Sexism Against Women Research Paper

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Sexism Against Women

Sexism is the unfair preference of one gender and its capabilities over the other gender. (Gotz, 1999) Sexism is not a bias that just comes out of nowhere and is present in the world today. This tradition or problem in fact is present in the society's culture since thousands of years. (Gotz, 1999) The Marxist view believed that sexism is basically a form of radical feminism. That is to say that the capitalistic structure our society is molded in today gives rise to sexism in the work place, society and even in politics. (Gotz, 1999) The stereotypical roles that are present in almost every social practice today are very firm and will require radical changes for them to be reversed.

Why exactly is their sexism present in the workforce today? Experts argue that the stem of sexism grows from the female stereotype. There are two stereotypes of women and unfortunately, both work against them when it comes to the workforce. The positive stereotype brings out the look that women are sweet and motherly. On the other hand, the negative stereotype states that women are not strong and incompetent. (Snibbe, 2005) When a female employee deserves resources or a post, she is not granted it while keeping the negative stereotype in mind. Men thinking that just because she is a woman, she won't be able to handle it don't give her the opportunities she deserves. On the other hand, women are appreciated more than they deserve only because they weren't expected to be so intelligent in the first place. The thinking that the male counterparts or administrators carry out is on a subconscious level. With these stereotypes and perceptions rooted in their mind from kindergarten, they still women as not equal to men. (Snibbe, 2005) These two stereotypes eventually lead to the patronizing behavior of men in the workplace as well. This behavior angers women and causes them to underperform. A study was done which revealed that when men thought of women as weak links but still praised them more than they deserved. This sort of praise angered the women and led to further destruction of their work performance. Thus, the more the men patronize women, the worse they will go on to perform and prove the men right. (Snibbe, 2005) Sexism is a vicious circle that is unfortunately very common these days.

Sexism against women in the workforce isn't just sexual harassment or clear cut employment favoritism. Even though many instances could be of sexual harassment, there are other behaviors that come under sexism in the workplace. An example is of the Morgan Stanley's investment banking business just paid about $54 million to more than 300 workers. These female workers were refused from promotions and salaries that their male counterparts received. (Heilman, 2005)

The trend in sexism against women these days has gone to become not very bold and blunt as it used to be. Surely, even the employers and managers at the upper hierarchical level know that clear cut discrimination will land them in trouble. Now more subtle ways of discriminating against women have been found. Some instances include decreased mentoring and teaching. This could be that on purpose the women are not taught certain tricks or aren't made to attend certain seminars. Even though the women are completely capable of carrying out functions, they are deemed incapable only because of their gender. (Catalyst, 2002) Other examples include them being banished from some forms of communication and merely not welcoming behavior in the organization. The tactics implemented were so smart that only the women perceived it as unfair. The men in most of the corporation think that nothing unfair is being done that could hinder their progress in the long run. (Heilman, 2005)

Many a times women are so naive that they don't even realize that they are a victim of sexism at work. The women think that they have not received a promotion or received a lower salary only because they are not capable enough.

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Gender discrimination is hard to pick out because it holds little importance in the decision making that occurs in organizations. (Barret&Morris, 1993) It is true that even though there are no clear discrimination posters outside organizations saying women are inferior, a bias still exists. The bias becomes the most evident when gender distribution is noted at the top levels. If it is seen, 493 of the Fortune 500 CEOS are male employees. Almost 84% of the high ranking officers in companies are also men. (Catalyst, 2002) Women and men equality is observed at the lower levels where they are either at specialty posts or are at managerial posts.

There are present differences in perceptions of what qualifies a man or a woman fit for a selective job. This notion has been taken into the 'lack of fit' model for gender inequality. (Heilman, 2001) This model gets explained in terms of jobs is when a certain profession gets filled with one gender. For instance, nursing is viewed as a feminine profession merely because of the history attached to nursing. Because the nurses in history were female and successful in that profession, women are deemed fit for the nursing profession. Similarly, posts such as engineering posts or CEOS consider men more fit for the job. The society has linked certain traits and attributes to a certain job even though good skill is the only mandatory factor required to do well in your field. (Heilman, 2005)

Since the attribute of power is linked more to men, job posts with the most authority and power are given to min. Even if a women has better leadership and decision making qualities, her gender not confer the role of being powerful to her. This is the main reason why leadership posts are given more to men than women. (Catalyst, 2002) Thus when women aren't considered fit for a certain job because of their gender; they are considered if they don't even have the skills or intellect to serve that position either.

A case study was done in how men and women in the Delhi police viewed gender discrimination. As mentioned earlier, sexism in workforce is very subtle now. It happens such that the victims don't even realize that they have been discriminated against. The women in the Delhi police force are at a disadvantage when compared to men. Firstly, they do not get recognized for their performance regardless of how good it is. Secondly, the women are given limited chances to get a promotion or be assigned a higher rank. (Sahgal, 2007) The officers that are in charge of giving out rewards and promotions do not consider them worthy of the prizes. Many of the women also think the training they get isn't similar to what the men force gets as well. Surely, this reduces the amount of skill and knowledge that they have. (Sahgal, 2007) The assignments the women are assigned are not the ones that they want to get or they should be getting. Just as the aforementioned scenario, most of the men in the workforce did not think that there was any form of sexism happening in the police force. Also, majority of the women didn't even realize that they were a victim because they were so used to being discriminated against in schools, home and families as well. (Sahgal, 2007)

It is apparent how sexism is present in the workforce today but how is it detrimental towards the society? Bringing in human rights, sexism against women is plain inequality. It deprives them of basic rights and do not let them progress to their own capabilities. If women do fine out that they are being biased against, will they really want to work? When the world today is advancing in every filed, if….....

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