Eamon Straub

Mrs. Makar

Economics 12

7 April 2020

Job Discrimination

In our society discrimination is not so bad that people can blatantly acknowledge it, or they can

point is out in the workplace. This was never the case in the 20th century and early 21st century. Race,

gender, ethnicity, religion all played parts in what was allowed and what was not allowed in work forces

and was key on who would be allowed to have a certain job or position in the workforce.

To start off, were going to look at the most predominant group of people that have been held

back by discrimination which would be women. Throughout history, women have always been on the

wrong side of gender norms. Meaning that they never had the same power or authority as men. This

dates back all the way to pre-historic times where the male was considered essential since they were

able to provide food and shelter for the family. This behavior continued through the medieval times as

women were considered more possessions and ways to create bloodlines rather than being a person

who contributed to society. Even at these times women stayed home and tended to family needs such

as cooking or cleaning and most commonly sewing. Discrimination continued through the 17 and 1800’s

as they still were put aside but they had more and more responsibility. For example, during the wars

they made uniforms and flags for the continental army and the North and South during the Civil War.

Then comes the 20th century and things begin to move toward the better with women working in

factories and offices and having 9-5 jobs but still are not having the same opportunities as men. In 1963,

a new law was created, and it was called the Equal pay Act. This law protected both man and women

who perform substantial work in the same establishment from sexist pay wages. With that law being

passed women had to be paid the same amount as their counterparts.

 With we go into the next part of discrimination history which would be racial and ethnicity. Race

has been the center of disputes since the beginning of our country and that still has not changed. Our

founding fathers owned slaves and our country were ran by slaves at one point. Even after gaining

independence from the Civil war certain races and ethnicities were not allowed to work certain jobs. For

example, Italians were normally considered only to be bakers or gangsters or even mechanics. Irish were

only bar owners, farmers, and crooked police officers. The biggest racial discrimination Is when they

only hired Jewish men to be accountants. All of this played as stereotypes which is discrimination

toward race and ethnicity. People tended to be played these stereotypes as safe bets and to go with the

social norms and kept certain people from being able to get jobs and seek opportunities. This changed

when Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 which prohibited government officials and all

business owners from engaging in employment discrimination based on race, color, or national origin.

Today those social norms are not in play as they once were, and the stereotypes are used in the past are

considered awful acts of racism and our society tends to not like that.

As a whole the work discrimination has simmered down from the past but there still is sexism

among higher positions. People do still like to play the stereotypes, and everyone are still working to not

go that way and to be better than that, but it takes time just like everything else.

Work cited:

“Milestones: The Early Years.” Milestones in the History of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission: The Early Years, www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/history/35th/milestones/early.html.