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Eng101 Mc Mahon Gender Inequalities
English Composition II (ENG123)
Southern New Hampshire University
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Gender Discrimination in the Workplace Morgan McMahon
Since women started working in factories in 1874, they had been discriminated against by their male counterparts. The gender pay gap, pregnancy and childcare, even trying to find the support they needed were hard on women. Today’s legislature has yet to accept that women are still being treated unfairly and is failing to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act originally introduced in 1997 but reintroduced in 2019. Some argue that women were not meant to be working, that they should be home barring children, now, they say women should follow careers that pay more and have more benefits. I believe this is an issue that should have been solved but it doesn’t seem important enough to lawmakers to act upon. Over 200 years women have been treated unfairly inside the workplace due to gender discrimination, the gender pay gap, pregnancy discrimination, and not being supported enough as a business owner, this needs to change now because there is a gender pay gap, childcare rights, and pregnancy. The pay gap is the difference between what male and female workers get for working in the same professions with the same degrees. There are some women who do make more than men. This is an average. The cumulative pay of all working women in the US is about 82% of the pay of all working men in the US. There are certainly men who earn less than some women. It’s a surprise how much money someone can lose out on just by being female. The pay gap can affect a persons’ life entirely, when it comes to what they can afford in life and the life they want to be able to provide for their families. Decrease in pay might not be able to afford childcare or a babysitter, which would then lead to the mother no longer working due to no childcare. “The researchers found that female educators (including teachers on up to superintendents and CEOs) in Pennsylvania earn $4,395 less on average than male educators when only accounting for gender differences. After accounting for education level, experience, school district, and job title, female teachers earn $505 less than men, and women principals earn $2,206 less. Women
Smith, 2018). Smith’s article covers how women are treated differently within the workplace in different aspects. Such as men receiving a more complex task 60% of the time, or even referencing how out of the 17 companies that were within the study, 51% of whom “have received such comments in the workplace believe they did so because they were female.’ (Smith, 2018). ‘Comments on appearance are experienced almost as much by men (40%) as women (43%) and women are about as likely to experience open discussions in which they can share their opinions (72% vs 75% of men).” Those numbers may look close but comparing the number of men versus women in the said companies could be drastically different. Unfortunately, women experience discrimination in more ways than one and one of those ways usually is supposed to bring joy and happiness into your life. When a woman becomes pregnant while employed, she has to worry about either getting fired, laid off, having their hours reduced, possible even a salary decrease. Sometimes unfortunate things occur during pregnancy and they may need to take a medical leave from work. With the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, women are now able to get pregnant and not have to worry about whether or not they will receive consequences. In Ruth Terry’s article “Women in the Workplace. Can new policies to support families increase participation?”, she had put a chronological chart showing how slowly they have passed laws for women to receive the support they needed. In 1874, women were finally allowed to work in factories, usually separate from men. 46 years later in 1920, the U dept. of Labor establishes the Women’s Bureau to promote gender equality within the workplace, but women were known to quit after getting married, to have kids and be a stay-at-home mother. Same year the 19th amendment was passed granted women suffrage. 1963, Congress passed that Kennedy proposed, the Equal Pay Act. This act requires equal pay for equal work, but without regard to gender. 1964, Civil Rights Act Title VII bars workplace discrimination based on race
and gender. 1971, President Richard Nixon vetoed universal childcare bill, arguing that it would diminish parental authority. 1978, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. Why’d it take so long for the male lawmakers and the male Presidents to give rights to women, who give birth to said men? April of 2021, U. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) helped introduce bipartisan legislation which passed in May 2021. “The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act would allow pregnant workers to continue working by ensuring they can have accommodations such as additional bathroom breaks, light duty or a stool to sit on if a worker stands all day. It would prevent them from being forced out on leave or out of their jobs. The bill also prohibits employers from denying employment opportunities to women based on their need for reasonable accommodations due to childbirth or related medical conditions.” (Shaheen 2021). Shaheen’s article explains what the bill is and how she wants to improve on pregnancy discrimination. People may see gender discrimination to be a thing in the past, but it is still present. 200 years and everything is changing slowly. Women are being discriminated for getting pregnant and having a baby, who could possibly be the next president one day. We are delt the least number of opportunities and are shown the least amount of support when it comes to being a woman in a male dominated field. “The U. population is 51 percent female. In Congress, however, 90 percent of the lawmakers are male, 89 percent in the House of Representatives and 93 percent in the Senate.” (Scholastic). That is an incredible number of male lawmakers, who have taken these hundreds of years not showing enough care to those who they should care for the most.
Eng101 Mc Mahon Gender Inequalities
Course: English Composition II (ENG123)
University: Southern New Hampshire University
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