Women, Work and Family Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Women, Work and Family - Essay Example Violating equal employment opportunity laws in favor of males is as good as adopting unfair practices by employers. However, all these interpretations are subjective and different people have different interpretations. In the US, unfair practices in regard to women at the workplace can be determined by ascertaining whether the following laws are being complied with. Wage discrimination is prohibited by employers on the basis of sex under provisions of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which is a part of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Section VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 disallows workplace discrimination in regard to reducing workforce, firing, hiring and sexual harassment Discrimination of pregnant women is prohibited under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. If assumptions are made on the basis of previously established practices about the working roles of women and men, women can be said to be discriminated against if they are being denied opportunities on the basis of such assumptio ns. This becomes an unfair practice because then, women are treated unfairly on the basis of gender. An employer cannot make assumptions about the kind of work that a woman is able to do and then reject her application. This too is an unfair practice because opportunity is denied at the work place. However, given that discrimination has become quite ingenious many women continue to suffer from unfair discrimination in employment. Fairness at the workplace requires a consistent commitment in eliminating illegal discrimination and unless this objective is achieved, the American values of equal opportunity and fairness will not be met (Wilson, 2003). It is ironical that as per data provided by the Census Bureau... This paper stresses that global corporations need to adopt and implement strong initiatives to achieve gender equality through adoption of measures such as the implementation of employment practices and policies that entirely remove gender inequality in issues such as promotion, pay and recruitment. Major elements in this regard will include the payment of the legal wages to women and ensuring fair and comparable working conditions such as retirement benefits, working hours and wages. In keeping with global practices, new initiatives should include confirmable actions whereby women are given equal opportunities in terms of representation. The maximum attention needs to be given to introducing measures for prohibiting discrimination on the basis of marriage status and parental status while taking decisions about promotions and employment. This also includes actions focusing on ensuring job security, which permit interruption in the job because of maternity leave, parenting leave and f amily related responsibility. This esssay makes a conclusion that global organizations can improve the system relative to equality of women in the workplace by taking initiatives of implementing impartial policies towards women engaged in contractual work and temporary work. Layoffs need to be managed in ways that women are not impacted disproportionately. It is thus true that global employment needs global justice whereby employers cannot treat female employees in ways they would not treat male employees.