Gender and Work Issues in the USA

In the contemporary society, there are many important notions concerning the fact that there is the particular amount of discrimination by gender, although the modern legislation and authorities implement many innovations in order to reduce the problem and make the process of hiring the employees more democratic and liberal. That is why it is extremely vital to study the problem in order to be able to evaluate it and elaborate on certain proposals that will solve the existing problem.

The problems regarding the gender discrimination in the workplace are usually connected with the series of social factors that affect the behavior of male and female workers as well as the final outcome of the whole working process within the organization. These differences can also be closely connected with the psychological issues; moreover, physical factors also have their influence on the working abilities and responsibilities of the individual.

The other factors come from the existing gender stereotypes that are related to the certain image of men and women and their working skills. These differences can have both positive and negative impact on the success of the organization, however, a number of certain companies encourage the gender differences within the corporate environment.

At the same time, other businesses have the opposite attitude to this issue and promote biases in the workplace as a means of the discouragement towards gender inclusion. The issue of gender discrimination has been present in America throughout the whole history of the country and the process began to diminish at the beginning of the twentieth century. But, although the movement towards reducing the problem has such a long history, the series of issues are still present in the United States. Furthermore, today, this issue has become one of the top questions for the American Government.

The series of innovations were implemented by the authorities and have resulted to the fact that the number of companies became to welcome the existing gender difference as it gives the companies new possibilities and more opportunities and perspectives for the development of their business. Though, these legislative mechanisms allow the society to understand that the gender issues are more complex than it seems from the first sight and an accurate assessment of this notion should be provided in order to diminish the problem and thus to improve the social situation and the effectiveness of the business sector.

As it was defined by the Families and Work Institute, the gender roles in and out of the working place are very different from each other. After the decades the uprising of the movement was aimed at reducing the gender inequality on the workplace, the roles that male and female workers represented in the working process had gradually changed and now it is demonstrated both inside the working environment and out of it.

This tendency especially impacts the young men and women that are now challenging the traditional gender roles that have been considered to be typical in previous times. One of the most bright outcomes of the numerous researches has shown that women under 29 are at the same level as men in their strive for the working positions that offer them broader responsibilities. It should be mentioned that it was for the first time in the history of all the conducted surveys. This evidence has supported the claim that gender issues are now one of the most important for American society. At the beginning of the 1990s, the statistics have shown that men are more willing to occupy positions with more responsibilities rather than women. The serious fall in the rates for both genders was observed in the middle of the decade and got the new push after the Millennium.

In 2008, the research concentrated on the purposes of the women’s unwillingness to get more responsibilities and the survey have shown that 31% have witnessed the increase in the job pressure, while 19% argued that the main reason of the reluctance of more working responsibilities is the fact that they already had the high-level working position with the number of responsibilities they found satisfying.

As can be seen, a decade ago women were satisfied with the amount of the responsibilities they had, even if it was different from the one of the men’s. Nowadays it is extremely important to study and analyze the same research outcomes that have been made a decade before. Now a lot of women have got the opportunity to get a job with the desirable amount of responsibilities which also define the rise in the future perspectives for their professional career.

Another important detail that has to be taken into consideration is that the young female workers with children had more desire to have the responsibilities rather than their peers without children. This evidence shows that there exist many gender stereotypes that have to be broken in order to reduce the gender discrimination as the female workers with children are traditionally considered to be less ambitious or career-targeted than the ones with no children and families. This belief was true for the surveys of 1992 when the percentage of the childless female workers showed 72% of ones wanted more responsibilities versus 60% of the women with children. The opposite result has been shown to the society a decade after when it showed the 66% percent of the childfree women versus 69% of young mothers that wanted to get the work with more working opportunities.

The comparison of the researches’ results of 1992 and 2008 has demonstrated the serious change in the views and wishes of the millennial workers comparing to the generation of the 1990s. Millennial people looked for the jobs that would offer broader professional perspectives and higher responsibilities which would be at the same level for both male and female workers.

The second outcome of the research is that there is no more difference between the childless women and the ones with children in their working ambitions and striving for more perspectives and responsibilities at work. This most important conclusion that has to be done in this case is that the Millennial women have the same view on their professional career and working perspectives as man and that their working ambitions are on the same level with their male colleagues.

For the first time there has been formed the generation of young workers of both genders who have the same views on the traditional gender roles concerning the issues out of and at the working place and it is extremely important for the improvement of the gender discrimination in the workplace.

There is a serious decrease in promoting the traditional stereotypes where the men are more likely to earn money while women have to care about the home and family. The rate of 1977 had shown that 74% of men and 52% of women supported the claim. At the same time, recent researches have shown that the notion has found the support of less than 40% of men and 30% of women. It can be concluded that there is a break of the stereotypes that have seriously influenced gender discrimination in American society.

Furthermore, social views are now more objective and actual. As we can see, the shift in the men’s attitude to the notion has faced more serious changes that one of the women. That is especially important as the male employers have a great impact on the development of the situation, as well as they can define the success and the failure of the series of implementations aimed at reducing the existing discrimination by gender that is still present in the area of working issues.

The tendency of the general changes in the views of both younger and older generations is obvious as the older ones previously were more likely to stick to the traditional views on gender issues. But the researches of 2008 have illustrated that the older generations are now more flexible and more enthusiastic to accept the new tendencies in the area of gender stereotypes and wrong images that are one of the key purposes of the existing discrimination.

One of the most affected social groups that constantly feel the negative outcome of gender discrimination is women with children. They are typically considered to be less motivated and target-oriented and, therefore, the working process is traditionally disregarded. But the recent researches have shown that 73% of employees consider working mothers to be as successful in the establishment of proper relationships with their children as ones who prefer to stay at home. This evidence shows the success of the female workers who have children and manage to combine professional career and family issues. Besides, such determination result in successful working processes and the final outcome is positive for the whole organization.

The same research has been taken separately for men and women and the results indicated that there has been a crucial change in views of both men and women. The serious shift had been made for the last two decades which witnessed that the series of new implementations in the legislature and the corporate environment had supported the position of women at the workplace within the American society.

Coming to a foregone conclusion, the problem of gender and work issues in the United States is one of the most urgent problems for contemporary society. The inequality that is present in the workplace highly affects the female workers as the existing psychological and philosophical issues together with the old stereotypes and beliefs create the wrong image of the working women and produce the series of problems connected with their working responsibilities, career perspectives, and opportunities they have at their job. But the recent researches have shown that the stereotypes concerning women’s ineffectiveness in the working process and working abilities, in general, have changed. It can be considered as a step forward for the American government as reducing the rate of gender discrimination supports the democracy as well as it demonstrates the highest value of the human rights and freedoms that have always been one of the key issues in the American nation.

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