Running Head: Gender discrimination in the workplace 1

Gender Discrimination in the workplace

Francisco Amparan
University of Texas at El Paso









Gender discrimination in the workplace 2
Abstract
Gender Discrimination in the workplace has been going on since woman have been allowed to
work in the United States. It can be seen in lower wages for female employees who hold the
same job title as a male employee. There have been cases where the discrimination is done
through sexual harassment. My Review will inform the reader of the different happenings that
occur in a workplace, and the struggles some females have to go through to work in our country.
Statistical data that will be included to give a better understanding of just how often gender
discrimination occurs in a workplace environment.










Gender discrimination in the workplace 3
Gender Discrimination in the workplace
A workplace environment should be a place where an employee can feel comfortable and
secure. The gender of an employee should not even come to consideration when regarding things
such as pay, and simply the way they are treated. Unfortunately since woman have been allowed
to work in the United States gender discrimination has been going on and does not seem to stop.
There are many different ways a female can be discriminated again at her job, whether it be
given lower hours, females that hold the same job title as a male employee are paid less, and
even in the form of sexual harassment.
In some cases male employees have been subjected to gender discrimination but it cannot
compare to the struggles that females face in our working community. There are been many
laws, and committees assigned specifically to try to stop this from continuing to occur but it
seems that it only slowed down the occurrences of this epidemic. Many different states have
different laws and regulations regarding gender discrimination in the workplace. Some more
strict than others simply because some states see it happen more in their boundaries more than
others. To find out why this epidemic continues there are four questions that must be answered:
1. What is the biggest form of Discrimination females face in the workplace?
2. Is there a Gap Between salaries of Male and Female Employees?
3. Do companies benefit from paying female employees less?
4. What consequences does a company face if charged with gender discrimination? The
review that will be presented will show different cases that have been seen over the years of
Gender discrimination in the workplace 4
Females struggling against discrimination in the workplace for many different reasons. Also
including the discussion of the different work environment a male goes through as opposed to
female employees.
What is the biggest form of discrimination females face in the workplace?
It is necessary to understand exactly why and how gender discrimination in the workplace
occurs to get a better understanding of the many different ways this could happen. The biggest
form of gender based discrimination in the workplace I found based off of my primary research
is a wage difference. There have always been wage differences between men and woman
regardless of title/position they have in their place of work. In my primary research I surveyed a
total of 50 people some random, a couple of acquaintances, and my uncle and aunt who are both
licensed x-ray techs. In the model presented below, I present the results of my survey based on
certain questions I asked the participants, before commencing my research I informed every
person the purpose of my survey and let them decide if they wish to participate. Model 1.

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Gender discrimination in the workplace 5
In the model I interview several men and woman working in different places, being that many
where in college, high school they all worked in different fast food places and a great majority
seem to work at a McDonalds restaurant either as an employee or manager. Hour based, males
dominated females regardless of job positions, only a hand full of females received a fair amount
of hours compared the men. In the hospital where my aunt and uncle work at in New Mexico
they receive around the same amount of hours so it is a better opportunity and fair for them. This
is only one of the many ways that females are discriminated against in the work place. The thing
that really caught my eye was that none of the people I interview worked at the same McDonalds
but they all worked under similar circumstances to the last. This being hour and wage based
circumstances.
In the model provided there can be a generalization I fully understand that but the difference
in earnings even in a small survey as this one is still a very high amount. In my research a female
can lose anywhere from $10, $50, $100, $100, $1000 or more. In the 2 cases of professional
graduates the amounts being lost can range anywhere from $5000 to $10000 in their yearly
salary, how is that even justifiable you may ask? It simply is not justifiable, it is a great loss for
females because there are many cases that the female has even better qualifications than males
in the same workplace but they seem to hold higher positions with more pay. This just goes to
show that although media and high ranking corporations and big business say that gender based
discrimination in the workplace is not a major problem, it is just as bad of a problem as ever. Just
the fact that the cases have increased is frightening.

