Gender Discrimination as a Contemporary Issue Facing Americans Essay Example

rights, they had no right to own property and they could not take part of a jury. The society had historically shaped by men. Researchers argue that in nineteen fifties women were not even supposed to own credit cards. Policy-makers in the society have been consistently males and therefore the biasness that exists in the society are reflected to be as a result of male dominance (Ouveia, 110).

Though there is equality between men and women in the population, there exists dominant inequality in the rights of women. The treatment of boys and girls in many societies and families are unequal where girls disproportionately lack opportunities, face privation and get lower levels to invest in their nutrition, health and education. In most societies men have been given more power that women and this violates human rights (Yodanis, 657). Gender discrimination as are result leads to early child marriages, sexual violence, coercion, sexual trafficking as well as female genital cutting. Discrimination is therefore illegal irrespective of whether it is based on sex or gender or both (Kabeer, 13).

In most United States nations, gender is inequality is more elaborated in the workplace whereby women are always the victims of the behavior. There are various aspects in which women are discriminated in the work place which are as follows; firstly, in recruitment/hiring, retrenchment or promotional practices. Majority of the women are not given the priority in the recruitment practices even if they have higher qualifications than men (Ouveia, 113). It is believed that more of the long term company clients claim to be more comfortable when dealing with male employees than their female counterparts. Women employees are also more

affected during company reorganization since they are mostly laid off than their male counterparts regardless of whether they possess the better chance of being retained. Additionally, most United States organizations do not grant promotions based on merits but instead give promotions to male employees without considering whether they are more qualified than men or not (Fuwa, 752).

Secondly, Women are paid less compared to their male counterparts. Male employee with equal qualification, training and work experience with female employee is most likely to be better paid than the female counterpart. This in turn brings an element of discrimination in to practice which is undesirable in a free and democratic society (Fuwa, 754). Thirdly, some employees receive more benefits than their colleagues. For example the company insurance policy may cover the spouses of some employees and fail to cover those of coworkers. In this case those whose spouses are not covered are required to pay more health benefits as compared to their coworkers who are covered by the company insurance policy (Brake, 891). Lastly, discrimination in job classification in which women employees have not been given high position jobs. They have also not been given the job positions with authority since they are believed not to be capable of ruling over men. They are also discriminated in decision making in which women are not recognized and involved in decision making process hence they have no power to make decision over the men (Inglehart et al., 43).

Why Gender Discrimination is a Contemporary Issue in United States

Historically, gender inequality has been viewed to be worse in U.S as compared to other parts of the world. This is because it

has over the decades made U.S keep violating the International human rights by not meeting the standards (Brake, 895). This is due to the following reasons; it has led to gender pay inequality. Discrimination creates gap between what men and women earn whereby men are unusually paid compared to women. Research shows that women in United States earns only 64% of what men earn for performing similar kind of job (Inglehart et al., 43). Secondly, maternity leaves for women are rarely granted by U.S companies. Most women are discouraged from getting pregnancy since they are frequently denied the maternity leaves and if granted there is no pay for the time off. Some companies even layoff female employees when they get pregnant. This act violates the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 which requires pregnant women employees to be given twelve weeks as maternity leave (Sen and Amartya, 36).

Thirdly, gender inequality violates Women’s reproductive rights. Maternity leave denial by most United States companies encourages abortions. In this case, companies are viewed to play politics with health of women rather than giving them the priority that support perpetual continuation of the families and societies. Lastly, gender inequality has led to violence against women. Due to gender inequality crisis, most researches shows that more women are prone to murder in United States than in any other high income country. According to the research about 6,410 women in U.S got murdered with gun by their intimate partners before the year 2012 (Inglehart et al., 43).

How History of Gender Discrimination teach us to Approach the Issue

The study of gender discrimination and its historical outcomes teaches the members of the

society to avoid discrimination against gender since each individual has equal rights with each other under the Civil Rights Act. Gender discrimination should also be avoided since it is against the general accepted moral standards of the society (Sen and Amartya, 38).

Annotated Bibliography

• Blake, Valarie K. "An Opening for Civil Rights in Health Insurance after the Affordable Care Act." BCJL & Soc. Just. 36 (2016): 235- 335.

