while men cannot gain the benefits until they are sixty-five.
Sex discrimination is not only present within the older generation but is also evident throughout the entire age range. Before legislation was passed in the 1960's most young girls left school after certain number of years to receive a strong social message that their careers where already setup for them as marriage and motherhood. The only jobs they would be getting were tedious low paid jobs such as a position as a Secretary and be only looking forward to when they would meet a man, have a family and settle down.
The 1960s brought about what some have argued is the first slasher film Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Hitchcock was able to cast major Hollywood stars to actor in his thriller. He cast a young, handsome Anthony Perkins in the lead and a major star in Janet Leigh, whom Hitchcock kills in the beginning of the movie. In that day it was unheard of now it’s done in movies such as Wes Cravens 1996 movie Scream killing off a major star such as Drew Barrymore. According to FilmmakerIQ.com Psycho “shocked audiences into believing horror could be more than B-Film Fare (14)”.
Have you ever felt discriminated against in the workplace? Usually, women are the most common people that are mistreated in the workplace. There are many reasons why women are discriminated against, but none of them are excuses for women for not being successful. Women face sexism by getting less pay than men, not getting promoted as equally as men, and facing other gender stereotypes, but sexism can be solved by women confronting their internal and external barriers and finding people that can help women.
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Sex Discrimination in the American Workplace: Still a Fact of Life. (2000, July 01). Retrieved from National Women's Law Center : www.nwlc.org
Does Father really know best? In Corporate America, men seem to want full control. Our organizations have been created by men for men and they have great opposition to women infiltrating their management positions. Men have created glass ceilings for women in the workplace. A glass ceiling is an artificial barrier that allows women to see the top of the corporate ladder but at the same time denies them access to the higher rungs of that ladder. Women keep hitting their heads on the glass ceiling until they develop so many knots on their heads that eventually they give up on their goals and ambitions.
Historically, females have been discriminated against in the United States based solely on their gender. Gender or sex discrimination may be described as the unfair treatment of a person in their employment because of that person's sex. It is illegal to discriminate based on sex and it may result in negative effects on employment include pay, position and title, advancements and training opportunities or whether or not an individual is hired or fired from a job.
Though, they still face many issues and many walls that have to be broken down before they can be given the equal life opportunities that men are granted at birth (Lee). Feminism is still a prerequisite in the world today to battle against the iniquity in financial, social, and political aspects so gender equality can be achieved. Under the Equal Pay Act of 1863, the gender wage gap supposedly no longer exists, but the facts are that “as of 2012, women in the U.S. earn 77 cents to a man's dollar” (ProQuest Staff). Men try to justify this unjust statistic by saying that “wage gap isn't necessarily the result of discrimination” (ProQuest Staff). However, there is no logical reasoning behind it.
Traditional gender roles in the United States and other societies have always been dictated as where the man goes and works for a salary as women stay at home to take of house related work. However, many changes in the traditional family has made gender roles go through significant changes. Many women have gone through college and have obtained college education degrees, which has allowed women to advance their careers. The break down of rigid gender roles and the increase in participation of women in the workplace have granted women more choices in life. The choices many women now have in there career fields has made some controversial views on the intelligence of women achieving the status of their male counterparts The first view obtained in the workplace is the ability to make a even paying field for both men and women. Many constituents have pledge to achieve equality for women through laws forbidding the use of any sexist policies that may constitute discrimination against sex. The second is weather working women have been allowed to working women have the same opportunities rewarded to them as men do. Many political action committees have help perpetuate feminist movements which intended to build equal opportunity workplaces for both men and women however, many questionable issues still arise at weather working conditions have become better for women.
One important question that needs to be asked is, “what is equal?” Equality between sexes and race has been stressed and made law in the late nineteenth century, but even though laws have been made to protect woman from this discrimination, it still occurs frequently. Equal is being treated the same way and having the same opportunities no matter who one is. Big business has not given women the chance to be equal with men. One does not normally see a woman as the owner, or even the manager of a major corporation, these jobs consistently go to men. Traditi...
Women are usually targeted because they are seen as the inferior gender in society. They are often displayed as sexual objects in the media, such as in porn and video games. Because of the way women are portrayed in society, they do not have the same opportunities as men. Many people may think that sexism is not an important issue anymore because women are making their way to the top. For instance, Mary Berara, the CEO of General Motors says “There are more women in more senior roles than in 1980 when I started. But from my career perspective, I don 't go into a room and take count. I want to be recognized for my contribution and for what I do” (nymag). Women are pushing themselves to work in higher positions, to prove that they have the same ability as men. Although women are becoming more and more powerful, sexism is still a huge issue today. Women may have higher positions, but they are paid less than men. According to a news article, “In 2012, the median earnings of American women working full time year-round were $37,791. American men earned a median income of $49,398. The gender wage gap has hovered at about 77 cents on the dollar since 2007” (huffington). This proves that sexism is present today since women working in the same jobs as men are paid a lower
The first law reacting to gender discrimination was the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which was an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act. This law stated that gender pay discrimination was bad for business, being an inefficient use of human resources and creating conflict. The law puts forth that no business may give lower pay to one gender, when the jobs are equal. There are exclusions such as seniority, merit, and pay for quantity jobs.
The first reason for gender inequality is income disparities. The reason for income disparities is because men are getting more median wage than women. Women are often paid less for the same thing as men only because they are women. So the realization had once been deliberately chosen less high paying careers than men. Some of these jobs would be secretarial, clerical to explain why men in a particular company would make more money than a women in the same company. That may have been true once, but no longer that way in today’s economy. Now that more women are holding mid-level management jobs the career choices by men are ambitions to women’s pay disparities.
Sexism is a major factor in the workforce.Today male and female have a hard time breaking into the opposite gender dominated fields. This has happened because of the media, it has showed us that male have certain “right” jobs, as well as female. Female still dominate traditional female professions like cosmetology jobs are 92.9 percent women working them(Wolfe). If a man were to get into cosmetology they would most likely be judged for having that job, because we stereotype that they can't have a feminine job. Women have a harder time getting into high level positions. “Women make up only 21 of the S&P’s 500 CEOs,” (Berman). This has happened because the media has set in place stereotypes that it is wrong for women to have high level positions. It is getting better, in 2013 women chief financial officers increased 35 percent at large U.S. companies from 2012 (Frier and Hymowitz). The job market for men and women is still unfair but it is starting to get equal.
I understand that the lack of women taking a role as a leader in a company does not apply as a good example speaking that it is gender inequality but based on the ability of the person of taking the job. But on the other hand, there is no reason that could explain why women are getting less pay than men when they both are working for the same job.Which also mean that there is no rejection stating that there is gender inequality when it comes together speaking of the wage gap between men and women. Restating the argument that was made earlier, women earn 77 percent of what men earn for the same job. In this case, it explains that gender inequality is still occurring around us. It clearly demonstrates that men and women are getting treated differently. If both men and women are taking the same job and working at the same hour and having the same experience. What makes that women should take a lower pay than men when women are also giving all those hard work in the same job? The only answer to that question is that there is gender inequality. There are also other examples of gender inequality that occur around the world. For instance, in Saudi Arabia there is limited mobility for women. Where women have no right to drive a car or ride a bicycle on public roads. Also in Chile and Lesotho, women lack the right to own land. All deeds must include the name of a man, the husband or father, and if one of those man die,
In conclusion, although the roles of men and women have radically changed over the turn of the century, it is still inevitable to have various gender related occupational differences because the social and biological roles of women and men do not really change. The society still perceives women as the home makers and men as the earners, and this perception alone defines the differing roles of men and women in the labor market.