GENDER BASED DESCRIMINATION IN PARASTATALS
Discrimination has been cancer in the world especially against women at the work station where they are required to carry out jobs that are considered to be manual or posts that are deemed to be set aside for men. The rate of discrimination against women is rising alarming rate in the third world countries, and they are not allowed to involve themselves in many economic activities that are considered menial. From the past women have not been entitled to the same benefits and privileges that men enjoy. The position that women hold was significantly limited to the home and the kitchen, but their professional or economic engagements were curtailed. The fight to achieve the rights and equality for women started in the 1800s where they began engaging in the various occupations like public orators which were very uncommon among women at that time. The fight to achieve equality for women continued to intensify after the civil war in 1869; some territories passed laws that allowed women to become juries. The women’s rights movement became very powerful in the 1960s and women rejected their reserved positions as housewives and started entering the workforce where they attained various positions.
The discrimination of women was very rampant the engineering workspace since the career started as a military job. This career up to today is still being affected by massive gender discrimination since the majority of the work involved is manual, and most people don’t believe that women are not able to effectively carry out duties that will put a lot of strain on their bodies. The fight to liberate a lot of women from discrimination at the work station has gained so much progress over the past years; this does not prove in any way that the gender discrimination vice is not practised but just the fact that there is moving progress towards achieving better working conditions for women. Additionally, unlike in the past, many women have come a long way in their quest for education and better living standards, and currently, some of them are at par with their male counterparts. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
In the United States, the Congress in 1963 passed the Equal Pay Act that enabled the women and men to access the equal pay for their work done and it also outlaws discrimination on sexuality grounds. The act was able to assist the women and girls gain access to some benefits at the work station that they did not have. Many countries in the world have shown tremendous progress with regards to gender discrimination. “Girls in the current generation perform better than boys in some areas of education and are less likely to drop out of school”, (OECD, 2012, p. 13) over 96% have closed the gap in health outcomes, 60% in economic participation and 21% of the gap in political empowerment.1.
To add on, the situation of economic and employment progress among women in the past and today, there have been significant changes thanks to the governments that have set up programs that they have used to eliminate the vice of women discrimination at work. “More women and girls have joined the workforce in the past few years, but often experience more
difficulty than men in finding the first job, earn less than men, and are more likely to work part-time.”2. Also, in 1972 the United States government enacted a law, the introduction of Title IX of the education amendment that was supposed to prevent anyone from discrimination based on sex in all education institutions. The upholding of the provision of equal chances to discrimination by the government institutions ensured that the women could access to better training and there they could apply and get well-paying jobs based on the merit of their academic qualifications unlike in the past years why their recruitment into the workforce was based on pure lack.
The fight against discrimination received another significant boost in the United States of America when they were granted permission to join public military academies. This was able to prevent gender discrimination and help ladies get employed. Before this law women were not allowed to enter the military since it was considered that their physical form and their ability to withstand stress and fear could not let them join the army. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 has brought essential developments in gender equality, by amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to expand the protections against unlawful employment practices, by allowing liability to accrue and extending the definition of an illegal employment practice concerning discrimination.
From the history of gender discrimination, we can understand women have gone through a lot of troubles that have been brought about by the opinion of gender superiority that has very much hampered the fight against discrimination. Women have been active and have fought for their rights using various platforms. With the help of their government, they have been able to make so much progress in their employment endeavors. Comparing the situation in the past and the current situation has dramatically improved bringing about many women embracing their abilities at the workstation and being able to compete effectively with the female workers. The governments and other human rights institutions need to engage with the women and the workstations to ensure that the vice is completely wiped out of the workplace.
Bibiliography
OECD (2012), Closing the Gender Gap: Act Now. Executive summary. Eurpean Union: OECD
Publishing.
Hausmann, R., Tyson, L., Bekhouche , Y., Zahidi, S., ed. (2014). The Global Gender Gap Index 2014, World Economic Forum, Geneva.