Sex And Work Essay, Research Paper

Sex and Work

Women have made some strides in overcoming harassment and discrimination, but there is still a long way to go. When a corporate meeting is taking place, before the meeting, all the guys will be sitting around telling their little stories, until a woman walks in. Then there is complete silence, until one man says, ?she is one of the guys, she wont mind.?

Kathy Clark, of Pittsburgh states, ?I don?t know whether it is a compliment or demeaning in some instances.?

There is an overall discrimination against women. Men have been trained to keep women out. Sexual harassment, a form of sexual discrimination, has nothing to do with mutual attraction; it is a power issue. There is an invisible barrier that keeps women from making it to the top.

Sex discrimination is an inherited issue, in a sense; it depends on the way people are brought up. It is an attitude picked up from the environment, from the way people are raised, the way they see things in the media, and their schools and churches.

Sexual Harassment is an illegal employment practice that has to do with the technique of putting women down, making them feel uncomfortable. It?s a power trick. An inferior never does it to a superior. It happens when you go into a meeting and you?re the only woman, and the men insist on telling dirty stories-and they wouldn?t tell them otherwise.

When women do get the higher-up jobs in the business, then comes another form of sex discrimination, equal pay. The men are paid more for having the same position for half the time and not being near qualified to the extent of the woman, and the male still gets paid more because of this crime.

I really didn?t think this was a big problem in the United States. There are cases of women getting a lot of money out of a company for the reasons covered above, and I think it is only fare to them that they receive the same treatment as everybody else. This report really broadened my thoughts on this subject.

?Sex and Work,? Bill Wade, Pittsburgh Press. June 10, 1997:36.