Discrimination Against Women in the Workplace
In recent years, women have had more representation in the workforce. In fact, women’s participation in the workforce has been on the rise for the last fifty years. This is a huge achievement for women all over America. This increase has been caused by women getting better education, and the rates of women graduating has been increasing. Less women feel pressured to stay home to take care of their kids and more women over the age of fifty are staying in the workforce. It seems that women are becoming more confident in building a career for themselves than ever before. However, with more women working, there is still a high rate of gender discrimination in the workplace. This is one of the most prevalent challenges in the workforce that women in America face. There are many types of gender discriminations and also many effects that come with them. But, according to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, any employment discrimination due to race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is in fact, illegal. It may be illegal, but this has not stopped men from harassing, underpaying, and unfairly treating their female coworkers, superiors, or employees.
In a survey from Pew Research Center done in 2017, 42% of women in the workforce (4 in 10) in the United States reported to have been discriminated against because of their gender in some way. Also, 25% of working women reported to have earned less than a man doing the same job. Furthermore, 23% of women claimed to have been treated like they were incompetent because of their gender. Women are also three times more likely to experience sexual harassment in the workplace than men. In an ABC News/ Washington Post Survey, a total of 54% of women claim to have in general encountered inappropriate and unwanted sexual advances from men. In addition, 30% of women say they have gotten these sexual advances at work. Also, over 80% of the cases of sexual harassment reported in 2017 came from women. Women with higher levels of education tend to experience more discrimination. For example, 57% of women with a postgraduate degree have reported to have experienced some type of gender discrimination while working as compared to only 40% with only a bachelor’s and 39% who do not have a college degree. However, education is not the only factor in workplace discrimination against women. Some companies might not hire a woman because of the possibility she might have to leave for a period of time if she decides to start a family. Also, mothers are still subject to earning less money than men no matter the quality of their work and they are sometimes still penalized for missing work to give birth.
While a lot of women find these statistics and facts to be quite alarming, other women still deny the issue. This does not mean they do not acknowledge that gender discrimination exists, but more that it does not affect them in the workplace and it is not as big a challenge for women as people make it out to be. They think it happens at a much less rate and think other women have exaggerated the problem. It might have been a problem in the past but women have come a long way since then so it is not something to be concerned about anymore. Some women find that the gender wage gap can be explained by a difference in jobs, positions, experience and hours worked. Many of these women find that these factors are much better explanations as opposed to sexism and misogyny. Also, they find that the gender discrimination that does happen, is done on an independent level rather than a systemic one. Other women do not feel they are victims and have chosen to ignore gender discrimination because it has never happened to them specifically. Their work place might be a healthy work environment but that does not mean other women do not work in toxic environments.
Combatting gender discrimination has been a constant battle since women began participating in the workforce. One solution for workplaces to try and avoid gender discrimination is for employers to be upfront and transparent about payment from the beginning. Explaining what needs to be done and how much experience is needed to reach certain amounts of pay and to make sure there are no discrepancies between men and women that deserve the same amount of pay. Also, workplaces implementing zero-tolerance policies for gender discrimination. Not only do these policies need to be implemented, they need to be very strictly enforced. There will be less frequent incidents if employees understand they will lose their job if they are treating anyone unfairly based solely on somebody’s gender. Training employees on the matter could also be very helpful. This could provide a safe space for working women and also education for those who do not understand the importance of treating female colleagues with respect.