Women and Discrimination - Coursework Example

Running Head: Women & Discrimination Women & Discrimination [Institute’s Women & Discrimination Introduction Simone de Beauvoir once said that, “Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female - whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male" (CEOWMCR, Socialist Group & Čurdová, 2005). God has created all men and women equal but the human race is still far away from achieving its dream of gender equality. Despite the fact that the media, civil society, international organizations and many other NGOs are working actively to ensure gender equality but still gender inequality is prominent even in the most developed western nations. In fact, women have had fewer opportunities as compared to men throughout the history. For instance, women got voting rights after men (Dupper & Garbers, pp. 41-42, 2009). It is difficult to find considerable number of women in the senior managerial positions of major corporations and the same is due to discrimination and not due to the selections that women make. This paper is an attempt to provide evidence for this above-mentioned point. The rest of this paper would put forward points in favor this statement by presenting some thoughts, facts, and examples that supports the discussed idea. Discussion One can look at this problem of workplace discrimination against women in three ways. Firstly, it is the fact that women lack access to the labour market. People who oppose the thesis statement would quickly assume that the reason behind the same is bad choices, educational qualifications, and skills possessed by most of the women. However, it is interesting to note that a study of Glass Ceiling Commission, US government funded group claimed, “More than half of the master degrees are awarded to women, yet more than 95 percent of the top level managers of Fortune 1000 industrial and 500 service companies are men” (CEOWMCR, Socialist Group & Čurdová, 2005). This report only focuses on the situation in North America. One can imagine who worse the situation would be in third world countries. In most areas of the world, expectations from women are that they would not work alongside men due to various cultural and traditional reasons (The Economist, 2010). That explains even in most of the European countries, unemployment rate is higher with women despite the fact that they are more qualified than men are. Countries like Greece, Spain, Italy, and Slovakia have differences of 9.6 percent, 6.8 percent, 3.6 percent, and 3.4 percent between the unemployment rates of their men and women respectively (Human Rights Watch Organization & Sunderland, pp. 139, 2002). Moreover, these figures are the true representative of the discrimination against women in the workplace (The Economist, 2010). One may not be bale to detect this discrimination in the number of workers laid off their jobs. The reason is that employers are not careful with firing employees because employees now have strong protection in from of EEO laws (Landrine & Klonoff, pp. 56-58, 1997). Another stereotype that blocks the access of women to the labour is regarding the employer’s belief that it costs more to employ a woman because of the maternity benefits, leaves and if they get pregnant, they might leave the job, which may add the cost of replacing as well (Farrell, pp. 162-163, 2005). However, it is important to note that the number of women who leave their jobs to look after their families if often overestimated. For example, a recent study in France showed that only 14 percent of the working mothers have stopped working due to the pregnancy or the birth of their child and only 13 percent of them have left intentionally (Mooney, Knox & Schacht, pp. 15, 2008). However, the rest of the 87 percent have left their jobs due to incompatible working hours, poor working conditions and other work related issues (Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men of Czech Republic, Socialist Group & Čurdová, 2005). Several experts argue that the governments of various states have put excessive legislation and regulatory burden on employers in regards to gender discrimination and that is why they hesitate in providing equal work opportunity to women, since they believe that it is better to block their entrance in the company to avoid the risk of backfire (Hunter, pp. 255-258, 1992). The second dimension to this problem is the wage gap between the sexes. There are many occupations where women find themselves paid less than other fellow men regardless of the similarities of educational qualifications, skills, and performance (Landrine & Klonoff, pp. 56-58, 1997). In many countries (The Economist, 2010), male teachers are paid more than women for no clear reasons are. Moreover, female dominated professions like nursing, teaching, receptionist, clothes designing and others have found a wage decrease or stagnated wages over the past couple of decades (Human Rights Watch Organization & Sunderland, pp. 139, 2002). In fact, a recent study in US suggests that a woman gets 72 cents for the same job for which a man can earn around 1 dollar (Crosby, Stockdale & Ropp, pp. 102-105, 2007). The situation gets even worse with the third world countries (The Economist, 2010) of the world where women do most of the work are not paid at all. Globally speaking, women are responsible for growing and cultivating half of all the food available in this world (Dupper & Garbers, pp. 41-42, 2009). In fact, in most African countries this number rises to more than 80 percent (Human Rights Watch Organization & Sunderland, pp. 139, 2002). The same is true for Latin America where women also engage in poultry, livestock farming, and others. This same problem compounds when one realizes that women pensions are also lesser because they earn less than what men do. However, since women live longer than men, this situation becomes even more problematic (Jacobsen, pp. 74-2007). Lastly, there is this concept of glass ceiling that women cannot break and reach to the top-level managerial positions of big organizations. Men are preferred over women for senior level positions due to various reasons (Cleveland, Stockdale, & Murphy, pp. 197, 2000). Even when we consider female dominated jobs like those of nursing and teaching, a disproportionate number of males even in these professions get hold of the administrative positions (Mooney, Knox & Schacht, pp. 15, 2008). Conclusion At the end of this essay, we are in a quite comfortable position to say that women are subjected to discrimination at all levels and at all times and the same leads to their withdrawal and disinterest in the workplace. This paper had presented eye-opening facts and researches, which prove that women are more qualified than men are and are paid less than men are, in general. Experts agree that the major portion of this pay gap remains unexplainable and quite understanding we can refer the gap as “gender discrimination against women in the workplace” (Crosby, Stockdale & Ropp, pp. 102-105, 2007). References Cleveland, Jeanette, Stockdale, Margaret S., & Murphy, Kevin R. (2000). Women and men in organizations: sex and gender issues at work. Routledge. Crosby, Faye J., Stockdale, Margaret S., & Ropp, S. Ann. (2007). Sex discrimination in the workplace: multidisciplinary perspectives. Wiley-Blackwell Čurdová, Anna, Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men of Czech Republic, Socialist Group. (2005). Discrimination against women in the workforce and the workplace. Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe. Available from http://assembly.coe.int/documents/workingdocs/doc05/edoc10484.htm. Retrieved on August 02, 2010. Dupper, Ockert, & Garbers, Christoph. (2009). Equality in the workplace: reflections from South Africa and beyond. Juta. Farrell, Warren. (2005). Why men earn more: the startling truth behind the pay gap--and what women can do about it. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Human Rights Watch Organization & Sunderland, Judith. (2002). From the household to the factory: sex discrimination in the Guatemalan labor force. Human Rights Watch. Hunter, Rosemary. (1992). Indirect discrimination in the workplace. Federation Press. Jacobsen, Joyce P. (2007). The economics of gender. Wiley-Blackwell. Landrine, Hope, & Klonoff, Elizabeth A. (1997). Discrimination against women: prevalence, consequences, remedies. Sage Publications. Mooney, Linda A., Knox, David, & Schacht, Caroline. (2008). Understanding Social Problems. Cengage Learning. The Economist. (2010). A Special Report on America’s Economy. Retrieved on August 01, 2010: http://www.economist.com/node/15793128 The Economist. (2010). Economist Debates: Executive Pay. Retrieved on August 01, 2010: http://www.economist.com/debate/overview/156 The Economist. (2010). Food Politics. Retrieved on August 01, 2010: http://www.economist.com/node/8380592 The Economist. (2010). Idea: the Glass Ceiling. Retrieved on August 01, 2010: http://www.economist.com/node/13604240 Read More