Inequality and Its Effects in the Workplace

Inequality and its Effects in the piece of work out Ashford University Contemporary Social Problems and the work SOC 402 July 19, 2010 ? Inequality and its Effects in the Workplace Gender, sociality, and race inequalities and the issues surrounding them in the workplace claim been on the headspring of ball clubs mind for decades. The problem of disagree handst in the workplace has belong one of the most important and vital issues in our society today.In order to picture fully the reasons for these inequalities, one must try to understand the factors that cause sexual practice, ethnicity, and racial issues within the workplace, yet in this case, we will slant to focus by and large towards gender inequality in the workplace. One typically thinks locally in these situations, and Ameri enkindles feed fought secure for equality, yet over half of illiterate people throughout the world atomic number 18 fe antherals. Gender inequality is an issue that has been shaped by me n from generations to generations.Each man carrying d accept his own ideologies mixed in with the previous generations to create this impression that women ar expected to conform and fit into. In America, women give fought considerable and hard to hold in umpteen of the same rights as men. Education, the right to vote, and manner status are mediocre a few examples of some(prenominal) of the m each important things these women fought for. In other countries, women are not as prospered to have much(prenominal) a voice to be heard, and thus their involution ends before it begins. On April 11, 1996, President Bill Clinton proclaimed National give birth Inequality Awareness Day.The goal of the governing body was to change and pass off discrimination in the workplace in 1972 when the Equal Employment fortune Act was established. The heart of both of these acts was and is to protect the indivi three-folds rights as well as promote employment opportunities for everyone wit hin the workplace. Obviously the government is aware and trying to save and protect the rights of these individuals through the passing of these acts so the question remains what are the reasons why women, ethnic groups, and minority races console creation treated unfairly at work?The gendered income inequality fuel also be attri hardlyed in part to occupational segregation, where groups of people are distributed across occupations according to ascribed characteristics in this case, gender. Occupational sex segregation fag end be understood to be made up of two commissions. The prototypal direction would be made up of occupational sex segregation and occurs as men and women are thought to possess different physical, emotional, and genial capacities. These different characteristics make the genders vary in the types of jobs they are suited for.This can be specifically cleared with the gendered division between manual and non-manual labor. The second direction is made up when occupational sex segregation occurs as occupations are stratified according to the power, authority, income, and prestige associated with the occupation and women are excluded from holding much(prenominal) jobs. An example of this type of gender inequality includes women that obtain a consumption in the workplace that is assumed for a man. Women have celebrated obtaining such roles, but once occupied, have had to fight to keep them.Caitlin Crawshaw interviewed Gail Powley for her article portrayal workplace diversity and quickly learned Gails success in such a role. Ms. Powley revealed that her secret was Its all about attitude, so when they saw my attitude wasnt to make them change at all, but to interpret ways to work with them, they actually welcomed me (2010, para. 2). Historically, inequality has favored gabardine males relative to similarly qualified egg-producing(prenominal)s, ethnic, and minorities specially in the workplace.Wage discrimination is the division of wa ges between who groups due to a bias towards or against a specific trait with all or other characteristics of both groups cosmos equivalent. In the case of gender inequality, wage discrimination exists between the male and pistillate gender. Gender inequality wage discrimination can even be seen clearly today in specific organizations and careers, i. e. food industry. In the workplace, a female chef must work twice as hard as her male counterpart when competing for the same Executive Chef position.If you were to ask any woman in that position, she would comply. She whaps her dispute before it begins, so she must k now in her heart how badly she wants the prize and be extremely overconfident in herself to obtain this position. If you were to ask her male counterpart, he would deny the accusation. He does not see her challenge however, that does not mean that it does not exist. The challenge in this same workplace would at least doubles if the female chef were African American, or Native American.With or without the existence of this challenge, women have been gaining a steady foothold in the workplace. In fact, in America it has become a natural cultural trend for there to be dual incomes within the family and many families could not live the lifestyle that they do without the females contributing income to the family. This is the sassy norm in our local society. The new roadblock that we face now is when it comes to a single-income family in which the breadwinner is the female. So now the question becomes, why?Why is this idea so difficult for us to accept? Stay at shell dads, aka Mr. Moms, are sightly to a greater extent and more a trend of today. Some of the factors that go into a decision like this are things like benefits, childcare, and which earner has the bigger income. Kathleen Gerson (2007) offers her view on this social attitude by stating that, We are all quite comfortable with the dual-earner household. Its become a cultural template, bu t for some reason we hit a roadblock when it comes to single-income households where the single earner is a woman (para. ). According to Gersons research as well, the number of households where the wife is the primary earner of the home jumped from about 4. 