In the past 3 decades, women made great advancements in the workforce. First, they have become an integral part of the labour market; they have access to higher education and consequently to traditionally male dominated professions such as medicine, law and business. While statistics show that women are equal to men in terms of their numbers in the law profession, it is not clear however, whether they have achieved equality in all other areas of their employment. In this paper, I will examine women’s experiences in the law profession; whether women are earning equal salary compared to the male lawyers, do they still face barriers that are gender related and whether they have broken the glass ceiling in a profession that is supposed to be an example for practising equality and justice.
The experience of women lawyers.
Despite improvements to women’s role in the labour market, women are still facing obstacles that are gender related. Women continue to bear the main responsibility for domestic duties and child care and further more, policies have not enabled women to fully succeed.
While women were able to gain access to this highly male dominated profession, and in some cases they outnumber their male counterparts, researchers agree that women are still facing discriminatory barriers. While discrimination is more subtle nowadays compared to the blatant and stupid style of the recent past (Adcock, 2006) women are still experiencing discrimination which is preventing them from receiving equal pay, thus hindering their progress and altering their career paths. They still face an array of barriers to achieving equality in their careers, including the allocation of work, opportunities for advancement, income differentials...
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... of the choices that women are making or the constraints that they have to live with. I argue that women do not have the freedom to pursue their careers in the same way men do, they have the juggling act that they need to perform by satisfying their social stereotyping roles of care givers and nurturers.
While equal pay is not an issue on the outset in federally regulated sector due to the Pay Equity legislated, however it would be interesting to see how many women are reaching high ranked positions in proportion to the overall demographics. According to a report y the Treasury board secretariat on diversity in the public service “: Women… have faced negative attitudes and stereotyping and have consistently undervalued” which confirms while women are supposed to be renumerated equally to men, they have yet to improve their representation in the leadership ranks.
This research is significant to society because in order to reduce gender disparities we must fully understand their origins. This is an issue that affects all professional women and urgently needs to be addressed. It is important to move beyond professional struc...
Despite legislation for equal opportunities, sexism is still evident in the workplace. Women have made great advancements in the workforce and have become an integral part of the labor market. They have greater access to higher education and as a result, greater access to traditionally male dominated professions such as law. While statistics show that women are equal to men in terms of their numbers in the law profession, it is clear however, that they have not yet achieved equality in all other areas of their employment. Discrimination in the form of gender, sex and sexual harassment continues to be a problem in today’s society.
In February 2015, Ellen Pao’s lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital firm, for gender discrimination went on trial. Pao alleged that she had been treated unfairly by her ex-bosses and passed on numerous times for promotion in favor of her male counterparts. While Pao did not win her lawsuit, the trial brought back to light the problem of gender discrimination and of the glass ceiling in corporate America. Since women started to enter the workforce, there always have been barriers and obstacles that prevented them from reaching the higher ranks on the corporate ladder. Public recognition that there was indeed a problem of discrimination helped giving women assurance
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.
To resolve the gender wage gap, the government should consult with employers in federally-regulated sectors to apply a gender-based analysis to the design, development, implementation and evaluation of the policy. The law should clearly outline the systematic discrimination that women face in the workforce. This policy would entail employers to determine whether gender-based disparities exists and reevaluate the current pay system from an equity perspective to ensure and promote pay transparency. The law of ensuring pay equity should first be applied to the public sector, including federal public servants, employees of Crown cooperation and federally regulated companies. After this law has been found to be effective, it is also recommended that private corporations follow the same suit and comply with the pay equity
Despite the manifestation of Rosie the Riveter propaganda and the continuous push to recruit women, they still were not granted equal pay for their services. This was true in the 1940’s and it’s still a relevant issue today. Then, it was rare for women to earn even slightly more than fifty cents to every man’s dollar. Now, the average woman earns anywhere from sixty to eighty percent of a man’s salary for the exact same job. Ranges vary depending on the specific career field. However, women of minorities remain stuck in injustice systematic trends. The pay rate for a female minority is still approximately fifty percent.
Gregory, Raymond F. Women and Workplace Discrimination: Overcoming Barriers to Gender Equality. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
According to the article “It’s a Man’s World”, many fields are still male-dominated even though women have slowly started entering them. Historically women have been time and again been denied to enter certain occupations based on gender. Women still face many of the same challenges addressed in working in a male-dominated career. Earning the respect of their male colleagues, obtaining the same promotions and balancing work and home life appear to remain at the forefront of issues still in need of being addressed.
Despite the passage of protective federal legislation in the forms of the Equal Pay Act in 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Acts of 1964, there still exists prominent gender discrimination in the workplace that negatively impacts career advancement for women. This is best seen through the case example of Ann Hopkins. Hopkins was denied a career advancement to partner status within Price Waterhouse solely based on her perceived femininity and not the quality of her previous work for the company. This incident occurred in 1982, roughly 20 years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act and Title VII. Although the Equal Pay Act and Title VII have made great strides towards economic gender equality in the United States, they are by no means complete. The United States needs additional legislation in order to guarantee equal pay for equal work.
Women are more than half the work force and are graduating at higher rates then men and continue to earn considerably less then men. There are several contributing factors to the gender wage gap. Women experience gender discrimination in the work force even though it’s been illegal since the Equal Pay Act in 1963. One of the challenges for women is uncovering discrimination. There is a lack of transparency in earnings because employees are either contractually prohibited or it’s strongly discouraged from being discussed. Discrimination also occurs in the restricting of women’s access to jobs with the highest commission payments, or access to lucrative clients.
In today’s society, Women perform similar jobs to men. Whether it’s blue or white collar jobs, women are always present and thriving for success balancing a life of business and family. In the job market, some are graduates of the best schools and have interned at the best firms, but are still not compensated as equally as men. Following the recent comments by the CEO of Microsoft concerning women asking for raises and how they should trust the system to install equality, the issue seems to be still present, and women’s work is not rewarded similarly to men’s.
In the past, many people believed that women’s exclusive responsibilities were to serve their husband, to be great mothers and to be the perfect wives. Those people considered women to be more appropriate for homemaking rather than to be involved in business or politics. This meant that women were not allowed to have a job, to own property or to enjoy the same major rights as men. The world is changing and so is the role of women in society. In today’s society, women have rights that they never had before and higher opportunities to succeed.
Despite government regulations to promote equality within the workplace, women’s salaries continue to lag behind males in similar career with similar experiences. According to research performed by Blau & Kahn (2007) “women salaries averaged about 60% of men’s until the 1970s and rose to nearly 80% by the 1990s” (as cited in Bendick, Jr. & Nunes, 2012, p.244). Today, women on average earn approximately $.81 for every dollar that men earn in the United States (Guy and Fenley P.41 2014).
It is, therefore, natural for most companies to think that women cannot be as capable as men in terms of assuming strenuous or challenging positions because women, by default, become less participatory and more vulnerable when they start to have family and children. Apparently, this situation has led to various gender discriminations in the labor market. 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. 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.
However, women have made optimistical progress towards equality and their role in the society has been changed dramatically since the last century. Many women stepped out of their home and start to work at factories and offices. The number of working women with children has more than doubled in the past 50 years. While working conditions for women may have improved, there is a lack of appreciation for the notion that work for most women doesn't end at the door of a factory or office. Despite an increase of women's participation in the labour force, women's share of housework has hardly changed in 50 years.