Gender Discrimination and the Law - Term Paper Example

Gender Discrimination Gender discrimination refers to attitudes and beliefs that relate to the gender of a person and normally do not hold any legal ramifications (Anker, p 23). Gender discrimination may otherwise be referred to as sexism. Sex discrimination is an undesirable action carried out by one individual against another due to sex status or gender differences. Sex discrimination may have legal ramifications. What constitutes sex discrimination may vary from one country to another; the bottom line is that it is an unfavorable act, which is discriminatory with regard to sex status.  Sex discrimination is illegal in numerous countries. There are different contexts that sexual discrimination may arise (Ayres, p 65). For example, an employee attending an interview may be asked discriminatory questions, or an employer wrongfully terminated or did not promote an employee based on their sexual affiliations, an employer failing to hire an employee, or an employer pays unequal remunerations based on gender. Another instance is in an educational setting whereby there might be claims of a student being left out on educational institution, opportunity, program, student loan, scholarship, or student group due to their gender. In a housing setting, instances may be declined the right to negotiate on seeking a house, leasing or contracting a house based on their sex. In a bank setting, an individual may be offered unequal loan terms or their plea for loans rejected based on their gender. Whereas there may be assertions of non-physical disparity between men and women, academic literature based on gender find only a limited amount of characteristics that are similar psychological differentials, between women and men, these are directly in relation to experiences pegged on biological discrepancies (Gunderson, p129). There are psychological variations regarding to how problems, emotional reactions and perceptions relating to hormones, and the relevant characteristics of each sex during the long-term function in historic primitive lifestyles. According to the United Nations, women more often than not face a “glass ceiling” and that no societies are available whereby women enjoy equal opportunities as men (Gregory, p82). The term describes a distinguished barrier to progress in employment based on sex discrimination. In 1995, the Glass Ceiling Commission, a United Sates government financially funded group regardless of the fact that women are awarded over 50% of all masters degrees, 95% of senior managers, of over 1000 industrial and 500 service companies are of the male gender. The commission recommended affirmative action in their report which considers employee’s race and gender. while hiring and promoting employees, This is to eradicate this discrimination (Gregory p83). In 2008, as a result of this move, 51% of all workers in well- paying professional, management, and related occupations were women. They were a larger number than men in occupations such as financial managers, public relations managers, and human resource managers. Transgender individuals, both female to male and male to female face difficulties which eventually result to underachievement, dismissals, difficulty in job searching, social isolation, and sometimes violent attacks (Cohn, p74). However, gender discrimination is not only revealing itself with women or in transgender individuals. Men are also sometimes victimized on the basis of sex in certain fields of employment such as office administration and childcare settings conventionally assumed to be “women’s jobs”. Other ways in which gender discrimination may reveal itself is through an employee claims that a manager or another individual in power makes statements or jokes that are insulting, demeaning, or offensive to women (McLean, Sheila, and Noreen, p68). Another instance is a case of a manager who clarifies through his words or actions that he has sexual desires for, or intends to have relations of a sexual nature with a female employee. Another instance is a manager who inquires unnecessarily or inappropriately regarding a female employee’s sex or love life. Lastly, a manager who touches inappropriately his female employees without her consent is tantamount to sex discrimination. Virginia representative, Howard Smith included the word “sex” to the Human rights bill which initially was intended to cover issues or racial discrimination only (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Technical Assistance, p46). Through the efforts of Representative Martha Griffith and the rest of representatives, the bill was passed. One year before the passing of the paramount civil rights legislation act, the main problem relating to gender discrimination had been an issue of concern to the U.S Congress. Before 1963, it was legal for employers to remunerate women lower wages as compared to wages offered to men performing similar jobs. During World War 2, the jobs that were initially being carried out by men were taken over by women while men took part in the war (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Technical Assistance, p53). The National War Labor Board during this period, launched attempts to convince companies to remunerate women at the same rate as men, though the attempts were a miserable failure. Actually, most of the women were rendered jobless after the arrival of the men from the war. Before the passing of the bill, newspapers often ran separate job advertisements in the classifieds based on sex. The same job was normally posted in both sections but with a lower pay for women. In 1963, women were paid 59 percent of earnings for men on the same job. The Equal Pay Act had its main agenda fixed to ending that disparity. The law clearly stated that “no employer ought to discriminate, in any job environment, between employees on the basis of gender by remunerating employees in the establishment at a reduced rate to that paid to employees of the other sex on tasks that require equal effort, skills and responsibility to perform, and are performed under the same working conditions”. The law, however, exempts aspects of seniority, systems that peg payment on job performance, quality or quantity of work done, and wage disparities based on other factors than sex (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Technical Assistance, p75). To oversee and regulate the federal civil rights legislation, which entails the Equal Pay Act, a distinct administrative body was set up as part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The EEOC- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was set up to uphold laws preventing sex, race, religion, color, national origin, age, or disability when firing, hiring, or promoting employees. The commission is an autonomous body having the power to file law suits, launch investigations, and develop programs toeliminate any form of discrimination (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Technical Assistance, p96). In order to prevent gender discrimination, as well as sexual harassment in the place of work, numerous employers have adopted a policy of zero tolerance against all discrimination acts (Gregory, p112). This mainly is materialized by development of an official policy that is circulated in the organizations to all employees. In addition, most organizations organize training and education courses for all managers. Furthermore, the organizations need to show and prove their seriousness towards the implementation and enforcement of the newly adopted policy by setting disciplinary standards for those who violate the policy. Another stride that employers can carry out is to perform a comprehensive investigation every time a case of harassment or discrimination is lodged (Anker, p 64). If, investigations reveal the claims to be true there is a probability that the organization may be held liable. The organization may reduce the level of punishment it may receive, if it carries out a comprehensive in- house investigation that results in the necessary action being taken against the culprit who carried out the discrimination. Regardless of the level of training managers have received in identifying and arresting occurrences of sexual harassment or discrimination, they should be warned against trying to take control of the case by themselves (Rhode, p62). The best thing is to notify human resource department immediately, that an occurrence of harassment or discrimination has occured and ought to be investigated. Employees should be trained on the acceptable and appropriate mannerism, to enhance effective working relations. Works Cited Anker, Richard. Gender and Jobs: Sex Segregation of Occupations in the World. Geneva: International Labour Office, 1998. Print. Ayres, Ian. Pervasive Prejudice?: Unconventional Evidence of Race and Gender Discrimination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. Print. Cohn, Samuel. Race and Gender Discrimination at Work. Boulder, Colo: Westview Press, 2000. Print. Gregory, Raymond F. Women and Workplace Discrimination: Overcoming Barriers to Gender Equality. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press, 2003. Print. Gunderson, Morley. Comparable Worth and Gender Discrimination: An International Perspective. Geneva: International Labour Office, 1994. Print. McLean, Sheila, and Noreen Burrows. The Legal Relevance of Gender: Some Aspects of Sex-Based Discrimination. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, 1988. Print. Rhode, Deborah L. Justice and Gender: Sex Discrimination and the Law. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1989. Print. Sex Discrimination: Employment Discrimination Prohibited by Title Vii of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, As Amended, and the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Washington, D.C.?: United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Technical Assistance Read More