Women’s Rights: Fairness in the Workplace

Is it still a man’s world? Women have struggled in the fight for equality for centuries. Most of today’s women are satisfied with their rights. Should they be? Acceptance of the way things are brings a scary fate without change.

Women in today’s society have become too comfortable and have left the fight for equal rights unfinished with unacceptable results. There are many reasons why women should continue to fight for equal rights. Families are still raising their daughters with thoughts of the past in mind, not the future. Lower salaries are being accepted. Men are paid more than women at the same job with the same qualifications. Women jump through hoops for a promotion, but yet men are constantly being chosen over them. Yes, women have come a long way, but still have not achieved one hundred percent equality in the workplace.

A tradition is an inherited pattern or way of life (Merriam, 1997). Women’s biggest problem in career growth is how she was raised. In the 1800’s, young girls were raised with the understanding that bearing children and being responsible for the home was her primary role as a being (Samuels, 1995). Women have fought to change that idealized role in society. Even though women do not want to be viewed as slaves to the household, they are still involved in raising their little girls with that very idea.

Constantly parents push their little girls into hopes of marriage and raising children of their own. The world’s daughters need to be encouraged to be able to stand on their two feet and claim careers and their own success stories. There is nothing wrong with having babies or being a good wife; however, parents are crippling their daughters by making that the very goal of their lives. Could this be the very reason why men still dominate women in the workforce? The future generations of women are being raised to accept being second-class citizens. “(Man) uses her (woman) as the instrument of his pleasure… he furnishes himself with a housekeeper, whose chief business is in the kitchen, or the nursery, and whilst he goes abroad,” states Sarah Grimke, a well known female rights activist of the 1800’s (Grimke, 1837).

Women do not need to cripple the next generation with these evil thoughts. In the past, men have shaped women into the molds of his desires. Women should go forth and allow their daughters to seek their own destiny and to create their own molds. “The most powerful obstacles to a girls’ education are poverty and tradition. But these can be changed (Ntaiya, 2004).” These powerful words are from the young, Kakenya Ntaiya. She is a youth advisor from Africa for the United Nations Population Fund. Her experience of overcoming poverty and traditions is an inspiration to all women. Her tribe in the Maasai village believes that women belong to their husbands and to the kitchen. The Maasai girls are raised with the only thought of becoming a good wife to her future husband, most likely to be wed at age twelve. Kakenya broke the cycle of her tribe by begging her father to allow her to finish her education. She also begged her community members to allow her to go to the United States to go to college. It is because of young, motivated women like Kakenya that traditions can be broken. Traiditions can be changed, but it starts with each individual woman.

Did you know that a woman will lose more than $523,000 in her lifetime according to the most recent United States Census (Keller, 2000)? Discrimination in the workplace hurts women’s pocketbooks. Women are held at higher standards but are continually robbed in their paychecks. A man with the same qualifications as a woman is started at a higher pay rate. Why is that? There are so many men on top of corporations that control women’s salaries and promotions. Until women dominate the top of “Corporate America,” pay scales will never be fair. This also is an effect of traditions discussed previously. Traditions effect the motivation of women to reach the top.

According to Vicky Lovell, the study director for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, women are discriminated on the pay scales even with the work experience and training that is noted on their resume. Women earn eighty-eight cents on a man’s dollar with the same experience and qualifications. At a national average, women as a whole earn seventy-three cents to a man’s dollar (Keller, 2000). That is a huge gap in pay. To be fair, this census did include all women in all working positions including full-time and part-time positions. Even with that in mind, that is a huge number of American women that are being ripped-off by their employers. Studies show that it will be approximately fifty years before women catch up to men’s salaries. It will take an African-American woman a whopping seventy-five years (Stone, 2004). Women, as a whole, need to become more active in fighting for equal pay. The United States has passed the Equal Pay Act, but what good is it if it is not enforced? If a woman finds that she is underpaid due to her gender, it is her responsibility to report it. If the problem isn’t handled correctly or handled at all, she needs to take it to the courtroom. If women continually allow their employers to discriminate against them, then the problem will never cease.

Why is it that the majority of women do not reach the top? Is it due to poor performances? Maybe that is the case sometimes, but most of the time it is from being overlooked by male employers. Judy Joy (real name is kept disclosed) is an example of this issue. She has been with her job for four years. When she began her job, she made sure to inform her male district manager of her personal interests in growing in the company. He told her of the numerous things that she needed to work on and certain experiences that she needed to gain. She worked on the things that he needed her to work on and she even took on a lower position just to get the extra experience that she needed to move up. In time, her store manager told her district manager that she was ready for her next step. She was told to transfer to another store to gain even more experience. She did as she was told. Then, her new store manager told the district manager that she was ready to move up. Four store transfers later, she was told that a new store was opening up. If she was interested in making this “last” move, then she would set up the department, train the new manager, and then would be promoted within a month.

She agreed to move to a store that was a further drive for her if she was to be promoted. After Brandi had opened the department, she noticed a new male manager in the building. She was curious as to who he was, so she introduced herself. He introduced himself as the new presentation manager, the job in which she had been chasing for nearly four years. When she had asked the district manager about why she did not get the job, he replied that the man had more experience and then walked away. Experiences like this happen all the time. Men claim that reason why women are not at the top is due to lack of motivation. Judy was extremely motivated. She transferred and moved her personal belongings to six different store locations. Judy worked very hard and deserved it. That was the very reason that made her start to think that she needed to continue her education. Education is something that no man on the planet can take away. Men have kept their place at the top of corporations. Also, men look at for other men. In Judy’s case, she was pushed and pushed to work and to perform. A man held a promotion over her head because he knew how bad she wanted and needed it. She was used to his advantage and then left in the cold. Unfortunately, that is the heart of male-dominated careers.

Women have come a long way when compared to today and the past; women still have a long way to go to achieve equality and fairness in the workplace. Women have some fault in the drive for success. “(Women) are brought up with the absurd idea, that marriage is a kind of preferment; and that to be able to keep their husband’s house, and render his situation comfortable, is the end of her being (Grimke, 1837). Traditions are a woman’s identity if allowed to be. These traditions can be changed, if women change them. According to Victor Fuchs, a woman’s role as a wife and mother negatively affects her successes in her career by limiting her education which limits her promotions and salaries (Samuels, 1995). Women continually struggle for promotions.

Evaluations for job performances happen all the time, but the trick is keeping it fair for both genders, according to Karen Nussbaun of AFL-CIO’s Working Women (Keller, 2000). The numbers and statistics of this paper are real and frightening. The numbers and statistics cannot be argued by men due to most articles and studies used for this paper are in fact told from different perspectives and most of these studies are conducted by men themselves. A ridiculous article about a study, that a man performed, concluded that men are smarter than women. The researcher, John Philippe Rushton, performed 20,000 verbal tests taken by university students across the world. It revealed that on average, men’s IQ’s are five points higher than women’s.

However, in argument to his data, he had twice as many women who took the tests than men (Clerkin, 2006). The man who performed that test was drastically grasping at straws to prove that the reason why men are at the top of their careers is not because of discrimination, but because of men’s IQ’s. Mr. Rushton’s theory is squashed due to faulty analysis. Women need to be informed of where they stand in society and in their careers. When a woman is informed, what is she going to do to impact a change? Every woman has that responsibility. Women need to stand up and make their voice heard that “almost” equal is not acceptable.