Is discrimination against women that choose to stay home with their children increasing - Research Paper Example

Topic:  Is discrimination against women that choose to stay home with their children on the increase? The issue of whether to give equal chances, priorities and opportunities to all women whether working or staying at home taking care of children has been a subject of concern in the current governments. The traditionally the role of a women has been to take care of the children and kids at home (Gould). According to Gould in regard to gender in the workforce provide that the notion of women staying at home to take care of the children and the other partner go to work has experience changes for the past half century (Gregory 34). In this study it is notable that in 1950s to 1970s the transition period began where women increased their efforts in joining the workforce. Women began to balance the career life and family life most of them choosing career over family. Overview of women career and family life As noted earlier that during 1970s that there was a sharp increase in the number women entering the workforce and career life prioritizes it over family life. After this transition period surveys conducted shows a sharp increase of this trend. A larger percentage of women who were born at the wake of the feminist revolution would choose career over the family. Most of the women describe themselves as being first generation women; they do not want to feel being pressured by the family responsibilities so as to establish their careers (Aloi). More than 55% of the credentialed pool of talent most of them college graduates entering into the workforce comprises of women. Most of them face the challenge of advancing their careers in which it needs a lot of sacrifice. This dilemma of women is that they either sacrifice their children or their career advancement. From the results of these surveys it can be argued that majority of the modern women are childfree of have no family responsibilities by choice rather than circumstances (Gould). Reasons For the push of women to join workforce There have been increased efforts of economically empowering women in most countries making it one of the remarkable revolutions in most countries in the world. With the increase in this trend, the major issue comes on how to create equal opportunities for both stay at home women and the career women (Gregory 23). In addition to this is the how the working women balance their personal lives. The notable reasons for the push of women entering the workforce include the following. Labour shortages As men engage in other activities some sector of a country economy may result into shortage in some sectors. Most governments in the world have initiated campaigns to encourage women to enter into the workforce (Scott). The implication of these government campaigns is the enactment of policies which are considered discriminative to those women at home not working. Female labour force has constantly increased. Feminist movement There has been increases feminist movement across the world which pushes for equal rights of women liberation. There has been criticism on the domestic slavery and discrimination of women. With this opportunity for women those who continued to stay at home were also criticized. Financial satisfaction There has been a rising and increasing cost of living in most economies in the world. Therefore the governments are pushing for women to work to be able to satisfy their financial needs. Women consider joining the workforce in order to support their families and themselves. Government equal rights acts Governments have passed equal rights acts which discourage women who stay at home. Such rights pertain majorly on the equality on the pay and the civil rights. Equal rights amendments have been proposed and passed in most countries (Scott). Emergence of Service Sector This sector for the last has century has tremendously expanded thus increasing the demand for female workers. The brain power of this sex has increased and triumphed and more women engage in the workforce. Increased access and the expansion of the higher education This factor pushed women to go into colleges increasing the chances of them securing job opportunities. It is notable that roughly in developed countries over 60% of women have attained college degrees (Gould). Therefore from this the implication is the increased and enhanced chances of women entering into the workforce. Consequences of Women entering into the workforce With the above push of women entering into the workforce is the change of roles and the perception of women in the workforce. According to Gregory the rise of the modern woman notion led into the problem in the management of the family schedules and the adjustment of the women and men family roles. Relationships of the families are notably shifting from dual income families from the fixed role scripts to a flexible and role negotiable where there is equality in the relationship (Gregory 105).The perspective of women in the workplace also changed to a more equalitarian workplace relationship with men. In the past when men dominated the workplace women have faced discrimination attributed to this men domination. As more women entered into the workforce this perception changed and in countries equal rights acts have been proposed (Hein). This has seen women to enjoy equal rights under the law with men. According to Scott in regard to equal rights amendment it makes illegal for the employers who engage in discriminating human resource practices in the workplace (Scott). These include hiring, worker testing, compensation, fringe benefits and the access to the facilities in the workplace. Justification for Women staying at home Stay at home mothers for a long time been regarded as homemakers and housewives. According to Grace 231 those women who stay at home basically choose to be at home to take care of their care of their children and prefer not to enter into the workforce (Grace James 34). As lit may be considered a traditional role on the perspective of a career woman, both the anti-feminist and the feminist groups of thought acknowledge this to be an important job. It is notable that most of the women who consider to staying at home find their work satisfying. Other major reasons in support of this are that the job is easier as compare with then consideration to join the workforce. Stay at home mothers considers this job convenient, less expensive than getting someone else to do the underlying work (Aloi). It is also important to note that some families have enough and adequate income from one primary source parent and so the other partner doesn’t need to work. The partner who does not work is obligated or chooses to stay at home to take care of the children and perform other family duties and responsibilities (Grace James 74). Feminism and Stay at home mothers According to Gould he provides that during the early years most of the feminism advocated