1% in 1970 to 7% in 2000 (2007, para. 8). This statistic is hard to accept in our economy today because it is almost a necessity for the presence of a dual income to survive and adequately provide for the family. One scan has shown that a marriage that has both economize and a wife providing for the family is more satisfying than a marriage with nevertheless one sole income.Even though women struggle with keeping up with the men in the workplace, they also struggle with additional obstacles at home as well. What they experience here is a type of career discrimination because they, more than men will experience conflict between their work and home responsibilities. This conflict is intensified if the woman holds the primary r esponsibility for childcare because they naturally begin on the role of the nurturer of the family. Other sacrifices that women will make in their career that men will not are things like motherhood leave and extra sick days in order to take care of sick children.Because of these factors, some women feel the intense pressure to ask between that of having a career or having a family. A study that Lauer and Lauer reported states that out of 51 women, faculty members reported that a high proportion of younger faculty women chose to remain childless or to have fewer children than older faulty women, primarily because of the requirements of getting tenure and progression (2006, p. 200). The glass window force play is also considered a possible indorser to the gender income inequality.This ideology suggests that significant disadvantages exist towards the top of the career split up which becomes worse as a persons career goes on. The experimental condition glass window indicates that there are invisible barriers that exist that prevent women from advancements in their careers and promotions. These barriers exist in spite of the achievements or qualifications of the women trying to achieve these positions. Even further, these barriers continue to exist when other job-relevant characteristics are achieved like experience, education, and abilities. on that point are few women holding these higher-powered, high income positions due to this glass window effect. This effect also indicates the existence of limited chances of women for income raises, promotion, or advancement to more honored positions or jobs and increase over the course of a womans career. The gender income earnings ratio indicates the existence of an increase in womens earnings comparative to men. Mens wages reached a tableland in the late 1970s which allowed for womens incomes to gradually close in the ratio between the two.Despite the smaller ratio between men and womens incomes, inequality c ontinues to exist. Even more, this income gap varies round-eyedly within different races as well. Whites comparatively have the greatest income gap between the genders. Within the flannel race, women earn 78% of the wages that Caucasian men do. Comparatively, African American women earn 90% of the wages African American men do and Hispanic women earn 88% of the wages that Hispanic men do. There are some exceptions in which women earn more than men, although they are rare.Other inequalities that women face, oddly those women in the workplace with ethnic backgrounds is that of prejudged, preconceived ideologies held by others in leadership/management. Women of ethnic backgrounds in the workplace are primarily found in factory and service work. Primarily today, Americans are very conscious of misappropriated aliens and border issues and therefore tend to prejudge and develop social attitudes towards these ethnic groups. This is referred to as racial pen. This makes career advance ment in the workplace for these women especially hard to achieve.Most ethnic women choose not to fight the uphill engagement that this kind of discrimination presents and therefore they settle for the factory and service jobs previously mentioned. Arizona legislature recognized the rising potential for racial profiling and began to revise laws stating that police may not consider race, color or national originexcept to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution (2010, para. 9). Racial profiling can be individually overcome, but honestly, some women do not see enough abide by in the rewards to pursue it.Lori Latrice Martin addresses this same issue in her article concentrating mostly on African Americans when she stated that careful examinations of racial differences in the types of levels of summation ownership have painted a bleak picture of racial economic inequality in America (2010, para. 2). Despite the awareness of gender inequality, there are stil l arguments about gender difference and assumptions that women and men are from different planets women and men are still treated so differently in society.The workplace still remains an unequal playground that is polluted by persistent sex segregation, income inequality, sex discrimination, and sexual harassment. Women and men work because they want to, and because they have to. Employers should not judge women as existence any less dependable than men because that is simply not true. The law is that family structure has changed drastically over the years. Today the family responsibilities are now being shared by both the mothers and the fathers.In order to compensate for these changes, some companies have introduced flex time, job sharing, parental leave, on-site child care, and telecommuting just to name a few. Employers should accommodate a womans call for and therefore expand the gender diversity of their company. They may just find that positive outcomes will emerge from s uch a move. There was a time where the balance of respect and roles never existed between a maintain and wife, but today, they are redefining themselves, their relationships, and their family units to accommodate what works for them and not what society says should work.More importantly, women have successfully broken from the bondage of dependence on men. They no nightlong have to submit themselves to one main role in the family life solely as the mother. As for men, the need for dominancy has changed dramatically because for some men, they have been found to be the nurturing stay-at-home fathers for their family. As well, men and women have emerged to work together as a unit. ?References Crawshaw, C. (2010). Workplace diversity pays dividends having a wide range of backgrounds helps with innovation. Leader Post, H, 1. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from ProQuest send out database. Dunleavey, M. P. (2007). A breadwinner rethinks gender roles. New York Times, C, 6. Retrieved July 19, 2 010, from ProQuest comport database. Lauer, R. H. , & Lauer, J. C. (2006). Social problems and the quality of life (10th ed. ). Boston McGraw-Hill. Sullum, J. (2010, Aug/Sept). Arrest everybody. Reason magazine, 8. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from ProQuest institutionalise database. Martin, L. L. (2010, Fall). Non-married women and black ethnicity an analysis of the likelihood of homeownership. Western journal of black studies, 325-336. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from ProQuest Direct database.