This blog will focus on the inequalities that women face in the workforce. Equality does not necessarily mean that everyone gets the same thing, but that everyone is given what is necessary to reach their potential. This distinction is paramount to implementing the changes that are necessary for a diverse and comfortable workplace. Highlighting the problems that women face is not done in order to discredit men or the problems they must contend with, but rather it serves to illuminate a growing trend of mistreatment within the labor force. While male workers do face a bevy of problem many of them are universal regardless of gender, the problems highlighted in this blog are virtually female exclusive problems. Men do not have to worry about a monthly menstruation period, men do not have to worry about carrying a child in their body for nine months.While there are cases of sexual harassment against men, over eighty percent of sexual harassment cases are against women making it a prominent problem for working women. Women still make thirty percent less money than a man with a similar position and education, and women only account for about three percent of the CEOs of publicly traded companies in the US. To compound the problems faced in the work field, women still face a societal pressure to upkeep the household, where a struggle to balance work at family is unjustly pressed upon a woman’s shoulders. This blog is made in hopes of illuminating some of the difficulties that women face be they from natural occurrences, external forces, or societal pressures, and ultimately inspiring action to help achieve the equality that women have been fighting for from generation to generation.
The issues that women in the workplace face are extremely broad and have many different faces. There isn’t one big issue that needs to be addressed, but rather an array of smaller but no less important ones that have combined and pooled into a much larger problem. We collectively chose to each address specific issues, the issues that we felt were among the most glaring. These issues can be generational, earth-shaking, supreme court dividing decisions as will be discussed in regards to civil rights and widespread discrimination against women, or smaller more individually characterized issues. We will be discussing four topics, birth control, sexual harassment, unequal pay, and the myth of the “superwoman”. The contraceptives page will focus on the recent dangers to widespread contraceptive access in the US, and how those dangers have a potential to adversely affect a working woman’s life. The page on sexual harassment explores the subtleties of sexual harassment in the workplace, and how a male dominated society further allows the vicious cycle of intimidation and control. Our section on unequal pay focuses on the continued inequality in compensation for equal work, establishing the constant bypassing of laws placed to prevent this malpractice. Our last point of emphasis will be on the “superwoman” myth, the idea that a women must bring come the bacon and cook it too, and the dangers and troubles that come with delicately balancing work and home. At first glance these topics seem disjointed but they fall under the umbrella of a unifying theme: problems women face in the work field.
Our title is “Business as Usual” as a way to establish the current trend of complacency towards the obstacles that working women face. We hope to change that trend.
Thank you for reading,
Michael, Angelo,Aquaria, and Jacob