for complete abandonment of the perceived feminine traditional roles. They attributed this believing that they were absolutely discriminating and unequal associating it with backwardness. This was further modified by the modern feminists who hold that it is relatively important for anybody to be free to choose a suitable role (Gould). From this it can be asserted that it is not necessary to pressure or to force anybody to fit or perform certain specific roles in the society thus there is nothing wrong for any woman choosing to stay at home to take care of his children and family. Therefore the society no needs to discriminate those mothers working at home because of the evolving nature and the dynamism of the society (Gregory 203). Misconceptions of stay at home mothers From the extensive research and studies carried out by @ the provision deduced is that most of the stay at home women notably mothers do this job temporarily. Most of them return to performing various jobs when their children are able to take care of themselves. Equal Rights Amendment Women’s equal rights at the workplace have been a key aspect in the context of equal rights advocacy as well as the feminist movement. As early as 1960s and 70s discrimination of women was categorized alongside racism. Most of the amendments on the rights of women in the workplace were basically designed to combat inequalities of salaries. Laws have also been amended where men and women performing same tasks in the workplace receive equal pay. The laws amended also enforce the minimum wages for all the workers irrespective of the gender. The amendment and the enforcement of these underlying equal rights for women in workplace had a significant impact on both labour legislations and the perception of working and staying at home mothers. According to Williams and Pinto, in most developed countries women comprise of more than 40% of the workforce. Approximate of 18% of the households are headed by women are the primary source of the income for their families. On the part of the women not in the workforce staying at home taking care of their families, these amendments and laws tend to discriminate them (Williams and Pinto 266). The consideration of the equal rights amendment is that any woman who is subjected to any workplace discrimination is entitled to monetary damages. Civil rights advocates may offer free services including advice in regard to the matter for free. From the perspective of a stay at home women who have not been adequately accommodated feels discriminated against career women. Despite these notable changes, it is important to note that merit based pay, job seniority, job effectiveness and variable pay scales are still in place. The principle is that both women and their male counterparts are treated with similar measures within the business pay system (Williams 78). In general the Equal rights amendment did not adequately address the rights of the stay at home women regarding their rights but only career women. It can be argued that these amendments have been used by most governments to campaign for women to join the workforce discriminating those who stay at home and not in the workforce. Family Responsibility Discrimination Family responsibility discrimination is a situation where employees in workplace are mistreated or punished without any legal basis. As provided by Williams this concept in workplace may entail an employee suffering unfair workplace action judgment based examinations (Williams 24). The issue of concern under this is how the workers who have care giving family responsibilities perform their duties behave or should act. These discriminations can be subtl and discouraging. Notably are the cases of women who go for maternity to only return and their position is eliminated and where women are denied promotions because of the perception that women are incompetent concerning the job commitment .Other common family discrimination responsibility is where women who are pregnant are never hired and their applications turned down. In addition most supervisors perceive that women would or should be always at home with their children and therefore should not be given more challenging responsibilities in the workplace (Williams and Pinto 367). These contribute to them being denied promotions and leadership at the workplace as compared with their male counterparts. In many workplaces in the corporate world there has been a notable increase in the discrimination against workers who have family responsibilities. According to Mathis there are increased number of lawsuits by the caregivers and guardians where companies are majorly sued by employees notably women who have the responsibility of taking care of their young children, aging parents and sick members of the family (Mathis 122). Most of the workplaces have failed to understand the concept of family responsibility discrimination thus continue to become a liability and unnecessarily increase the costs for the workplaces. With all the responsibilities and the pressures in the workplace notably on the part of the women most of them bow down the workplace to take care of their families. The implication of this is that most of the workplace has incorporated the concept of family responsibility discrimination. This concept majorly is attributed to the family care giving concerns affecting the workforce in the workplace further complemented with the nature of the labor force and the aging population. According to the Hastings report known as Protecting Family Caregivers from Employment Discrimination it focuses on the issues and matters concerning older employers who have the responsibility of taking care of the elderly relatives (Mathis 345). In addition to this are the employees who have to spent time taking care of their sick children and the maternity leave-workers who need to care for the family members irrespective of their ages. Women Family Responsibility discrimination From the statistics on the underlying cases and lawsuits in regard to the family responsibility discrimination most of them concerns women specifically mothers. It is notable that more than 80% of the working mothers are stressed because of the dissatisfaction with the balance of family life and as a career mother. Mothers are known to consist of the larger population in the world who provide the caregiving without being paid to her loved one including their spouses and their aging parents (Williams and Pinto 355). Working mothers feel extra pressure in the workplace because of these family responsibilities. This situation is worsening further by the lack of understanding from the employer and because this that significant number of mothers decides to abandon the workplace tasks and concentrate on family responsibilities. