New Rules Prohibit Gender Discrimination in Employment - Research Paper

Introduction

The federal law protecting people from sexual discrimination is Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The law prohibits an employer from discriminating against persons on employment terms, termination terms, and other employment conditions, such as promotions and other employment opportunities on account of gender. The American Labor Department is publishing new sex-discrimination rules that reflect the interpretation of Executive Order 11246. The final rule updates the gender discrimination rules of OFCCP to make them more compliant with current legislation. The new rule offers clear protections against indemnification of and prejudices against unfair sex biases, gender identity, and status of transgender people, discrimination based on pregnancy, births, and related diseases. In the last three decades, the presence of women throughout the employment sector in the United States and many other parts of the world has increased significantly (Edo & Yannelis, 2019). A wide range of recent US research also shows that women face more significant challenges in advancing their careers than men. Although many people may choose to disagree, workplace discrimination indeed holds women back.

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Research points to the difficulties, among other challenges, of women, particularly mothers, in balancing expectations of high-quality careers with home responsibilities. The organizational frameworks are mainly found to shape women's and men's professions differently. Gender inequality theories and maternity penalties for high-level jobs indicate those features of the workforce that re-produce disparities and penalties, assessing men and women based on gender and parental role assumptions, which significantly influence women's career and fewer men's careers. Although a broad spectrum of research shows that women, especially mothers, are more likely than men to switch jobs, relatively fewer studies have systematically studied the effects of several unfavorable job characteristics on the women's work schedules. For example, in a research study, the prevalence of a motherhood penalty and the optimal requirements of employers are examined, contrasting women with children to women without children and men with children to men without children. The findings show that women who displayed a "hyper" dedication to their work were, in turn, viewed as similarly dedicated and professional as "hyper" committed peers without children. Hyper-engaged women, however, are discriminated against in ways considered less friendly and violent. In contrast, similarly committed male parents had not the same judgment. According to Garcia (2015), this is Regulatory bias, which requires mothers to prefer family over their jobs.

The experiences of discrimination at the workplace are particularly prominent in the absence of alternatives to manage career and personal plans for children and work responsibilities. Several qualitative types of research show that day by day disagreements with the background and perceptions of an employer over facets of employment not only become overwhelming. It can affect women's growth and career progression. Research addressing the issues of childcare and family responsibilities suggests that differences in employment status between women and men result from difficulties with work-life balance (Kiser, 2015). For example, research centered on mobility, recruitment, earnings, and parental penalty to illustrate gender disparity within the job sector in America. The results show that women exit their professions compared to their male counterparts or opt for part-time employment to create time for their children and home duties. Majority of women still have their primary familial responsibilities despite significant gender changes in the workplace due to gender stereotypes and social roles.

Studies also show that gender is essential to working-organization relationships. The design of workplaces incorporates gender stereotypes into organizational structures. Gender based on sex affects judgments, which lead to employers having different expectations of women and men as a result of a social psychological explanation. Employers develop perceptions based on their socialization on the understanding of "adequate" family roles and gender assumptions. Studies have shown that working mothers are judged based on gender and parental role compared to working fathers. Researchers also revealed that working mothers should provide greater care than fathers, and working fathers are perceived to be better parents than working mothers (Malos, 2015). Women have to make hard choices when men and fathers are free to work as often as employers expect. Employed mothers who do not adhere to the 'correct' gender and parent role standards are devalued as custodians and their work performance and skills overlooked. If work is structured in this way, women face gender stereotypes and expectations that therefore influence their work schedules and progress in their careers.

Besides, the "decision-latitude" of work depends on the roles of a worker and is based on the work demand management system and health risks. It involves whether an employee can learn and apply new skills, take action, and monitor other working conditions, such as choosing tasks or arranging schedules to ensure the success of the job. There is, therefore, no pressure in a demanding job, even if it has strong psychological demands as long as the employee has a fair deal of flexibility to assess how to fulfill the job requirements. This means that "the freedom to decide" improves the employee's control at work and therefore improves job satisfaction (Fink, 2018). By contrast, research shows that high-level workers with more flexibility over their jobs are more likely to be satisfied with the job hence having a positive impact on stressful work schedules. But tasks in high-quality jobs have become more challenging and, while relatively regulated and independent, leave workers with greater workloads. Scaling demands can thus increase job dissatisfaction, particularly for women who are usually responsible for childcare and home responsibilities.