Gender discrimination in the workplace 6
In many cases a female employee can be at her job, a male employee is hired and the senior
female employee is chosen to train the new man. In a short amount of weeks the male employee
has been promoted, although being new and there being a senior female employee right on top of
him with more experience and more time with the company. This can lead to a pay loss, a job
loss, and it is a sign of disrespect and clearly the female Employee is being discriminated against.
Too many woman lose a lot of money year round for no reason, there is no clear reason to there
being such unfair treatment to females and the way they are treated in work other than
discrimination. Many women have had to deal with the unfortunate fate of having to deal with
sexual harassment as well. Although a work environment should be confortable to all, females
deal with sexual harassment a lot, many on a daily basis almost. Whether its getting rude looks,
or getting told something inappropriate by a fellow employee, or even being touched or molested
even in the simplest way. Ending in the last form of gender discrimination in the workplace
would be pregnancy discrimination. There are many females that fear getting pregnant because
they risk being demoted and loss of salary, or even the loss of their job simply because their
appearance changes due to pregnancy.
Is there a Gap Between salaries of Male and Female Employees?
There is defiantly a gap between female and male employees in a job that requires no title, to a
job that a person holds a degree, in this case, there are simple restaurant employees and
managers, to two licensed x-ray technicians both holding a degree. Between employees earning
minimum wage there where some males that due to some experience, began with a slightly
higher pay than a female, not more than a few dollars if any. But between the two medical
Gender discrimination in the workplace 7
professionals, there is a very large gap. The male X-ray tech (my uncle) began his job earning a
little over $55,000 a year, compared to my aunt who began a little less than $ 50,000. These are
people with the same level of education, and they both began with a different salary. After a
short five years their salaries both where raised around $5000-$10,000, I did not want to get to
personal with the details. Their only word where that although they had both held the job for the
same 5 years, my uncle was still paid a slightly larger amount than my aunt. This was not more
than 10 years ago, but they have both been in the medical field for some time. This is all seen in
the model from the previous page.
Being that they are both paid in salary because of their profession they both are given different
schedules and hours. However in the fast food industry most are paid based on the amount of
work accumulated usually between a 2 week periods. A lot of my friends started working before
we graduated therefore many of them hold higher positions in their job, being managerial
positions to be exact. Generally a female manager will receive an estimate of 5 to 10 hours less
than a male manager. This alone accumulates a loss, but hours cannot solely be based on genders
or positions, as it also depends on the circumstances of the employee such as availability which
us why this is not a major issue. Although I do have to add this, I have two friends that are both
managers at different McDonalds, they were both included in my survey. I also knew 3 male
managers at different McDonalds locations as well, that I involved in my interview.
The Male managers at the different McDonalds receive a greater amount of hours than the
female managers at different McDonalds locations, being acquaintances they gave me a bit
more insight, and male managers from the time they are given the job are stated off with more
Gender discrimination in the workplace 8
hours than the females. As I said before it is not s big factor due to circumstance but it still
revolves around the fact that there is indeed a loss of money. The male managers also added that
somewhere aware that being male managers meant they started off with a slightly higher wage
than the female employees. I questioned the females managers about this but they did not seem
to know much about it. In my survey the facts show that there is a pay gap between males and fe
-males. Again shown in the model,

