Gender discrimination in the workplace manifests in many ways, but most visibly in a pay gap that is anywhere for 5-30 percent between men and women. Although laws have been introduced to address gender discrimination in the workplace, it still pervades.
Gender discrimination in the workplace manifests in many ways, but most visibly in a pay gap that is anywhere for 5-30 percent between men and women. Although laws have been introduced to address gender discrimination in the workplace, it still pervades. Utilitarianism ethics proponents a framework within which to speak to the benefits of ending pay inequality, which are economic in nature.
Gender discrimination refers to unbalanced treatment or viewpoints of individuals based on their gender. It arises from variances in social, political or economically structured gender roles. In the business setting and world, gender discrimination can manifest in a variety of ways, including unequal pay, sexual harassment and different treatment of women in the social setting of the workplace, like pregnancy or family leave discrimination. The most obvious and measurable of these is unequal pay, which has been addressed in various laws. Such laws include the Civil Rights Acts of 1964: Title VII, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in employment and Equal Pay Act of 1963, which support equal payment of employees regardless of gender. These laws impact business practices and operations, including how they report pay, how they classify different types of jobs, and how employees are compensated at different levels. While the laws do address unequal pay and other forms of gender discrimination in the workplace, they are not always effective. A good example of this is the Supreme Court Case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co, in which Ms. Ledbetter claimed that she was being paid less compared to her fellow male co-workers (Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 2006). Ledbetter lost her pay discrimination case in the Supreme Court since her lawsuit was termed to be untimely because she had filed the complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Gender discrimination has no place in the modern-day work environment. All employees at the same career level should be paid equally regardless of their gender. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research says that women only make about 80 percent of men make, and that the gap in wages exists in almost every occupation that is measurable (“Pay Equity & Discrimination”). While the pay gap does vary based on the age group of women in question and the occupation (Patten, 2015), it will still require action. Utilitarianism, which is an ethical theory that focuses on outcomes of one action over another (“Online Guide to Ethics and Moral Philosophy”), applies to gender discrimination well. The utilitarian case for this is that with equal pay, more women will enter the workforce, creating a larger and more skilled workforce that is more competitive and will allow businesses to be more selective in their employment decisions. Because women make up half of the population, there is utility in encouraging that portion of the population to work; with equal pay, more women will enter the workforce.