During the last week of Sociology class the topic was mainly focus on gender discrimination in the work place. I’ve always heard of such discrimination but I never recalled speaking about it such in depth within the class room environment. It amazes me how in the 21st century females have yet to gain the fair treatment they are entitled to by law. In many corporations it is a fact that women get paid less than men. Sure women have the right to sue the workplace but then the workplace may have strict regulations indicating not to enclose one’s own salary therefore does the group really being discriminated really have a right to sue?
The video I posted is a prime example of gender discrimination. A woman who was a devoted employee in a corporation was later treated unfairly after she came back from maternal leave. I find that outrageous and unacceptable for the employers to behave in such a manner and discriminate due to a circumstance that by law, should be acceptable within the workplace. The woman employee in the video along with ten other female victims sued the company. The verdict was on their side and the court rewarded the eleven victims with 250 million dollars. Now I don’t know if I agree with that reward considering the fact that those employees were no where near making such a fortune regardless of being treated equally or not but nonetheless they deserved to be compensated justly. There were further incidents within the company that included employers sexually harassing the female employees and making them watch pornography during and after work hours and so forth. Discriminations such as this must stop within the work force and stricter beucratic measures have to be passed to provide gender equality in corporate America.
I have seen women discrimination at work places. Sometimes woman is discriminated against other woman too. We are living in such a global world, still women discrimination is surviving. I believe this belongs to culture too. Women are downgraded at all the places, specially work places. Society gives woman second place than a man. This unfair treatment enhances the possibilities of women discrimination at work and other related areas like education.
Under the constitution, all men and women are created equal. Born a United States citizen entitles you to the same rights as the person next to you. What may be a causable variable would be if one is smarter than the other, so therefore one might get a higher position in work but if the same work ethics are qualities within both and one is discriminated against, then and then only is there a problem. Legally, it becomes an issue. Smart thing to do would be exactly what this woman did, which worked for Novartis. As her higher ups continued to belittle her working abilities and ethics, she and others became more and more aware of this. Following up on how much this was happening, they lead the court to come to a conclusion of 250 million dollars awarded to those whom of which were discriminated against. Personally, anybody would agree, no matter how much you think some people are inferior to others, you also have to remember the government-backed laws that prevent this kind of injustice. If you do it right the first time, why even risk this. Looking at Novartis now, they’re in a heap of trouble and there’s no escaping it. Nothing this little, full of ignorance, should ever come in the way of your business. Novartis could not have been hurt anymore worse and that’s what’s deserved for not living in the 21st century. Medieval times are up, where women were nothing in society and people need to realize that.
It frustrates me, especially after viewing this video, the amount of discrimination women receive in the workplace. As much as women may try to fight, it seems as if there isn’t any way to find a solution. Similarly to what Professor stated in class, some employers force their employee’s to sign nondisclosure agreements based on their salary. Hence, if they were to state their income to a women, either they’ll be fired or the women will be terminated before she can seek justice. Additionally, what baffles me the most are the statistics of the age gap that were mentioned in Chapter twelve. Women can spend their entire lives trying to get the upper hand on men, more seniority, higher level of education, yet men will somehow still have the upper hand regardless of the women’s pursuit to bridge the gap. As shown in the video, the women left temporarily on a maternity leave, she didn’t take a long vacation or was injured and used her injury to take a vacation; she is completely entitled to being a mother and having a family however the workplace didn’t quite see it the same way. In today’s era, it seems as if women are expected to be a devoted wife, an adoring mother and still utilize their “equal” rights and have some form of career, yet their pay seems to be limited and the job availability seems to be limited as well. While men are able to sit in high power, corner office seats, majority of women do not reach higher than those exact same men’s secretary. It’s mind boggling, simple put.