Employment Discrimination

Introduction

Although there are a lot of similarities between men and women in the work place, there are also many differences amongst men and women. Earnings and occupations ate the two most important differences in the work force. Women earn much less money than men do. Most women work in a place where it is predominantly women, and where occupations are smaller. Men work mostly in an occupation that is predominantly male. But there are a greater number of occupations for them.

Occupation

According to the United States Supreme Court, in the 1960's men and women must be treated equally in the workplace. The Division of labor, along with sex segregation in the work place does change over time. There is historical evidence that shows the change of sex typing in some occupations. Several occupations in the U.S. have changed drastically in their sex composition since World War II. For example, insurance adjusters bank tellers, and real estate agents have all altered from male to female.

Women and men tend to be employed in diverse institutions with better pay towards men. The study done by Blau showed that within sex-oriented occupations, men tend to earn more than women do. This is because men tend to work in higher paying firms.

Earnings

Most women workers support themselves and their family members. About one out of five women workers provided for their families by themselves in the year of 1981.

Women's earnings are an important source for themselves and their families, even though they don't earn much. Women can expect to spend a considerable portion of their lives doing pay work in the labor force. These are the reasons why the consequences of sex segregation are significant and continuing. Society tends to value men's work more then women's work, even though women earn much less than men.

When hiring women or deciding whether to give women raises, many employees impose female workers with assumption that they do not impose on their male employees.

In female professions, such as nursing, social work, and elementary, school teaching, the wage gap between men and women does exist.

The amount of women entering male dominated fields is increasing. Today, women earn approximately forty percent of all law degrees and thirty three percent of medical and MBA degrees. About forty percent of all executive, women hold management, and administration positions.

In general woman get paid less then men. Woman's annual earnings were seventy four percent of men's in 1997. (Weidenbaum, Pg.11) It's tempting to say this is due almost entirely to discrimination. There are some women who have less work experience because they may leave their jobs for maternity leave. Women aged sixteen through twenty-nine who have no children now earn on average, ninety eight percent of the wages of childless men of the same age. (Weidenbaum, Pg.11) Pay discrimination because of a person's sex is Illegal.

In addition to being paid less for the same work. Women are put into lower paying jobs. In 1990, women made up 45.5 percent of the workforce, but most were stuck in ...