The author described in his article civil rights provisions which have been included in the Affordable Care Act with an aim of preventing discrimination of any kind in the United States health cares. Blake Valarie argued that the employees in the United States health cares have been discriminated against in terms of gender, race, disability and age the action which is against the rights of human being.

• Brake, Deborah L. "Reviving Paycheck Fairness: Why and How the Factor-Other-Than-Sex Defense Matters." Idaho L. Rev. 52 (2016): 889-907.

In this article, the author talked of how politicians in United States have been misusing their obtuse opinions and power to discriminate in the forefront of national conversation to create impression about gender inequality. According to the article, the issue of equal pay is a norm in United States organizations. Author owes that pay discrimination originates from outside the statute that govern the human rights.

• Fuwa, M. (2004). Macro-level gender inequality and the division of household labor in 22 countries. American Sociological Review, 69(6), 751-767.

Fuwa in this article tackled how discrimination has been witnessed in the sharing of household in the United States. The article also focuses effects the couples and individuals faces due to unequal sharing of household labor where by women are more tasked than the

male counterparts. The author argues that macro-level factors are very important in determining how household work should be shared among the couples.

• Inglehart, Ronald, and Pippa Norris. Rising tide: Gender equality and cultural change around the world. Cambridge University Press, 2003. 37-97.

The article focused on the attitudes toward roles on women against those of men in the United States. In the Article, women had historically being facing political and sexual discrimination. In this case women are as the tools for sex while men are given the priority since they are the family providers. The lives of women have culturally been transformed which causes disparities of political power and economic resources.

• Kabeer, N. (2005). Gender equality and women's empowerment: A critical analysis of the third millennium development goal 1. Gender & Development, 13(1), 13-24.

This article is written to focus on gender discrimination in United States and spearhead the fight for gender equality and empowerment of women, people with disability and transgender children among the United States societies. The Author gave argument on how women education, equal employment opportunities and equal political participation can end gender discrimination concerns.

• Ouveia, Giselle Campozana, et al. "Health care users' satisfaction in Brazil, 2003." Cadernos de Saúde Publican 21 (2005): 109-118.

The article talks on how gender inequality has led the health care failures in the united. Most health care users and employees in the United States feel dissatisfied due to treatment services are offered selectively. The author argue that black Americans are not give priority for treatment services as compared to Native-born Americans.

• Sen, Amartya. "The many faces of gender inequality." New republic (2001): 35-39.

In the article, Amartya focused on the various faces of the gender

inequality. The article view gender discrimination from different perspectives such as from discrimination in the workplace, sexual discrimination, discrimination against age and race and discrimination against origin among others. The article concludes that discrimination restricts the growth of organizations in the United States.

• Yodanis, C. L. (2004). Gender inequality, violence against women, and fear a cross-national test of the feminist theory of violence against women. Journal of interpersonal violence, 19(6), 655-675.

The author present the feminist theory which described the violence against women especially in United States. The article depicts how the author collected data across United Nations to test extent of gender discrimination violence as well as the preference of sexual violence against women in different nations around the globe especially in United States.

Works Cited

• Blake, Valarie K. "An Opening for Civil Rights in Health Insurance after the Affordable Care Act." BCJL & Soc. Just. 36 (2016): 235- 335.
• Brake, Deborah L. "Reviving Paycheck Fairness: Why and How the Factor-Other-Than-Sex Defense Matters." Idaho L. Rev. 52 (2016): 889-907.
• Fuwa, M. (2004). Macro-level gender inequality and the division of household labor in 22 countries. American Sociological Review, 69(6), 751-767.
• Inglehart, Ronald, and Pippa Norris. Rising tide: Gender equality and cultural change around the world. Cambridge University Press, 2003. 37-97.
• Kabeer, N. (2005). Gender equality and women's empowerment: A critical analysis of the third millennium development goal 1. Gender & Development, 13(1), 13-24.
• Ouveia, Giselle Campozana, et al. "Health care users' satisfaction in Brazil, 2003." Cadernos de Saúde Pública 21 (2005): 109-118.
• Sen, Amartya. "The many faces of gender inequality." New republic (2001): 35-39.
• Yodanis, C. L. (2004). Gender inequality, violence against women, and fear a cross-national test of the feminist theory of violence against women.
  

Journal of interpersonal violence, 19(6), 655-675.