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Barbara Presnell
5 April 2017
UWRT 1104
While I stood there and listened, as a spectator, I witnessed acts of hatred. I witnessed
acts of gender inequality. My friends were receiving the status of their summer lifeguard jobs.
Out of everyone who applied all ten of the males got the job, and four of the thirteen females got
the job. The supervisor conducting the interviews made a comment on how one male applicant is
more physically qualified than all the women applicants. Speaking strictly from personal
devalued based on my sex, however it is definitely within the realm of possibility in the years to
come. Over the past few years, I have noticed people being discriminated in the workplace by
their gender. Of course this issue has always occurred, but it was not apparent for me until I
observed it. In many ways equality is the direct creation of the cultural and social constructs of a
society. And as societies change, so do these conflicts. Conflicts of race, religion, and equality.
For the purpose of this inquiry I will consider both gender roles and disproportionate value in
which they are represented in the workforce. So, why are certain genders valued more than
In the article, Gender Inequality: More than just pay, it states, Gender inequality comes
in many different forms; it is more than just a salary - it is a form of subtle sexism. The idea of
gender discrimination within the workplace often gets related to word, feminism. Feminism,
according to Merriam Webster, is the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of
the sexes. Womens rights and feminism can be related to gender bias within the workplace,
however, that is not what it is solely about. My controversial topic is not concentrated towards
the typical stereotypes on gender bias within the workplace, but directed towards how it can
affect everyone.
I think our career choices are affected by our environment and socialization while we are
maturing into adults. Our likes and dislikes, hobbies, and occupational preferences are all
19th amendment which granted voting rights for women, Equal Rights Amendment that protects
individuals from gender-based discrimination, and the Paycheck Fairness Act which eliminated
gender as a scale for wages has helped to mitigate issues being faced in the workforce. But, a
problem still exists in getting women interested in professions that require a high amount of skill
and education that were previously dominated by men. Our culture exasperates this idea that
some professions are masculine while others are feminine. What I love most about this New York
Times article, More Men Are Taking Women's Jobs is that it is twisting everyones typical
perspective and prospects for women in medical and law fields having statistically higher job
outcomes than for men. Therefore, men are beginning to acquire lower-status jobs that women
about how in order to improve jobs policymakers should not be focused on gender or race, but
on general working conditions at the bottom of the income ladder. By this I think she means
there is a bigger problem in occupations. Not a problem gender, but with wages and employment
support.
One of the biggest issues in regards to gender equality within the workplace is related to
the traditional and historical views on masculinity and femininity. As sociologist, Phillip Cohen,
admitted, women tend to dominate in occupations that are in some ways similar to the activities
they performed for generations, such as childcare, nursing, and teaching. Men on the other hand,
have more likely to be found in professions that arent associated with domestic work such as
engineering or construction. I think this dynamic has led to societys demand and preference
shifting towards a segregation in the workforce based on sex. Of course in the modern age,
efforts have been made to decrease this and it is part of the reason many programs at our
University spend time and money attempting to recruit females in order to satisfy this change in
into the business marketplace. Currently, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 26%
of IT professionals are women. I believe the lack of diversity can directly affect the growing
perpetuation of gender based stereotypes and unconscious bias. In a Zurich TED Talk, Eleanor
Hallers talks about a study conducted in 2006 that took 953 managers across Europe and asked
each one of them to identify out of 14 key leadership attributes which sex they more typically
associate each attribute with. Almost without exception, all of the attributes believed that the
taking charge characteristic and behavior men have is perceived to be more competent at said
behavior. While women were perceived to attributes related to taking care types of behavior.
This means that regardless of performance, there is an inclination to believe one would see this
attribute in someone. Which directly relates to gender roles in the workforce. I believe a solution
to this would be to recognize that your mindset matters when considering individuals, a person
In this day and age, most would assume communication is a highly sought after value
accomplish a specific goal and their perceptions and ideologies shape the way they interact with
one another. When an individual believes that another persons viewpoints are not aligned with
their own, they are more likely to disagree with that person. This represents a conflict in interest
in the hiring and selection process. However, Eleanor Haller presented research conducted by,
The Paradigm Forum, stated there are actually more differences among women and among men
than between men and women. This study is very interesting to me because it shows the irony in
the previous statement and highlights the idea of someone being different is more important than
the actual differences they may have. So it is this misconception that shifts the demand for
diversity in team based work environments. A counter-argument for this would be the conclusion
made by Daniel Henley, who conducted an experiment in order to indicate how discrimination is
made based on political ideology in the workforce. This was accomplished by noting the
difference in participant employers and who they would hire based on their political ideology.
He hypothesized that, when compared to liberals, conservatives would be less likely to hire men
and women for gender atypical positions than gender stereotypical positions. Employers start
off by reading through four applicant transcripts. After scanning through all four, the employers
would then estimate the applicants compatibility with the company by examining their political
ideology. Contrary to his hypothesis, the results indicated conservatives were not significantly
more or less likely to hire men and women for more gender traditional occupations than
liberals. Their perception on how compatible an applicant was not affected by perceptions of
political ideology. This experiment is extremely interesting to me because Daniel Henley also
believed that gender bias within the workplace is an apparent issue, however, his views changed
A rather popular notion is that on average women earn less than men for the same amount
of work, but as mentioned above, the Paycheck Fairness Act eliminates this, and to illustrate the
absurdity of this claim one may only need to ask Why dont businesses hire only women? This
idea came from the YouTube video, There is No Wage Gap. Wages are the largest expense for
words, if the average income of all men is say $50,000 annually, and the average income of all
women is on average $38,500 annually, that would mean women earn .77 Cents for every dollar
a man earns. These made-up calculations do not indicate that there is a gender wage inequality,
because it does not take into account education, position, occupation, or hours worked per week.
A study done by the American Association of University Women shows that the actual wage gap
diminishes to only 6.6 cents when you factor in different choices men and women make.
Indicating, the difference is more related to different career choices made by men and women.
Overall, I think the wage has been one of the major issues between genders for generations.
However, the idea has been blown out of proportion. As said in the video, there are ways to end
or prevent it. The video may have some rhetorical references, but it makes a clear argument.
Why should anyone care that people are being treated unfairly within the workplace?
There are many ways in which ones sex can affect ones lifestyle and occupational choices.
However, it is important to distinguish between individuals and not solely base ones perceptions
on them based on that information alone. I think people need to understand how and where these
inequalities are occurring and how much the world can improve if people are treated uniformly.
This can be rather difficult as our notions on gender roles at home and at the workplace are
shaped by the culture we grow up in. It can be rather detrimental, as it devalues or overestimates
the potential of a person based on circumstance. A solution to this is to market not just high-skill
noted that societys view on historical and traditional roles for women versus men are changing,
and women are now competing for the same occupations that men are, but improvement is still
needed in order to increase diversity and decrease inequality among the genders. All individuals
gender. Maybe this controversy highlights more issues than originally conceptualized, but that is
a good outcome. Stimulating discussion opens up the path to new ideas, and with those ideas
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