COMM 401 Paper In The Making

Submitted By tlr529
Words: 1078
Pages: 5

Trina Rogers
COMM 401
Dr.Greenwood

Women’s Rights in a Workplace
Did you know that women earn less than men in 99% of all occupations? That’s crazy, but sadly it is the truth. For many years women have been struggling gain equal rights, not only in the workplace but in many other ways as well. And I know it doesn’t sound like such a big deal to lecture about it to the people in our society, however, it is very important to those who are being affected by these problems, their families, and it could even affect women in the generations to come if there isn’t a change. Also it’s pretty important for women to be informed on the discrimination that occurs so that they can possibly prevent unfair treatment from happening to them in the future. Overall, it may seem like a silly statistic to some but in the long run it could be a huge problem for many women later down the road.
For many years woman have been associated as “Pink-collar” workers, which was very acceptable for woman in the 19th century into the 20th century. The term “Pink-collar” was described as jobs that were traditionally held by woman workers; these typical jobs consisted of being a typist, secretary, child caretaker, maid or domestic worker, waitress and other small jobs. Unfair as it sounds, these jobs paid less than the prestigious high official office jobs and there wasn’t much that women could do about it but file complaints. Even though we are now in the 21st century many workplaces are still discriminating against woman for their advancement into higher jobs in our society. And according to the ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, “Workplace policies still fail to account for these obligations.” The ACLU is an organization that works to ensure that all women have equal access free from sex discrimination, such as gender sterotypes, pregnancy/parenting discriminaton, and unfair work conditions (American Civil Liberties Union). Although, woman are stil associated as “pink-collar” worker they still should have equal rights when it comes to any occupation in the world and should be consider equal to economic opertunities that allow them to be independent.
On June 10, 1963, John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act which required employers to give equal pay for equal work to both woman and men (Belec). On June 10, 2013 it was the 50th Anniversary of this Equal Pay Act and even though there was big strides forward toward change since 1963, women still aren’t consdered equal in work fields. For women the make on 77.5 cents for every dollar that a man earned, which is crazy because most women can and will work just as hard as men do. For minority women its not any better, African American women earn 64 cents and Hispanic women earn 52 cents to every dollar white men earn. The Big problem though is that its sercretly happening to women all over the world ant that still with federal government and state policies in effect (Fowler). The real question is how are some occcupations still getting away with all these acts of discrimination and business oweners knowing that they are in the wrong and could potentially shut down their businesses or be arrested.
Its now 2014, and in this economy the rate of divorce and single-parent homes are on the incline, there are more single mothers depending on their one source of income to support their families. If women are paid less than men, and they are, the mothers do not have sufficient resources to support their family with only one job, forcing many to work multiple jobs. Outdated male-dominated payrolls cannot support a modern-day single mother and her family. Additionally, women who are/become pregnant face discrimination either by being fired (which is “justified” as poor work performance) or by having their salaries lessened when they go on maternity leave. Both of these practices are very illegal and are blatant forms of discrimination, but the law does not protect employees (American Civil Liberties Union).