Gender Inequality In The Workplace

Women lack a voice who will advocate for them in promoting their abilities and skills to help them accomplish the upward mobility they so desire both in the workplace and in their careers. They are held to a higher standard than men because of their new found independence and drive to be successful. Gender Inequality has been an ongoing problem that has impacted society for many years. Although there are a number of issues associated with the topic, the concept of the glass ceiling and women’s exploitation are important and very real in today’s society. This paper will cover a brief history of gender inequality, the transition of women from home to the workplace, the concept of the Glass ceiling and exploitation amongst women in the workplace
It is no secret that for centuries, women have faced years and years of discrimination, inferiority to men, and being viewed as less than human by society. Women have had to fight for their right to vote amongst other legal rights, and for their independence from their husbands. “When American women began to enter the labor force in the nineteenth century, the relatively few jobs open to them were highly segregated by gender” (Spain 1992: 14). The first women’s labor union began to form by the end of the 1930’s. Women’s activism began to increase, leading to a new reform in paid work and the rise in feminism in the midst of a new labor movement (Gregory 2003: 25). By the 1940’s, the transition of the housewife to that of a working woman began to trend. Women began to venture out of the home in search of employment and educational opportunities to help provide for their families, since their
In fact, equal opportunity for women came over twenty years after the United States introduced it (Strober and Chan 1999: 3). Since 1960, the number of employed women in Japan has increased. Women seeking employment were often not welcome in the workplace. If they did get hired for a job, they received much less on-the-job training due to the fact that they were expected to leave their jobs once they got married or had children (Strober and Chan 1999: 8). For this reason, women in Japan occupy the clerical positions in big companies, and are referred to as Office Ladies. There is not much training that is needed for these jobs, therefore not much is lost in the eyes of the company if a woman decides to leave. By 1995, over twenty million women were employed in the workforce (Ogasawara 1998: 17,