Sexism in the Workplace free essay sample

But the street is not just one way; sexism is an equal-opportunity discriminator. In today’s culture in the United States, women are still fighting for equality in the workplace. Today women are more successful than in the past. But, according to Ph. D. Heather Haveman, a professor at U. C. Berkeley, the gap between women that hold upper management positions compared to men that hold upper management positions is a cultural issue. She also states: â€Å"If the root cause of the vertical gender gap in management is culture, then corporate or public policies that seek to reduce this gap must focus on culture. In general, to change culture, you have to change peoples hearts and minds. Therefore, culture is arguably the hardest thing to change through policy (Beresford). † She also talks about how people are unwilling to pay for something if they are not going to benefit from it. The current status will continue to perpetuate, and expand, upon itself continuing to hold women back while men succeed. We will write a custom essay sample on Sexism in the Workplace or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The Equal Rights Amendment, ERA, was introduced into every session of Congress between 1923 and 1972, when it was passed and sent to the states for ratification. The seven-year time limit in the ERAs proposing clause was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982, but at the deadline, the ERA had been ratified by 35 states, leaving it three states short of the 38 required for ratification. It has been reintroduced into every Congress since that time. In the 110th Congress (2007 2008), the Equal Rights Amendment has been introduced as S. J. Res. 10 (Sen. Edward Kennedy, MA, lead sponsor) and H. J. Res. 40 (Rep. Carolyn Maloney, NY, lead sponsor) (Francis). Yet, this article still stands as that: an article, and to date has not gotten through Congress. But it is once again been introduced, this time by Senator Robert Menendez (Gray). If our leaders, and laws, do not recognize women as equals then how can corporate America be expected to view men and women as equals. Women are often overlooked when benefits are awarded. In talking with Mary Jane Riva, current CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the Pizza Factory Franchise, the females that work for her in the office as secrataries and department heads are overlooked when the suppliers have tickets to professional sporting events or concerts. These tickets are given to companies that are in good standing with the suppliers and are an added benefit. But not when only half of the company is allowed to utilize them. MJ went on to further explain that her male department heads and male sales representatives were keeping these tickets for themselves and not sharing in these benefits with the female employees. When she found out about what was going on with her company, she gathered all of the women working in the corporate office and took them to the San Fransisco 49ers game. She has also implimented new procedures to ensure that the ‘good old boy network’ can no longer manipulate their suppliers and isolate the tickets away from the women that they work with (Riva). While this is a small company, they currently boast less than 200 franchised stores located mainly on the west coast, it is one step in the right direction; placing men and women on a level playing field where they are both equal. Now, men favoring and promoting men can not be all bad, can it? Men are supposed to be the money makers. They assume power and are accustom to being in charge. Does this stereotype mean that only a man can be in charge? Or more precisely a woman can not be in charge? Why does it matter who is in charge? Heavy is the head that wears the crown. It isn’t written heavy is the man’s head or heavy is the woman’s head. It is simply heavy is the head. Yes, being in charge does provide a sense of respect. But mostly it places that person’s head on the line if there is a problem. Being in charge, being responsible for successes and failures does not fall to men, or women. Responsibility for success, or failure, should fall to the most qualified person for the job. Qualifications are the only basis that should be looked at when hiring or promoting, the only reason that a person’s sex should be concidered is for public bathroom utilization. Tracking of female CEOs according to Fortune magazine’s top 500 companies and their top 1000 companies is done by many different websites. Catalyst. org is one such site and states that in 2012 women held the CEO position in twenty-one of Fortune 500 companies, and an additional twenty-one of Fortune 1000 companies. The list includes such notable companies like Hewlett-Packard, International Business Machines (IBM) and PepsiCo. These numbers are up from the 2006 list that had ten women listed as Fortune 500 CEOs and an additional ten in the Fortune 1000 list. Put in a different way, the numbers have doubled in the last six years, doubled to 4%. For females to be taken seriously as CEOs more Fortune 500 and 1000 companies need to lead the way and promote, deserving, females to their companies highest post. Works Cited Francis, Roberta W. Equal Rights Amendment. 2013. 24 April 2013 . Haveman, Heather A. and Beresford, Lauren S. If Youre so Smart, Why Arent You the Boss? Explaining the Persistent Vertical Gender Gap in Management. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 639 . 114 (2012): 114-130. Gray, Kaili Joy. Daily KOS. 7 March 2013. 24 April 2013 . Merriam-Webster . 2013. 24 April 2013 . Oakley, Judith G. Gender-based Barriers to Senior Management Positions: Understanding the Scarcity of Female CEOs. Journal of Business Ethics (2000): 321-334.