Essay Sample on Achieving the American Dream: Challenges and Opportunities

Introduction

The American society has adamantly developed giving different people hope to achieve the ultimate American dream promised by the American forefathers. However, despite the growth and advancement in society, it significantly posses diverse elements that influence people's ability to achieve their goals and objectives in America. For instance, the American work and employment system is substantially controlled by different factors that affect individuals' ability to attain opportunities or ability to serve (Cohen, 893). Ranging from gender stereotype, segregation, gender gap, racial discrimination, education to living to work, many Americans differ in their access to fundamental employment opportunity due to the unique categories that they fall in. Women and people of color have adamantly suffered from gender role discrimination and racial segregation, which they lack control over but dominantly determine their success progress (Wilson, 1153). Nevertheless, other factors such as living to work, despite being within people's control also significantly influence their success in America. Therefore, the argument critically explores the diverse factors within and beyond individuals' control such as gender and racial discrimination, gender stereotypes, gender segregation and the tendency of the people to live to work, their work opportunity and ability to succeed in America.

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Race and ethnic inequality have been a major issue among workplaces in America. Black Americans, Hispanics, and Asians share a common ground when it comes to racial and ethnic inequality in American workplaces (Wilson, 1153). In America, most of the unemployed individuals are Latino and Hispanic with Asians, blacks, and Indians holding non-leadership positions in the workplaces. The underrepresentation of Hispanics and blacks in the senior leadership position jobs such as engineering, technology, and mathematics are due to racial and ethnic discrimination in promotions and recruitment in America. The labor market is majorly constituted by the whites as attain higher levels of education hence can hold better positions in the workplaces (Wilson, 1155). However, racial and ethnic discrimination has always been in their favor as they are given first priority during recruitment and issue of promotions while the rest are left to scramble for the remaining positions. In the sphere of recruitment and promotions, fragmentary and imperfect information about the employees that are based on their racial and ethnic group to which they belong leads employers to make decisions based on the perceived character of the certain group. For instance, African Americans are believed to be violent and mostly lead demonstrations in the workplaces, therefore employees make judgments based on such characteristics, denying blacks jobs and promotions while issuing them to whites.

Moreover, the wage gap between the whites and the African Americans, Latinos and the Hispanics has been increasing since the 1990s, which calls for an explanation (Wilson, 1155). The gap continues to raise more worries as whites receive better salaries as compared to African Americans, Hispanics, Indians, and Latinos. The difference in the representation of the minority ethnic groups and races are linked to the variation in the opportunity to attain education as most of them do not afford to pursue various courses and levels of education, which has led to the large wage gap between the two groups. In terms of education, whites and Asians are more likely to be employed as compared to Hispanics and African Americans. The job market across the world works on one notion, those people with higher levels of education should be given higher paying jobs that best suit their status (Wilson, 1154). African Americans and Hispanics will not be in a position to hold senior positions and get good wages in the workplace unless they attain higher levels of education to enable them to succeed in America.

America experiences high rates of gender segregation in the workplaces. One of the reasons that have heightened gender segregation at work is the economic transformation in the United States (Cohen, 894). The service economy in the US has experienced massive growth that has led to the transformation of the unpaid tasks previously done by women such as childcare, education, food services, health care, and childcare into occupations. Historically, women used to perform without being paid but the current service economy has transformed them into employment opportunities for women (Cohen, 893). At the end of the day, such careers are dominated by women while men take up other technical roles. Since they do not experience competition from women in such occupations, most women have ventured into such occupations. As can be seen in the society, most, educators, nurses and healthcare providers are women while men remain in the male-dominated occupations. Although economic has created employment opportunities for women, it has increased gender segregation as women are concentrated in specific occupations while men are dominating other jobs such as engineering.

Employer discrimination directed against women during the issue of promotions and recruitment has also placed women and men in different jobs (Cohen, 893). Although some of the gender discrimination may be unintentional due to unconscious stereotypes and biases, others are evident that are performed knowingly. One type of discrimination that has been common in workplaces is referred to as statistical discrimination. Employers hire and promote their workers based on their expectations and assumptions of how the employees will perform their duties depending on the groups they belong to. For instance, when hiring employees, some managers assume that women may need maternity leaves in the future or they may be forced to move once their husbands get better jobs somewhere else (Cohen, 893). Therefore, although such assumptions may be right or incorrect, they drive the decisions of the employers resulting in men getting more positions than women.

