Reflection Essay on Gender Inequality

I chose to write Toulmin Essay proposal about gender inequality in the work place. The Toulmin Essay next week will be about gender inequality in society. Gender inequality in the work place is a small component of the larger picture of gender inequality in society. There are several ways in which women have been discriminated against in the workplace over the years. From the very start of the hiring process women have had to face animosity and repression in the corporate world.
Women had to have more experience and better credentials than equivalent male applicants if they hoped to even get a second glance. And though there has been significant improvement in some areas, the job market still remains prejudice toward women in various forms. One of the things that have changed some since women first became part of the work force is the willingness of employers to hire female employees. Women used to have to fight much harder to prove their competence, and, even then they rarely secured high level positions.
It is becoming more common to see women in some of these high level positions now, but they still have to sacrifice much more than the men do to get to the top and have to work harder to stay there. The most predominate way in which women feel the inequality of gender discrimination is the gross difference in the pay they receive compared to men. Women in every industrialized society around the world are paid far less for performing the same tasks as their male counterparts. The gap is profound –“on average, women in the United States earn only 68% of what men are paid (206),” and that number has remained consistent throughout the years.

Although some of the gap is due to the type of fields’ men and women choose to pursue, discrimination also plays a huge role. It used to be societies view that men should support their families and women should be at home care for the house and the kids. That concept carries over into the business world in a few ways. Employers feared hiring women for long term positions out of fear they would leave once they got married and had children, or the affect that caring for children would have on job performance (“the child penalty)”.
Because of these outside responsibilities women were seen as being less committed to their careers, so employers saw them as more of a liability to the company than an asset. This, along with the idea that men have better leadership skills, and women were better in “support services like human resources or public relations,” women were rarely offered promotions to top ranking positions (especially those positions like sales and marketing that affect the bottom line and are stereotypically male).
Once they reach a particular point on the corporate ladder they hit the glass ceiling and are stuck where as the men seem to have no limits whatsoever. More frustrating than the limitations women face in the “male” job market is the biased treatment they receive even within the fields that are considered to be famine (such as nursing, teachers, librarian, etc. ) When men pursue careers in these types of areas, they are not met with a criticizing stigma,and their capabilities are not questioned like women’s are.
Men never experience hitting the glass ceiling whatever their career choice might be. In fact, they experience the exact opposite! Even in traditionally female dominated jobs, men are shown favoritism. They get more offers for higher level positions and higher salaries to start, and they are given better benefits, hours, and work assignments, and they move up the lines faster than their women coworkers on what is called the glass escalator. Even though the inequality between genders is gradually decreasing, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.
Women are becoming the sole source of income in many homes because of the dynamics of the changing society. Shrinking the wage gap and continue to dispel the stereotypes that surround women is necessary. Encouraging our young women to pursue education and training is one solution. By encouraging our young people to do this, and the more qualified females there are out in the job market to fill these high level positions, the more pressure employers will feel to hire them and society’s views and beliefs will slowly begin to evolve with the times.