Gender Discrimination

Discrimination is one of the biggest problems in the world today, but some types of discrimination stand out more than others. In the article “THESE DOORS ARE Open!,” Betty Achinstein writes a fascinating piece about the racism in schools across the nation and how we can help stop it. Achinstein writes this article to give us information about the problems and solutions with racism in schools. Achinsteins point in writing this article is that everyone should be treated equally and have the same opportunities as one another regardless of race. On a similar note, another issue in America is the gender discrimination in the workplace. “Workplace Gender Bias: Not just between strangers,” by Joel Nadler and Margaret Stockdale explains that there is a lot of gender inequality, mostly towards women, in the workplace. Nadler and Stockdale wrote this article to expose how companies do not give equal wages or opportunities to women, which limit their potential. Their point in writing this article is to show how companies treat their employees differently and , specifically women, unfairly. Both of these writers have well thought out ideas to get their point across to the reader. They also speak of discrimination in society just in very similar but different ways. You must have a further knowledge on the similarities and differences to fully understand where I stand. To conclude, racism in schools and gender discrimination in the workplace are both similar forms of discrimination and are immoral and unjust. To begin, gender discrimination in the work place is extremely unfair since all men are to be treated equally. One form of the sexism in the workplace that occurs towards females is a company will hire a male over a female and females are usually last to get a promotion. There are just as qualified if not more qualified females missing job Fisher | 1 opportunities everyday because companies think women are not tough enough for the position or that they are too sensitive for that position (Stockdale 14). According to “Workplace Gender Bias: Not Just Between Strangers,” by Joel Nadler and Margaret Stockdale, only 8% of the top leadership positions go to women with only 2% of them being CEOs (Nadler 4). Women also do not earn as high of wages as men do. There are a lot of instances where a male and female has similar jobs and duties to do but the man is being paid $5 more an hour. That is where the EPA (Equal Pay Act) should come into affect. Women are also subjected to many unwelcoming sexual advances, and if they deny or say stop they can be threaten to lose their job (Barnett 6). Another sexist problem that goes on is that women do not get equal benefits to men. In many companies women are required to use their sick and vacation days for their pregnancy and the employer does not provide a disability leave, but if a male gets (for example) a kidney transplant he is able to access the disability plan (Nadler 9). Also, if a womens’ job has life insurance it does not cover her spouse or children because it is expected that the man has his own life insurance with whatever job he has. Those are some examples of the inequality and discrimination in the workforce . To elaborate, racism goes against basic rights and has been going on for far too long through out the United States. One aspect of racism in schools is that colored students usually receive more sever punishment than white students. According to the U.S Education Department’s 2011-2012 Civil Rights Data Collection, a survey conducted every two years, sixteen percent of black and Hispanic students were suspended yearly compared to just five percent of white students (Bryan 9). I personally had seen blacks Fisher | 2 and Hispanics get treated more harshly almost everyday in my old school. As stated in “You’ve Got to Teach People That Racism Is Wrong and They Won’t Be Racist,” black and Hispanic students are more than three times as likely to get suspended than white students (Bryan 7). Also, there is a lot of bullying that goes on in schools that target specific races or ethnicities. This can affect the students feeling of self-worth and self-confidence which will make it much harder for the student to reach his/her full potential. This bullying affects the student’s concentration aswell, making them have feelings of fear or anger, which also makes it harder for that particular student to reach his/her full potential. Another problem with the racism in schools is that some schools do not allow the minorities to access the more experienced teachers (Bryan 11). This discrimination makes minorites have a lower performance academically and increases the chances of that student dropping out of school. Almost ten percent of the minority students go to schools where as many as 20 percent of the teachers do not meet the liscense and certification requirements (Hughes, Newkirk, Stenhjem 7). And one in every four school discricts pay teachers with a diverse group of students (Blacks and Hispanics) about $5,000 less than teachers with less diverse group of kids (Hughes, Newkirk, Stenhjem 8). Both of these statistics are stated in “Addressing The Challenge Of Disenfrachisement Of Youth: Poverty and Racism in the Schools,” by Carolyn Hughes, Reginald Newkirk and Pamela Stenhjem. Finally, these are just some examples of racism in schools that have been going on for far too long. On the other hand, these forms of discrimination have many similar and different, unfortunate qualities that I have found to be true. Gender discrimination and racism in Fisher | 3 schools can both limit one from reaching his or her full potential. If a student does not get access to the more experienced teachers or a women does not get the job she deserves because of the discirmination it is limiting them from what they can truly accomplish. It also takes a toll on ones personal life, a women getting paid lower than a man, can affect her just as much as a student getting treated more severly for a punishment than other student. Knowing they are being treated differently and unfairly can hurt their ego and feeling of self-worth. They both also occur in a very social enviornment and can be extremely embarrassing to have to deal with infront of their peers. However, there are many differences that come with these types of discrimination as well. For starters, the racism in schools is discrimination against a specific race or ethnic group and gender dicrimination is when employeer treats someone different especially because he/she is a man or a woman. They both receive unessary punishment but in different ways. The student gets punished by the rules being over inforced on him, not getting the fair consquences, and the employee recives her punishment by getting underpaid and having less of a chances of getting a promotion. Now, as a person who has witnessed and been discriminated against all my life here is why I believe discriimination is wrong. The defination of discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. Now just reading that alone you can see that discrimination is one hundred percent wrong.
Discrimination does absolutely nothing besides cause more hatred and bitterness in society on top of what we already have. The Declaration of Independence states “All men are created equal” (that includes women) and that everyone has the right to “life, liberty, Fisher | 4 and the pursuit of happiness,” and that’s exactly how it should be (Sipe 2). In conclusion, these are many of the differences and similarities that racism in schools and gender discrimination in the workplace have. In conclusion, racism in schools and gender discrimination in the workplace are two of the most common forms of discrimination, yet one is not more significant than another and all forms of discrimiantion are immoral and unconstitutional. Employers giving female employees less pay and less respect is just as wrong as a prinicipal expelling a minority student for throwing a pencil while a his white class mate only gets detention. The fact that some could treat someone different because of their gender or the color of their skin is completely unacceptable and the fact that it still happens in todays society is completely illogical. So do not put anyone in that situation, nobody wants to be the one in one of those predicaments. Hopefully we can all become educated enough to learn how to stop all types of discirmination once and for all.

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