The increasing gender stereotypes in the United States are one of the major leading causes of underrepresentation of women in the workplace while over-representing men in the assignment of leadership roles (Cundiff & Theresa, 128). Both positive and negative stereotypes affect individuals' work opportunities and their ability to access various leadership roles, with the perception that specific roles are meant for a certain gender. For instance, people perceive that there are certain leadership positions or occupations that best fit the personalities of males as they are believed to be more energetic with the skills to take up leadership roles. In such occasions, men end up being assigned senior leadership roles such as a computer, engineering, and mathematical occupations while women are left to do simple tasks such as secretarial work that best suit their skills. Therefore, even though women may possess the skills in computer, engineering, and mathematics it would be hard to convince the hiring panel that they can perform the tasks. The society perceives that men are the ones who have more interests in taking up such senior leadership roles as compared to women who are more interested in non-leadership roles (Cundiff & Theresa, 128). Such disposition attribution either scare away women from taking engineering, mathematics and computer courses as they believe such occupations are meant for men, which is the major reason women there are more men taking up the senior leadership roles while women lag behind with clerical and secretarial work.

Furthermore, women have been receiving low wages, approximately 74 cents for every dollar issued to men ever since the formulation of the Equal Pay Act in 1963 (Barko, 618). Men and women working full-time in America are not given equal pay yet they deliver they are tasked to perform similar jobs. The wage remains unexplained as women continue suffering in the hands of their employees. There no solid reason as to why men should be given more wages than women when they deliver the same quality and quantity of work. According to the Overview of Salary Survey that was published in 1999, the salary gap between female and male engineers was 26% (Barko, 618). Women engineers have the same qualifications as engineers and some of them might have gotten better grades than men but they receive lower wages compared to women. Therefore, qualifications play an insignificant role when issuing salaries to men and women as male employees will always receive more pay than females (Barko, 617). The gender gap has a great impact on casual work more than the official occupations women end receiving very low wages compared to women.

The major reason why there is a large wage gap is the increasing discrimination against women-based occupations. The higher the number of women in an occupation, the lower the salaries issued to employees (Barko, 618). Therefore, female-dominated occupations pay very low wages. For instance, most women work as nurses, child-care workers, nurses, librarians and teachers receiving very low pay. If they had experience in more gender-balanced jobs, their pay would be 18 percent higher than what they get every year. A male truck driver earning an average of $25, 030 is considered more valuable than a female childcare giver who may be holding a degree or diploma in childhood education. Discrimination is not demonstrated in women, but the kind of jobs they do (Barko, 618). If education was male-dominated, teachers would be receiving a much higher pay compared to the meager earnings they receive today. Female occupations have remained non-lucrative and women with the same qualifications and similar jobs end up with lower pay than their male counterparts. Therefore, it is upon the government to come up with strategies that will ensure equality in the issue of salaries and reduce the wage gap. Although it is lower than what was experienced in the 1980s, the gap has remained stable for the past years, which has left women as the victims of the injustice (Barko, 620).

Individuals have developed a mindset that men take up major leadership roles in the workplaces due to gender discrimination in the workplace (Cundiff & Theresa, 129). They believe that men occupy the senior-leadership occupations such as engineering and mathematics because organizations just prefer men holding up such positions. Women believe that men are favored when it comes to assigning such leadership occupations. Nevertheless, such mindsets are stereotypes that impair the ability of women to succeed in the workplace. With such a mindset, women cannot fight for their rights and acquire such positions as they already believe that they would not be given a chance to take up senior leadership roles (Cundiff & Theresa, 129). Although there are instances of gender discrimination in various workplaces during the assignment of duties, women should be positive and show to the world that they are capable of performing such tasks. Believing that men's preference to take up such leadership positions is unfair is one thing and fighting to be recognized in the society as capable human beings is another. Therefore, the stereotypes held by society on gender discrimination are one of the reasons why women do not succeed in the United States.

Nevertheless, despite the man having no control over massive factors such as racial discrimination and gender role discrimination, which adamantly influences individuals' success in America, People greatly have opportunity to change their levels through living to work. Work has often been conceived as an aspect of man's self-fulfillment. Living to work encompasses long personal professional works and showing great dedication to achieve stipulat...