male managers make more than females based of the questionnaire, this could be up to $20 an
hour, and that is a significant amount when added up total hours. This being 11 guys and 9
females that chose this it random, some in the same job, but many in different jobs.
Do companies benefit from paying female employees less?
This is a pretty broad question, in my research I found that some companies do not pay less for
benefit or profit they simply do not have the funds to pay the same amount that another company
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Gender discrimination in the workplace 9
can. In an article online, the information states that several woman based organizations are paid
less because they do not hold as much revenue as a male led organization. The difference in
salaries is extreme to say the least. The purpose to get across here is that not all companies /
organizations take part in this action of paying female employees less by choice, some are forced
to. But these are simply groups from Washington, they are not solely based off of the whole
nation, and being that this action occurs a lot I went a little further in my research.
In a different article there is a female who was promoted to GM, yet she is at a great loss in her
promotion as she is making a much lesser amount than the previous GM in her position. The
company does not seem to give any good reason as to why they are doing so, and it was even
said that the jobs females choose are jobs that pay lower wages and although they hold a title
they should not expect to make a similar amount to the wages of a male employee. Although I
find this irrelevant I could not seem to find a good answer to why females receive lower wages
than males. It is said that it can be simply sexism, in many of the articles i viewed in my research
a speech by president Obama was shown and in the speech connection that was made, Obama
clearly understood that woman are in a large scale close to half if not half of the workforce of our
country. He also acknowledges that woman make lesser than a man working in our nation, no
reason to be specific only the clear one being that they are woman. He himself shows
disapproval and explains how he is regretful that these vents continue to occur.
A reasonable explanation I saw was the fact that some organizations or companies do not have
the capital to pay the employees the same as an employee of a different company holding the

Gender discrimination in the workplace 10
same title. I want to clear that up as I myself was not aware of this, but it is not clear explanation
for the problem because not every company has this problem yet continue to do this
4. What consequences does a company face if charged with gender discrimination?
Companies in general are not liable in every aspect of receiving consequences for gender
discrimination. In some instances if an employee is accused of discrimination from gender a
person can be terminated after evidence of the actions occurred. In a lot of cases once a female
has been subjected to any sort of gender discrimination they receive compensation. In the case
that made me chose this, one of my professors who knows his fair share of politics began do tell
us a story about a several other professors at the university all in the same department which is
the political science department. He proceeded to tell us that many years ago he was head of the
department and that there was a scandal that rose up. Apparently the university was paying a fair
amount of females in that department a lesser wage than the males in that department and a big
problem arose and they were all given compensations.
Being that some of the professors who went through this are still professors at the university no
names where discussed the only thing that was discussed was the incident. He himself said that
the consequences presented to the university was to compensate all of those female professors
who had loosed a fair amount of money due to simple gender discrimination. Just goes to show
that not only big business in corporations do this, but professors in a university went through this
problem, and epidemic still unfortunately.
The consequences that are placed on the workers are even worse than the ones that are made to
the companies and corporations doing it. These are not consequences set in stone but they are ver
Gender discrimination in the workplace 11
-y harsh because people who face gender based discrimination, can be demoted or kept at a
certain job title compared to the same men working at the job. There is also the differenciality in
pay as I have presented in my research earlier. A lot of employees that report having had been a
part of sexual abuse or sexual harassment where fired as well, so the fear of loss of job plays a
big factor here.
Companies have not suffered as much simply because many of them find a way around it, the
best example is the compensation a company gives the employee who accused the company of
discrimination. For a compensation a company can get away with an action that is completely
unfair.









Gender discrimination in the workplace 12
Resources
1. http://www.equalrights.org/legal-help/know-your-rights/sex-discrimination-at-work/
2.http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/sex-discrimination-and-sexual-harassment-0
3.http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/issues/workplace-discrimination.htm
4.http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/understanding-workplace-harassment-fcc-staff
5.http://www.todaysworkplace.org/tag/gender-discrimination/
6.http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/08/07/2430781/5-lgbt-workers-discrimination/#
7.http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2013/09/19/the-geography-of-the-gender-
pay-gap-womens-earnings-by-state/
8.http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/womens-earnings-and-income
9.http://touch.govexec.com/govexec/#!/entry/why-do-washingtons-women-leaders-make-
less,53480e30e56d0bb85359a868/5
10.http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gms-first-female-ceo-is-paid-half-of-male-predecessor/
11.http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/employee-rights-book/chapter8-
2.html