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission they provide that there has been a sharp increase on the unlawful discrimination against pregnant women and generally the workers with caregiving responsibilities. It is notable that countries and states have intensified their efforts in coming up with ant-Family Responsibility Discrimination legislations (Williams and Bornstein 1325). These legislations are aimed to protect individuals in the workplace against the various family responsibilities that the modern families go through. With the increase many women entering into the workforce, quite a number of them have risen into being hiring directors and the implication of this is the reduced discrimination of women in the workplace. Women hiring directors are notably instrumental in regard to Family Responsibilities advocates. This has ushered in the recognition and understanding of the trends in the family life as well as the workplace. Therefore because of this situation specific commission in various countries such as the education, pensions and labor committees have been formed to address the discrimination that women face so as to have a balanced work and life. Because of this discrimination that the society subject to women, there is constant emergence of the advocacy and pushing the systems in the society to adopt family friendly policies kin their workplace. The need to address staying at home mothers needs to be hastened (Williams and Bornstein 1422). This is because most of the governments have not fully adopted policies that shall enable the both the working and staying at home mothers to be able to meet their responsibilities. Men Family Responsibility discrimination It is also notably that men are also subjected to family responsibility discrimination and it is worsen by the fact that most of their cases lack adequate legal support. In contrast to the women counterpart’s men have no parallel protections with them because there are no specific provisions for men. Causes of Family responsibility discrimination New Supervisor Syndrome As new supervisor or change in the management of the society many operations within the organization also change. This implies that most of the employee’s way of balancing both the family and work ought to change in various aspects. It is notable that most of the supervisors come with new work arrangements disrupting the already established ones (Williams and Pinto 306). There may be occurrence of cancellation of flexible arrangement of work, establishment of new requirement of productivity and change in shifts. In most cases this leads into the workers who have numerous family responsibilities such as mothers to quit the job. This conflict is usually categorized to be a family discrimination with the intention to push away the care givers. Second Child Bias In regard to this family responsibility discrimination occurs notably when females in the workplace become pregnant with the second and in other cases multiple births. Employers tend to consider some employee personnel action on the female because of the perception that the female worker will no longer be committed fully to the workplace (Williams and Bornstein 2306). The issue of discrimination comes along when the female employee is considered incompetent on the grounds that she cannot sufficiently be committed to the society work because of the additional family responsibilities The Elder Care Effect A significant number of discriminatory cases on women in the workplace are the time they take as off to take care of their elderly parents. The same supervisors usually perceive this to being divergence of commitment to somewhere else apart from the workplace (Williams and Pinto 245). As the case in the second child discrimination this assumption has no legal basis but infringe the rights of the mothers and all the employees in the workplace. Remedies to the family responsibilities discrimination Human resource remedies The human resource policies determines to a greater extent to which family responsibility comes into occurrence. This affects both the women in the workplace as well as these staying at home and they are considering joining the workforce. Supervisors should understand the importance of refraining from inappropriate actions, making decisions and judgments based on stereotyping. The underlying managers should also be able to understand the background and the family responsibility state of its workers. This should be followed with a sensible and fair evaluation of the employee performance (Aloi). This implies that such evaluations should never be measured based on judgments such as maternity leave period. It is also important for mothers at home to take a review concerning leave policies so as to ensure that they do not have any negative implications. Companies and societies should have strong policies especially when handling complaints of discrimination and harassment to women who have demanding family responsibilities. Legislations enforcement In regard to the hiring process relevant authorities and commissions should come up with laws and policies that will govern how female gender notably mother are getting hired. This will ensure that mothers who are at home with family responsibilities are not disadvantaged when they want join the workforce (Williams and Pinto 208). All the pending bills in regard to family responsibilities discrimination should be amended and passed. This will ensure that workers especially mothers are protected from facing workplace actions for the underlying family responsibilities. The government should partner with other agencies in ensuring that mothers, fathers, sons and daughters have a balanced career life and their family lives. Work Cited Aloi, Daniel. Cornell University News Service: Mothers face disadvantages in getting hired, Cornell study says. 4 August 2005. 6 December 2012 . Gould, Tim. Family responsibility discrimination: New legal minefield for HR. 7 September 2012. 6 December 2012 . Grace James, Nicole Busby. Families, Care-Giving and Paid Work: Challenging Labour Law in the 21st Century. Cheltenham and Camberley : Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011. Gregory, Raymond F. Women and Workplace Discrimination: Overcoming Barriers to Gender Equality. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2003. Hein, Catherine. Reconciling Work And Family Responsibilites: Practical Ideas From Global Experience. New York: International Labour Organization, 2005. Robert L. Mathis, John H. Jackson. Human Resource Management. New York: Cengage Learnin, 2010. Scott, Dylan. Familly Responsibilitie sDiscrimination Laws being raised by states. 11 May 2012. 6 December 2012 . Williams, Joan C. and Consuela A. Pinto. "Family Responsibilities Discrimination: Don't Get Caught off Guard." HeinOnline (2008): 293-421. Williams, Joan C. and Cynthia Thomas Calvert. "Family Responsibilities Discrimination: What Plaintiff's Attorneys, Management Attorneys and Employees Need to Know." HeinOnline (24-98): 2006. Williams, Joan C. and Stephanie Bornstein. "Family Responsibilities Discrimination and Developments in the Law of Stereotyping and Implicit Bias." HeinOnline (2008): 1311-1521. Read More