Sexism in the Workplace | Teen Ink

Sexism in the Workplace

November 1, 2018
By maggiebourgeois BRONZE, Wilmington, Massachusetts
maggiebourgeois BRONZE, Wilmington, Massachusetts
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Since the dawn of humanity, gender inequality has been an issue when it comes to profession.  Even when all that humans had time to think about was survival, hunters were always men and gatherers were always women.  Unfortunately, this is all too similar to how the workplace is organized today. Despite the many advancements with gender equality that have been made in past years, women and men are still not treated as equals.  Gender inequality in the workplace cause difficulties for women when they attempt to acquire leadership positions, lead to unfair wage differences, and prevent people from getting hired for the jobs they want.

Women are rarely found at the top of any company, government, or organization of any kind.  Females make up only 15% of the corporate sector. Also, of the 190 heads of state, only nine are women, and only 13% of all people in parliament around the world are women.  Society has made it so men are considered more effective bosses when there is simply no science supporting this theory. Men and women both have the ability to be good leaders - it all depends on the person, not the gender.  

The wage gap between men and women should be nonexistent, but it is actually quite large.  The median weekly salary of women in the United States was only 81.8% of that of men in 2017.  This is not right for a variety of reasons. Women can do any job just as well as a man can if they work as hard as that man, and they should be paid accordingly.  It’s extremely unfair that one person should be paid less than another for the same work simply because they are a female.

In today’s society, some people are unable to acquire the jobs that they want because of their gender.  Gender specific professions prevent people from following their dreams, and there is no reason for this to occur.  Bias in society among other things have made it so people tend to believe that a certain gender is more qualified for one job than another, but this is not true.  Janet Hyde, a developmental psychologist, reviewed 46 analyses of psychological gender differences from 1984 to 2004. 78% of the studies she looked at revealed little to no differences between men and women in motor skills, moral reasoning, personality traits, and communication, among other things.  The differences between these genders are very few and insignificant. They are more similar than different.

In conclusion, gender inequality in the workplace makes it hard for women to acquire leadership positions, causes unfair wage differences, and stops people from doing what they want to do for work.  Gender inequality in the workplace can be banished if gender specific professions get rid of their unnecessary restrictions and sexism begins to be looked down upon instead of accepted as a part of society.  



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