Ki- Soon & Garg (2018) explore the idea that women are less motivated and committed to their careers as a frequent explanation of continued gender disparities in their work environment. Such assumptions lead to women getting assigned to lesser challenging tasks compared to their male counterparts, therefore, affecting the advancement of women's career and development. Such results are largely based on the argument that the assumptions of gender and social roles hence the reasons why gender "spills" into workplaces and leads employers to treat women and men different. Among blue-collar employees, the workplace is still dominated by male standards, whereby men perform hard labor and risky tasks. It takes a different form among professionals to exhibit masculinity. In high-level occupations, people work long hours to perpetuate the masculinity image. In contrast, women, especially mothers, face stereotypes about their work commitment, their performance being underestimated, and incapable of achieving the expected optimal workload. Due to commitments back at home, women tend to avoid working long hours.

According to the US workforce, the perfect worker is someone who works 40 hours plus weekends daily, who is accessible to the boss consistently and who has taken little or no time childbearing. In this way, caregivers face challenges trying to meet the essential expectations of the organization. Once women return from family leave, they receive different treatment: they are assigned to lighter tasks, their dedication to work questioned, and sometimes treated as being less professional due to having a child (Garcia, 2015). It is assumed that women can not commit to work and family once they have children. Arguments by Krentz that discrimination may not be women's biggest problem are debatable.

Krentz (2019) argues that the main thing holding women back is managing daytime and evening job. As much as this may be challenging, it is not sufficient to state that it is holding women back in career advancement. This is because, unlike discrimination in the workplace, creating a balance in both day and evening job is manageable through proper planning and organization of an individual's schedule. Mastering the skill of planning the day eliminates the need to struggle between two jobs. Further, he argues that household responsibilities are under-recognized, underpaid, and falls on women. As much this is true, it is beside the point of holding women back. The satisfaction that women get by effectively managing both their home and workplace is unmatched. They do not perform their familial responsibilities hoping to get paid but as a way of making their families happy.

Improving the employment situation of women can be achieved in many ways. First, organizations need to create an equal opportunity policy. To keep an organization competitive, diversity is essential. Incorporating people of different backgrounds, experiences, sexual orientations, race, and age into a work environment can help in avoiding discrimination in employment. Second, employees need to learn about gender discrimination in the workplace. Gender discrimination does not limit itself to neglecting skilled women on promotion or recruitment. It includes the use of gender stereotypes that makes someone feel uncomfortable or discriminated against based on their gender (Malos, 2015). Employees need to understand the impacts of discrimination on their colleagues to create a favorable workplace for everyone. Further, taking immediate action on complaints related to discrimination ensures that employees have a conducive work environment. Developing ways to handle such situations and resolutions ensures that employees try to abide by workplace regulations.

In addition, making flexibility and work-life balance a part of the broader company culture eliminates discrimination in the workplace. All employees need to complete their assignments without neglecting personal responsibilities. Also, both employers and employees need to be aware of their unconscious biases to eliminate discrimination in the workplace (Ki- Soon & Garg, 2018). People may not realize that they are biased hence the need to educate employees on unconscious bias and its impact on the targets. While controlling unconscious bias may be difficult, holding individuals accountable for their actions reduces bias. For example, a recruiting manager may hire someone based on his assumptions of the individual. Demanding reasons for specific actions encourage proper decision-making hence elimination of discrimination. Finally, vouching for the competence of women leaders helps in overcoming challenges that stereotypes create. When people embrace the fact that women are equally competent as their male counterparts, discrimination is eliminated hence equal employment opportunities created for both men and women.

Conclusion

In conclusion, emphasis on work-life balance by organizations creates a less discriminatory workplace for women in the long run. Because, women will have the chance to meet their employers' expectations while attending to their family responsibilities without feeling that one sector is more favored compared to the other one.

References

Edo, A., Jacquemet, N., & Yannelis, C. (2019). Language skills and homophilous hiring discrimination: Evidence from gender and racially differentiated applications. Review of Economics of the Household, 17(1), 349-376.

Fink, J. (2018). Gender Sidelining and the Problem of Unactionable Discrimination. Stan. L. & Pol'y Rev., 29, 57.

Garcia-manglano, J. (2015). Opting out and leaning in: The life course employment prof...